Engine Maintenance Management Program Requires Information

“Maintenance Management Programs” for aircraft and their engines have changed in the past 5 years. The maintenance programs have expanded from the hard time limits and on-condition sampling techniques of the 1960s to include condition monitoring (fly to malfunction). The Boeing 747 and Douglas DC-10 went into service using an on-condition maintenance program. The next generation of aircraft will in all probability go into service with a complete “Maintenance Management Program.”

The cornerstone of any maintenance/reliability program is an effective information collection, analysis and dissemination system. The collection of information from the many and varied sources has its problems. All too frequently the data is too little, too late, wrong format, inaccurate or incomprehensible.

This paper will review the systems United Airlines uses, or is developing to gather and distribute the information required to support aircraft and engine “Maintenance Management Program.”