Commercial Aircraft are very expensive commodities, and aircraft availability is a major consideration; as a result, attention paid to aircraft downtime during maintenance activities is also of importance.

As a result, developing the most effective aircraft schedule is highly relevant. It is very worthwhile to structure the maintenance check so that all individual “tasks,” which together form the maintenance check, are carried out in the most effective sequence so that we do not waste either downtime or manpower.

An additional feature is that effective production planning has the potential to deliver cost savings, whilst maintenance scheduling is easy to understand as a concept; it delivers often difficult-to-solve problems driven by the complexities of operation. A well-managed production planning process provides for confidence in the most effective delivery of the maintenance process.

Critical Path Process is relevant whether we are considering a single task or a detailed collection of interrelated activities, ideally taking into account minor, major, and non-routine tasks to endeavor at all times to achieve the optimum outcome.

The whole point of Critical Path Analysis in EASA 145 Production Planning is to identify the “critical path” means paying specific attention to the sequence that must be followed to ensure the activity is completed in the minimum time.

It is understood that in performing the task in the optimum way we will meet some elements which may be completed in parallel and other tasks which must be completed sequentially. To plan a sequence of activities in the best way requires us to understand the interrelationship of all tasks whilst at the same time paying attention to the needs of manpower, tooling equipment, and facilities.

Critical Path Analysis may be particularly useful when planning larger tasks that have limited resources; the output of the CPA process can be used to enable the preparation of the schedule and both the planning and allocation of manpower and other resources.

We also need to consider the specific event relationships where, for example, a particular task—jacking—is to be performed before a pre-inspection task—de-paneling. Tasks that may be considered serial tasks typically sit in the general timeline and may be considered as forming part of the Critical Path.

Conversely, tasks that may be performed in parallel can be completed almost at any time and in concurrence with Serial task. Such tasks usually do not impact the timeline and are not considered as forming part of the Critical Path.

Critical Path Analysis is covered as part of the 3 Day Production Planning course delivered by Sofema Aviation Services (www.sassofia.com) and is also available as part of the online training program of www.sofemaonline.com - Developing More Effective Production Planning Processes.

For additional details, please email us at team@sassofia.com.