TIMCO Aviation Services Case Study
Rolling out an Enterprise RFID Platform for Continuous Process Improvement at TIMCO Aviation Services
Few activities are more important, and few industries more closely regulated, than the maintenance and repair of commercial airliners. That is why, for organizations that provide these crucial services to airlines and governmental departments, the control of quality and related information is absolutely vital.
TIMCO Aviation Services is one of the largest and most reputable airline maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) providers in the world. The organization is absolutely committed to quality assurance, safety and regulatory compliance … and backs that commitment with best practice policies and technologies. So when TIMCO wanted a way to more closely track key maintenance tools and safety-related parts, it turned to a leading source of RFID-based asset tracking solutions.
A Crucial Safety Challenge
TIMCO Aviation Services is the largest commercial airline MRO provider in the United States, and the second largest worldwide. The company provides outsourced aircraft preventative maintenance services to a number of major commercial air carriers in the U.S., as well as the U.S. department of defense. To survive and succeed in the highly competitive MRO segment, TIMCO must deliver superior quality maintenance at a cost that is lower that carriers or defense units can achieve internally, and that beats the service available from domestic and international competitors.
Given the critical nature of airline and DOD aircraft safety and performance, any company providing maintenance, repair and overhaul services must meet the strictest possible standards for quality and compliance. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) manages the strict control and measurement of a vast network of regulations governing virtually every aspect of MRO provider activities.
Companies that compete for airline and DOD maintenance contract must meet and continually comply with regulations that cover the sourcing of parts and materials, inventory control of critical spare parts, worker access, control over key aviation tools, quality assurance and employee safety.
At TIMCO Aviation Services, managers worked constantly to maintain a fine balance between delivering optimum performance quality and controlling costs. The company had previously struggled to maintain tight controls over tools and safety pins used during aircraft maintenance operations. To gain the needed visibility and control, TIMCO wanted an automated system that could track the movement, location and disposition of critical tools during preventative maintenance and major aircraft overhaul operations. TIMCO then hoped to extend that solution to manage a broad range of inventory, personnel and quality control requirements.
To stay focused on its core mission – the safe and cost-effective repair and maintenance of aircraft – TIMCO sought specialized help in creating this automated asset management solution.
A Clear Visibility Solution
Fortunately, TIMCO had an existing relationship with Xterprise, the leading global supplier of RFID-based solutions for the High Definition Enterprise. This aircraft MRO leader recently called on Xterprise to solve one of its most important safety compliance challenges.
As part of the normal maintenance process, aircraft safety systems such as oxygen masks and evacuation slides must be disabled to prevent accidental activation. This is done by inserting a preventative safety pin into the system, and hundreds of these pins are typically inserted at the start, then removed at the end of many maintenance jobs. If these pins are not removed at the end of the service operation, the safety equipment will not function when the aircraft is returned to service, and the flight crew will have no indication the system is not operative.
To ensure the proper placement and removal of these critical pins, Xterprise deployed an active RFID technology integrated with Motorola mobile devices to track safety pins in an aircraft. A single RFID tag is permanently affixed to each safety pin, and then TIMCO maintenance technicians use a hand-held device to detect the presence of safety pins within the aircraft. This successful pilot program, which was deployed at a TIMCO maintenance facility in Lake City, Florida, demonstrated the viability of this RFID-based approach in the MRO environment.
Based on the initial success of this pilot, TIMCO expects to roll-out RFID-driven solutions to manage a wide array of requirements at a number of repair and maintenance facilities. This expanded solution leverages the Xterprise Clarity EAM™ asset management solution to manage crib inventory and quality control. The Clarity suite of solutions from Xterprise are built on the Microsoft BizTalk 2006 R2 platform featuring BizTalk RFID, which offers flexibility, scalability and dependability.
Using this solution, tools are tagged, and then tracked with the Clarity EAM™ application to monitor movement, location and disposition during aircraft maintenance. TIMCO managers can see when tools are removed and returned, thus ensuring tighter controls and more efficient project work. TIMCO also expects to extend this solution to manage a variety of access control, quality assurance, spare parts inventory, workplace safety and regulatory compliance programs.
Tracking the Results
TIMCO judged the initial safety pin pilot program to be a success. The system meets design expectations, enabling TIMCO maintenance technicians to reliably detect the presence of a safety pin in an aircraft fuselage. TIMCO is now exploring ways to extend this technology, and Xterprise is collaborating with this aircraft MRO provider to evaluate other production-level projects.
Download TIMCO Aviation Services Case Study