MONITORING ROGUE….?

Safety is always a predominant concern in aviation industry. All airlines keep an eye on their fleet to ensure that everything goes safe. Even though aircrafts are subjected to strict maintenance programs, flaws do persists in aviation. Various air accident episodes from past to present age, points to this.

But now with all advanced technologies on-board, it is time to isolate and stabilize these imperfections. Aircraft systems are designed in such a way that probability of failure is illogical and the regulatory authorities throughout the world try to ensure that. Here Human error comes into picture. Recent studies say that human error is the major cause of more than 90 percent of incidents happening in aviation.

So a question arises, whether 90% human error is due to negligence from mechanic? Answer is absolutely no. Coming to the maintenance base, identifying or isolating faults in components are always a challenge for mechanics than simply rectifying it. The situation worsens when he encounters Rogue components, the components that behaves peaceful outside but are real troublemakers on-board. Identifying and isolating rogue components increase complexity to one’s day to day operations. His basic troubleshooting procedures may not allow him to find the failure modes associated with the component he is working with. In these circumstances, the mechanic needs assistance of technology.

Apt example to explain Rogue Units in aircraft maintenance is ‘13th Stage Modulating and Shutoff Valve’ used in Pneumatic system of aircraft (Boeing-737). It is a major part of compressor control system and is subjected to continuous reliability analysis. High pressure bleed air coming from 13th stage compressor blades of engine will pass through this Modulating and Shutoff Valve before merging with ducts of Pneumatic system. Whenever the temperature sensed by thermostat exceeds 450°F, the reduction of control pressure causes ‘13th Stage Modulating and Shutoff Valve’ to closed position thereby reducing the total bleed airflow through pneumatic ducts. Two major failure modes of the modulating valves are ‘jammed valves’ and ‘motor failure’. But isolation procedure (i.e. “Turn applicable bleed air switch on and make sure that shutoff valve opens and motor stop”) suggested for identifying this failure mode is quite inadequate for less experienced mechanic. Here the need for technology comes into picture.

Software systems that can provide Reliability Analysis are widely available in today’s market. But solutions that grant continuous Rogue Unit monitoring capabilities are limited. This is where Ramco comes into picture. Ramco Aviation Suite is an aviation specific ERP system providing Airline/ MRO solution with innumerable amount of in-built capabilities that gives more visibility and traceability for various aircraft maintenance operations. Ramco with its advanced functionalities like Advanced Reliability Module and FIM (Fault Isolation Manual) are able to forecast and track the failure pattern of components (especially rogue component).

Ramco Aviation solution has the capability to track each part based on number of unscheduled removals and repeat intervals. If the unscheduled removal count per repeat interval exceeds beyond expected value, system tracks that part as Rogue unit. Ramco Aviation Solution alerts mechanic with its discrepancy alert feature whenever he encounters rogue components during maintenance. Last but not the least, Reliability report generator in Ramco Aviation Solution is equipped to publish Rogue unit analytics reports suitable for real time analysis.