Aircraft Production Planning belongs to the Maintenance Organisation and is related to the size of the organisation, from a very humble structure to an intensive business management process.

There is much opportunity available within the Production Planning business area to deliver savings, and the challenge is to identify efficient business processes that can be used to gather the data, analyze and measure the opportunities, and finally act on this.

The training and management of competence is often overlooked for the maintenance planning group, and their role and responsibilities are considered as providing administrative support to the “engineers” rather than managing and controlling an effective delivery. Together with a limited acquisition of “Data,” this leads to general underperformance within the business area. (This in no way should be construed as impacting the regulatory obligations, which is not under question as part of this submission.)
The objective of Production Planning is quite straightforward.

To ensure:

a) We have the correct Resources (Manpower)
b) We have the correct Documentation
c) We have correct Spares, Material and Tooling
d) We have appropriate Facilities and Equipment

In respect of the need for the correct resources, this is one area where often the Production Planners have no impact on the required manpower, and either the activity is over-resourced (waste of funds) or under-resourced—requiring overtime (waste of funds).

In respect of the need for the correct documentation, anything that impacts the performance of maintenance becomes a source of lost time. We have an opportunity to understand “lost time” in detail and to use this information as a driver to eliminate inefficiencies in the workplace.

Any delays in the availability of Spares, Material and Tooling can lead to unnecessary delays; much of this delay may be masked within the totality of the maintenance check, and the true source of the cost impact may not be assigned to the correct causal factor.

It goes without saying (or it should) that we need the correct facilities to perform the maintenance; however, this also includes the availability of the support stands and docking, etc. to facilitate access to the aircraft. Equipment which is not available when it is needed again leads to issues of “LOST TIME”

Sofema Aviation Services offers several Production Planning Training Courses both classroom-based and online. Please see here for more details or email us at team@sassofia.com