Integrated Publications for Converted Freighters

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1 Integrated Publications for Converted Freighters

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3 Maintaining a Boeing Converted Freighter Cargo traffic is projected to double by 2035 resulting in a 70 percent increase in the world freighter fleet. To accommodate this growth, Boeing estimates that approximately 1,300 airplanes will be removed from passenger service and converted to a freighter configuration in the next 20 years. While the physical airplane undergoes a complete conversion to freighter, often the maintenance and parts technical information do not. Inaccurate or incomplete technical maintenance information can severely impact the maintainability, and ultimately, the availability of the aircraft. Most cargo operators receive the Illustrated Parts Catalog (IPC), Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM), Fault Isolation Manual (FIM), Wiring Diagram Manual (WDM) and System Schematic Manual (SSM) from Boeing. In addition, aircraft operators are offered access to MyBoeingFleet.com, a subscription service containing a comprehensive range of tools, procedures, documents and services to support the operation of your aircraft. As an aircraft operator, you also have the option to utilize the Boeing Maintenance Performance Toolbox, a robust platform delivered online (or optionally via tablet) within the MyBoeingFleet subscription service. Maintenance Performance Toolbox provides intelligent maintenance documents and visual navigation methods to enable Boeing aircraft operators to troubleshoot systems, and optionally, record structural repairs, manage parts and task cards, optimize maintenance programs, and author content. Technical parts, wiring and maintenance information is accessed from these systems. However, changes to the airplane will make a portion of this data obsolete. Maintenance teams will need to reference various supplemental manuals to plan, troubleshoot and complete maintenance tasks. This white paper describes the challenges cargo operators face when making extensive changes to an already complex aircraft and what Boeing is doing to mitigate these challenges to fully support their cargo operator customers. 3

4 Supplemental Data Challenge The major aircraft maintenance manuals for Boeing passenger aircraft (IPC, AMM, & WDM) are provided to all operators of Boeing airplanes. When passenger configured airplanes are modified by a third-party freighter conversion center, the completion center will then produce a second set of supplemental manuals that are separate and distinct from the Boeing publications, resulting in two highly complex maintenance data environments that are not linked, and sometimes in conflict with one another. In addition, older aircraft will have additional supplements that relate to the history of upgrades and configuration refreshes that may or may not apply to the current configuration. Our customers have found that these situations do not support the effective maintenance and operation of their aircraft for four reasons: Multiple sets of disconnected manuals create compliance risk with 14 CFR mandated use of airplane manuals when making a repair. Supplemental maintenance manuals represent multiple, disparate maintenance environment, disconnected from Boeing master manuals. Third-party completion centers are system integrators and usually are not maintenance organizations. They often deliver a freighter conversion that complies with FAA/EASA airworthiness requirements, but it is not always supportive of the most efficient maintenance practices. After a configuration change the master manuals supplied by Boeing to operators no longer reflect the configuration of the converted freighter, making troubleshooting problems difficult and time consuming. In a maintenance manual without the supplements directly incorporated, the maintenance procedures are not defined in a clear and linear, step-by-step manner. A single maintenance instruction may contain a dozen or more external references to other supplier maintenance manuals, making creation of task cards difficult and time consuming. In one customer example, maintenance of an anti-skid transducer connector in a manual that did not directly incorporate configuration changes contained as many as 73 different references to other instructions, which all combined resulted in 6.25 pounds of additional printed reference documents. For cargo operations with limited resources, this arduous process of attempting to sort through all of the supplemental references increases the downtime of planned checks and also makes them more costly. The larger challenge facing cargo operations is the risk of unplanned maintenance which represents up to 60% of the maintenance repair efforts. In cargo operations, visual inspections are often not enough, as many problems emerge when the airplane is operating and in flight. The ability to troubleshoot problems and generate maintenance tasks quickly is essential in maximizing the availability of revenue producing aircraft. Even highly trained maintenance 60% of repair work during aircraft maintenance is unplanned. -University of Western Sydney,

5 teams risk prolonged airplane grounding (AOG) situations when working with separate, supplemental manuals that prevent them from quickly finding the right data and generating maintenance task card instructions. The time it takes to locate supplemental data is open ended. Some operators transitioning to new configurations have also reported that some supplemental data is permanently lost. In these cases, if an owner/operator is unable to provide complete data to regulatory agencies, the aircraft may be unable to operate for a significant period of time. Revisions and Through-Life Support Data Management is an Essential and Continuous Process Revisions occur when an engineering change is made to the aircraft after it goes into service. These engineering changes often result in a change of parts, components and systems. It is critical that maintenance procedures are updated to reflect these changes. Revisions and further modifications add complexity, and can further complicate a maintenance environment where supplements are not incorporated into the master documentation, leaving the aircraft vulnerable to regulatory action and possibly rendering the aircraft to an unsafe situation where it can no longer be properly maintained. COC Incorporation for Converted Freighters: A Complete Data Integration Service Technical Publications Integration Services from Boeing subsidiary CDG are tailored specifically for converted freighters and other configuration changes. This service incorporates supplemental data and extends and enhances 5

6 the tools and services you receive to maximize the through-life maintainability of your aircraft. It also ensures your supplemental technical data is produced to Boeing standards. Non-Boeing parts, components, equipment, and systems received from your completion centers are also included, ensuring your engineers and planning teams will be viewing the as flying configuration documentation of your aircraft all in one place. CDG provides fully compliant integration of technical publications into the Boeing Master Database, also referred to as Customer Originated Changes (COC) Incorporation of STC publications. CDG takes the supplemental data from third-party completion centers, enhances it where necessary to ensure conformance to Boeing standards for effective aircraft maintenance operations, and incorporates them into a single Master Data set. The result is access to accurate and complete maintenance information from your Boeing tools such as MyBoeingFleet and Toolbox. This higher quality, integrated data will reflect the as flying configuration of the aircraft to help streamline the maintenance process, and increase the usability and operational effectiveness of your airplane. Incorporating supplemental data has the additional benefit of visibility of configuration changes back to Boeing. Without incorporation of those changes into the master, Boeing has no visibility into modifications and systems provided by a completion center. Incorporating supplemental data into the master manuals allows Boeing technical teams to provide better support and troubleshooting assistance, and resolve your issues in a more timely manner. This further reduces downtime and increases availability of your aircraft. Benefits of COC Incorporation The following benefits result from the COC incorporation of supplemental aircraft publications into the Boeing Master Database: Near as flying configuration within your current Boeing subscriptions (MyBoeingFleet, Toolbox) Aircraft availability is maximized Regulatory compliance with 14 CFR Time savings for maintenance planning and performing maintenance tasks Aircraft transition process is improved and carries less risk for both the current and the new operator All aircraft modifications data is maintained in one through-life repository Boeing engineering is able to review the current as-flying configuration when support is required Combined savings across the integrated publications benefits listed above can easily approach and exceed $2M per airplane over a 20 year lifespan. 6

7 COC incorporation reduces maintenance costs, regulatory risks, and helps prevent additional time delays in Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations. Summary Cargo operators have a challenge to manage multiple sources of data. In the past, it has taken a large amount of resources to manage this data to an acceptable level. Cargo operators are concerned about the confidence in their ability to effectively maintain and operate the aircraft when needed. The goal of the operator is to reduce the duration of planned heavy maintenance, but more importantly, to mitigate the impact of unplanned maintenance, which often occurs during operations. Poor quality maintenance instructions that do not match or conform to Boeing and industry standards, and are not incorporated into a single maintenance system, will increase repair time for unplanned maintenance. It can also increase risks for additional ground time for an aircraft. Authoring and incorporating the third-party supplemental completion center data into a single master data source is similar to an insurance policy that protects the investment of the operator. It provides the highest confidence in the availability of their aircraft, maximizes savings & revenue capture, and reduces the risk of unplanned groundings during operations. For more information about Technical Publications Integrations Services for aircraft, contact us via at: marketing@cdgnow.com. 7

8 The Americas Europe Corporate Headquarters 4060 N. Lakewood Blvd Building 801, 5th Floor Long Beach, CA USA Toll Free: (800) Phone: (562) First Floor, Building 1 Albany Place, Hyde Way Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire AL 7 3BG UNITED KINGDOM Phone: +44 (0) FREIGHTERWP-0917-A