Air Canada Using Maintenix System

Air Canada Takes off with Maintenix

Read the Interactive Session: Technology, and then discuss the following questions: 1. 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.

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What information do the Maintenix modules provide to support each of these decisions? Answer: 1. What problems does Air Canada hope that Maintenix will solve? The Air Canada hope that the Maintenix will solve the problem that the system weren’t able to interact with one another or with finance and inventory systems.

• The Air Canada hope that the solution will provide additional functionalities to Air Canada’s Engineering, Planning, Materials Management, Line Maintenance and Technical Records departments and is expected to be fully implemented at all Air Canada locations by 2010. 2. How does Maintenix improve operational efficiency and decision-making? Matintenix provides a system platform that is accessible via the Web and easy to deploy to all stations around the world.

About operational efficiency :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.
• The Mxi Maintenix(R) software uses a modern architecture and provides advanced capabilities such as a role-based Web browser interface, automated workflow, integration adapters, electronic signatures, and support for portable wireless devices.

In addition to supplying Maintenix, Mxi provides a full range of services including Maintenix implementation, business consulting, systems integration, training, and support. 3. Give examples of three decisions supported by the Maintenix system. What information do the Maintenix modules provide to support each of these decisions?
• maintenance engineering, line maintenance, and materials management modules.
• Examples1, the maintenance engineering module: the airline can set up a “logical onfiguration”, which describes aircraft components, part relationships, and compatibility rules. —–The Mix modules used to establish the configuration hierarchy, rules, and maintenance program that all of the other modules depend upon.
• Examples2, the line maintenance: this module allows Air Canada to ensure that qualified technicians are available before they schedule maintenance. —–The Mix provides line station planning applications based on the capabilities of the line station facilities as well as the aircrafts’ scheduled locations. Exmaples3, the materials management module: —–The Mix ensures that minimum amount of each part is always in inventory without causing engineers to be short on parts at any times. When Air Canada technicians work on airplanes, they use several different legacy software packages that have been installed over the last 15 years. The systems don’t always talk to each other or the finance and inventory systems, so the Montreal-based airline has hired Mxi Technologies Ltd. of Ottawa to replace it. The companies announced this week Air Canada is scheduled to start installing Mxi’s Maintenix software next year.

The companies did not disclose(? ) the total cost, though the contract is worth “multi millions of dollars,” said Hans Downer, Mxi’s executive vice-president for sales and support. Maintenix is designed to let maintenance, engineering and finance divisions share information, and Mxi claims this reduces repetitive tasks. “One of the benefits of the Mxi product is, all of this is integrated into a single system, gives us a single view and a single planning mechanism for our entire fleet,” said Steve Bogie, Air Canada’s program director for the software implementation. It gets us off that legacy platform and puts us on to a Web platform that we can deploy to all of our stations around the world. ” Maintenix uses “n-tier” architecture that separates the business logic part from the database and from the user interface. From ComputerWorld Canada Kronos wins another Air Canada contract It has integration adapters, which are sold separately and lets the software share information with enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, plus flight operations applications, general ledger, supply chain optimization nd human resources systems. It includes workflow functions and can be supported by a third-party application service provider. Air Canada plans to hire a company to host its implementation, though it has not chosen a provider, Bogie said. Its six modules are maintenance engineering, line maintenance, heavy maintenance, shop maintenance, materials management and finance. Air Canada is using all six modules, though the heavy maintenance, shop maintenance and finance modules will only be implemented partially.

This is because a separate contractor, Air Canada Technical Services (ACTS), also maintains Air Canada planes. ACTS has been spun off as a separate company and is not a subsidiary, said the airline’s media relations manager, John Reber. Bogie said Air Canada plans to implement the full set of maintenance engineering, line maintenance and materials management modules. The maintenance engineering module is used to establish rules and users can pre-populate the data. They can also set up a “logical configuration,” which describes the aircraft components, part relationships and compatibility rules.