Proposing an Electronic Maintenance Job Cards (eJobCards) for Air Carriers

Chien-Tsung Lu, Jiayi Guo, Flavio A. C. Mendonca and Julius C. Keller

ABSTRACT

  The contemporary daily operations of an airline’s inspection, repair and maintenance follow both mandatory as well as recommended Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Job Cards directly support maintenance operations including detailed information and procedures allowing maintenance professionals to carefully and safely complete the assigned tasks. Once the assignment is accomplished, all related Job Cards would be signed off and archived as a part of the official maintenance records for future reviews or audits. Due to the complexity of the modern maintenance tasks, it is challenging to properly store the massive amount of traditional paperback Job Cards. It could also generate potential hazards, such as miscommunications, oversights or lapses, when paperback Job Cards are not transited to the next team properly affecting airworthiness and operational safety. This study designed, created and tested a prototype of an electronic Job Cars system by using Java XML, HTML 5, CSS and Java Script interactive functions. Using Action Research (AR) methodology, alpha tests of the prototype were conducted to collect comments for improvements followed by a real-world beta test to engineering departments for system validity, reliability and practicality. The results of the prototype showed positive impact on aircraft maintenance such as better communication, effectiveness and efficiency of quality control, time saving, cost cutting, improved intra-collaboration and working climate as well as an opportunity to integrate with other internal airline safety programs.

KEYWORDS: Maintenance Reliability; Safety; IT; eJCs; Sustainability

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