18-06-2014, 04:22 PM
INTERACTIVE SESSION: TECHNOLOGY
AIR CANADA TAKES OFF WITH MAINTENIX
[attachment=65041]
Air Canada is Canada's most prominent airline. It is
the largest provider of scheduled passenger services
in the Canadian market, the Canada-U.S. trans-bor-
der market, and in the international market to and
from Canada. The airline serves over 33 million
customers annually and provides direct passenger
service to over 170 destinations on five continents.
But the company's information systems had plenty
of room for improvement. When Air Canada techni-
cians worked on planes, they used several different
legacy software packages installed over the past 15
years. The systems weren't able to interact with one
another or with finance and inventory systems.
The inefficiencies of these systems were costing Air
Canada the time of its engineers and money that
could have been used on maintaining its planes,
instead of needlessly maintaining excess inventory
Air Canada turned to Mxi Technologies for help in
addressing these problems. Mxi is renowned in the
airline industry for its Maintenix software package,
which provides integrated, intelligent aviation MRO
(maintenance, repair, and operations) software to
aviation organizations hoping to improve productiv-
ity. The benefits of Maintenix that interested Air
Canada were enhanced visibility of fleet-wide data,
timelier decision-making, support of its currently
existing business model, and increased operational
efficiencies.
Maintenix provides a system platform that is
accessible via the Web and easy to deploy to all
stations around the world. Mxi claims that their
software reduces repetitive tasks and time chasing
missing or incomplete information by allowing
maintenance, engineering, and finance divisions to
easily share information. Maintenix can supply data
to the company's existing enterprise resource
planning (see Section 2.3) and financial software, and
Air Canada plans to link it up with its PeopleSoft
i f nance and human resource applications. Wireless
deployment also makes Maintenix more effective, since aviation technicians, equipment, and parts are
always on the move.
The Maintenix software package consists of six
different modules, which are separate segments of
the product that interconnect. Airlines deploying
Maintenix can choose which modules they want to
use, as well as whether they want full or partial
installation of those modules. The six modules are
maintenance engineering, line maintenance, heavy
maintenance, shop maintenance, materials
management, and finance. Air Canada chose to fully
implement the maintenance engineering, line
maintenance, and materials management modules.
The airline chose to only partially implement the
heavy maintenance, shop maintenance, and finance
modules because a separate contractor that also
maintains Air Canada planes handles those tasks
The maintenance engineering module is the
foundation of the Maintenix System. It is used to
establish the configuration hierarchy, rules, and
maintenance program that all of the other modules
depend upon. Through this module, the airline can
set up a "logical configuration", which describes
aircraft components, part relationships, and compati-
bility rules.
Line maintenance involves matching a dynamic list of maintenance work requirements against finite
resources at varying locations within a flight
schedule that is constantly undergoing change.
The module includes line station planning applica-
tions, which are designed to schedule maintenance
and allocate work, based on the capabilities of the
line station facilities as well as the aircrafts' sched-
uled locations. For example, this module allows Air
Canada to ensure that qualified technicians are
available before they schedule maintenance
The materials management module deals with the
logistically complex process of ensuring availability
of parts without overstocking. Maintenix ensures that
the minimum amount of each part is always in
inventory without causing engineers to be short on
parts at any time. Maintaining this delicate balance is
critical in order to maximize revenue and achieve
greater operational efficiencies. Maintenix allows
wireless, real-time management of inventory,
automates routine activities, and integrates fully with
an airline's existing inventory management systems.
The biggest advantage of the system is that all of
this information provided by Maintenix's various
modules is located in one place. This results in more
rapid scheduling and avoids pitfalls of poorly
organized information systems, such as scheduling
work to a station that lacks the proper qualifications
to accomplish it
One example of how Maintenix will increase
Air Canada's efficiency might be as follows. An Air Canada technician requests a part he needs for
maintenance from supply. Maintenix automatically
processes the request. If the required part is
available, Maintenix automatically reserves it and the
appropriate personnel are immediately informed
that the part is ready to be picked for issue. In the
meantime, the technician is easily able to track the
status of his part requests and is made aware once
the part is ready to be collected. If any change
happens and the part is unavailable, Maintenix will
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
What problems does Air Canada hope that
Maintenix will solve?
2. How does Maintenix improve operational
efficiency and decision-making?
3. Give examples of three decisions supported by the
Maintenix system. What information do the
Maintenix modules provide to support each of
these decisions?
notify the technician. As a result, technicians can
accomplish more maintenance work as opposed to managing details that Maintenix is now handling via automation. This leads to increased productivity and increased profitability. The system is expected to be fully implemented by 2010
MIS IN ACTION
Visit the Mxi Technologies Web site (`vAvw.lnxi.conl)
and examine the Maintenix modules for heavy main-
tenance, shop maintenance, and finance modules.
Then answer the following questions:
1. How could an airline benefit from implementing
these modules?
2. Give an example of a decision that each of these
modules supports.
AIR CANADA TAKES OFF WITH MAINTENIX
[attachment=65041]
Air Canada is Canada's most prominent airline. It is
the largest provider of scheduled passenger services
in the Canadian market, the Canada-U.S. trans-bor-
der market, and in the international market to and
from Canada. The airline serves over 33 million
customers annually and provides direct passenger
service to over 170 destinations on five continents.
But the company's information systems had plenty
of room for improvement. When Air Canada techni-
cians worked on planes, they used several different
legacy software packages installed over the past 15
years. The systems weren't able to interact with one
another or with finance and inventory systems.
The inefficiencies of these systems were costing Air
Canada the time of its engineers and money that
could have been used on maintaining its planes,
instead of needlessly maintaining excess inventory
Air Canada turned to Mxi Technologies for help in
addressing these problems. Mxi is renowned in the
airline industry for its Maintenix software package,
which provides integrated, intelligent aviation MRO
(maintenance, repair, and operations) software to
aviation organizations hoping to improve productiv-
ity. The benefits of Maintenix that interested Air
Canada were enhanced visibility of fleet-wide data,
timelier decision-making, support of its currently
existing business model, and increased operational
efficiencies.
Maintenix provides a system platform that is
accessible via the Web and easy to deploy to all
stations around the world. Mxi claims that their
software reduces repetitive tasks and time chasing
missing or incomplete information by allowing
maintenance, engineering, and finance divisions to
easily share information. Maintenix can supply data
to the company's existing enterprise resource
planning (see Section 2.3) and financial software, and
Air Canada plans to link it up with its PeopleSoft
i f nance and human resource applications. Wireless
deployment also makes Maintenix more effective, since aviation technicians, equipment, and parts are
always on the move.
The Maintenix software package consists of six
different modules, which are separate segments of
the product that interconnect. Airlines deploying
Maintenix can choose which modules they want to
use, as well as whether they want full or partial
installation of those modules. The six modules are
maintenance engineering, line maintenance, heavy
maintenance, shop maintenance, materials
management, and finance. Air Canada chose to fully
implement the maintenance engineering, line
maintenance, and materials management modules.
The airline chose to only partially implement the
heavy maintenance, shop maintenance, and finance
modules because a separate contractor that also
maintains Air Canada planes handles those tasks
The maintenance engineering module is the
foundation of the Maintenix System. It is used to
establish the configuration hierarchy, rules, and
maintenance program that all of the other modules
depend upon. Through this module, the airline can
set up a "logical configuration", which describes
aircraft components, part relationships, and compati-
bility rules.
Line maintenance involves matching a dynamic list of maintenance work requirements against finite
resources at varying locations within a flight
schedule that is constantly undergoing change.
The module includes line station planning applica-
tions, which are designed to schedule maintenance
and allocate work, based on the capabilities of the
line station facilities as well as the aircrafts' sched-
uled locations. For example, this module allows Air
Canada to ensure that qualified technicians are
available before they schedule maintenance
The materials management module deals with the
logistically complex process of ensuring availability
of parts without overstocking. Maintenix ensures that
the minimum amount of each part is always in
inventory without causing engineers to be short on
parts at any time. Maintaining this delicate balance is
critical in order to maximize revenue and achieve
greater operational efficiencies. Maintenix allows
wireless, real-time management of inventory,
automates routine activities, and integrates fully with
an airline's existing inventory management systems.
The biggest advantage of the system is that all of
this information provided by Maintenix's various
modules is located in one place. This results in more
rapid scheduling and avoids pitfalls of poorly
organized information systems, such as scheduling
work to a station that lacks the proper qualifications
to accomplish it
One example of how Maintenix will increase
Air Canada's efficiency might be as follows. An Air Canada technician requests a part he needs for
maintenance from supply. Maintenix automatically
processes the request. If the required part is
available, Maintenix automatically reserves it and the
appropriate personnel are immediately informed
that the part is ready to be picked for issue. In the
meantime, the technician is easily able to track the
status of his part requests and is made aware once
the part is ready to be collected. If any change
happens and the part is unavailable, Maintenix will
CASE STUDY QUESTIONS
What problems does Air Canada hope that
Maintenix will solve?
2. How does Maintenix improve operational
efficiency and decision-making?
3. Give examples of three decisions supported by the
Maintenix system. What information do the
Maintenix modules provide to support each of
these decisions?
notify the technician. As a result, technicians can
accomplish more maintenance work as opposed to managing details that Maintenix is now handling via automation. This leads to increased productivity and increased profitability. The system is expected to be fully implemented by 2010
MIS IN ACTION
Visit the Mxi Technologies Web site (`vAvw.lnxi.conl)
and examine the Maintenix modules for heavy main-
tenance, shop maintenance, and finance modules.
Then answer the following questions:
1. How could an airline benefit from implementing
these modules?
2. Give an example of a decision that each of these
modules supports.