Case Study: Web-Hosted Software Tracks MRO And Reduces IT Burdens For British Airways Maintenance

Completion delays in aircraft maintenance are costly. Quick turnarounds and minimal aircraft downtime are critical components in cost reduction for any maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) operation. The British Airways Maintenance facility at Cardiff (BAMC) takes pride in being a highly focused company that has become the benchmark for aircraft maintenance. According to Phil Morgan, Senior Team Leader for Inventory and Tooling, completion delays financially impact the business and create complications in fleet maintenance planning.

To perform the assigned maintenance tasks, BAMC inventories over 5000 parts and over 1000 various types of tooling some of which is vendor managed inventory (VMI). The VMI is stored at the BAMC facility and replenished by the vendor at agreed intervals.

BAMC has two centrally located tool cribs where inventory is stocked. The upper level crib stocks all the direct material or spare parts used on the aircraft, and the lower level stocks all the indirect material which is durables and consumables (gloves, abrasives, drill bits, washers, rivets, etc). Although the tool cribs are centrally located, there was still walk-and-wait time to get project materials at both levels of the tool crib. With the grab-andgo process and manual data entry to determine replenishment, they were often faced with inventory management challenges that had a direct impact on completion deadlines. Challenges such as:

• Inventory stock-outs
• Accountability issues
• Inefficient work flow processes