From greaseboards to gigabytes: a comparative analysis of naval aviation and commercial airlines maintenance scheduling methods

Abstract

In Naval Aviation maintenance organizations, planning and scheduling of preventive maintenance actions tend to be left to ad hoc and traditional methods. The aviation operations exist in a highly dynamic environment; aircraft utilization, configurations, resource constraints and operational requirements change several times a day. To ensure that quality aircraft are available for operations, changes in maintenance schedules must be performed on a continuing, iterative basis, requiring integration of numerous data bases and intensive number crunching. Though operating in a more stable environment, commercial airlines attempt, as do Naval Aviation squadrons, to optimize aircraft utilization, mission readiness and/or maintenance yield under a set of constrained resources. In order to take advantage of the speed and efficiency related to automated software systems, a few airlines have recently developed and implemented integrated decision suppon systems (DSS) within their maintenance information systems. This has yielded extraordinary productivity improvements. In this thesis, the authors show that the implementation of an automated DSS, similar to those used in the airline industry, that could be integrated into the Naval Aviation Logistics Command Information System (NALCOMIS) would maximize resource utility while minimizing the impact of numerous ever-changing constraints. To reduce procurement lead time and minimize development risk and cost, the authors recommend the adaptation of a commercial off-the-shelf aviation-related DSS and provide a possible implementation plan.