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Press Release |
31st August 2000 |
| Revolutionary Maintenance! Aerosystems International (AeI) and Boeing have commenced a 16-month programme, to revolutionise US Army helicopter maintenance. |
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Aerosystems will be working with Boeing and the US Army as part of the CH-47 Maintenance Process Re-engineering and Digitization Program. The contract is part of the US Army Cargo Helicopters PM Office Life Cycle Management Program to demonstrate the cost benefits of maintaining helicopters using a closed-loop, digital maintenance management system. Military maintenance has traditionally involved layers of quality checks and reams of paperwork. With the new system, however, paper may soon be a thing of the past.
The program centres on an unobtrusive, electronic approach to tracking people, parts, tools and time consumed during helicopter maintenance by introducing a new system called the Advanced Maintenance Aid Chinook (AMAC) in to an operational field environment. Boeing will complete the logistics data management system while AeI works on the maintenance data system and electronic task card application that will be deployed to the field. This will be a development of the maintenance systems developed for the Merlin and Apache helicopters. A digital information centre will eventually contain all the maintenance information fed into it and give everyone involved, from maintenance specialists to system managers, instant access to key data and metrics. The Boeing and Aerosystems team brings plenty of expertise to this area. Program manager Bob Beggs says: "We've been working together on a digital maintenance management system for the Contractor Logistic System and will now have an opportunity to apply it with one of our best customers." He continues: "It's a win-win for all parties. The Army will have access to a suite of tools that will help the Cargo Helicopters Program Office manage its fleet and identify maintenance cost drivers. Boeing will have an objective evaluation of the new maintenance management system and unprecedented visibility of how the Chinook is performing in the field." Together, the Army/Boeing/AeI team will field the prototype system at the 101st Airborne Division at Ft Campbell, KY in February 2001 and begin the job of re-engineering the Chinook Phase Maintenance process. Note to Editors: Aerosystems International, jointly owned by GKN Aerospace and BAE SYSTEMS, was formed in 1985 for the sole purpose of developing aerospace systems and software, combining the avionics and systems expertise of GKN Westland with the software and project management skills of BAeSEMA. For further information please contact: Emma
Taylor |
