The availability of qualified operational data and information from the operational use of complex aircraft system is becoming increasingly important and more valuable for both operators and suppliers of aircraft system. An example is Airbus, which lets customers offset a significant part of the cost of support received by Airbus if they provide operational and maintenance data. Another example is Saab's availability contract for SK60, where a faster feedback of operational and maintenance data in (near) real time is critical for control of flight production and contract monitoring. Traditional Operational Performance Monitoring (OPM), with a focus on monitoring of airworthiness, and system evaluations for Life Cycle Management (LCM) are often done, e.g. annually. Increased demands on aircraft system and maintenance providers to improve availability and dependability through availability-focused maintenance, reducing Life Cycle Cost (LCC) and Life Support Cost (LSC) and the introduction of performance-based business models (Performance-Based Logistics, PBL and Contracted Logistic Support, CLS) introduces new and more stringent demands on OPM and LCM. Access to relevant operational and maintenance data, and the use of OPM and LCM as analytical tools and control instruments are becoming increasingly important to manage the technical and commercial risks inherent in changing maintenance solutions (eg, dynamic maintenance plans) and new business models. At the same time, the quality of data, existing Information & Communication Technology (ICT), tools, manual intervention and outdated information security and privacy solutions are often a limitation for the development of OPM, LCM and other qualified support services, which are necessary to streamline operation and maintenance and to support PBL and CLS.The project aims to improve the infrastructure for data and information exchange between operators and suppliers to identify, adapt and integrate ICT-based methods and solutions for a so-called eMaintenance-infrastructure, enabling improved efficiency and further development of primary OPM and LCM in support of PBL/CLS, dynamic maintenance schedules and new information-based decision-support services for operation, maintenance and support.
Status: Ongoing; Period: 01/01/2010 → 31/12/2013