Managing changes in aircraft maintenance data

• US 8,356,244 B2
• Filed: 06/20/2006
• Issued: 01/15/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Original Assignee: The Boeing Co.
• Inventors: Vandermolen, Kurt J., Nelson, Peter R.
• Primary Examiner(s): SYED, FARHAN M
• Application Number:
  US11/471,128
• Publication Number:
  US 20070294278A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,401 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 715/230
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling

Abstract

Airline operator-customers manage aircraft maintenance data for fleets of commercial aircraft using a suite of electronic maintenance tools that are delivered to the customers over the Internet and viewed with a web browser. The maintenance tool suite includes an authoring module that allows customers to create, edit and manage both OEM originated aircraft maintenance data and the customers'"'"' own data within a fully integrated environment running as a web application over the Internet. The authoring module combines workflow, XML authoring and editing, import/export of the data, change reconciliation, and publishing of airline customer authored documents, airline customer authored changes, OEM Temporary Revisions, and OEM aircraft maintenance documents into a single integrated web application using XML as the maintenance document format. The use of XML as the native format of the aircraft maintenance data allows the customers to reuse the data in a variety of ways.

Claims

1. A method for managing maintenance data for aircraft using computer implemented software executing programmed instructions residing in memory, comprising the steps of:

(A) authoring original maintenance data relating to the aircraft, said original maintenance data authored by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), said authoring performed with a computer implemented XML editor executing programmed instructions residing in memory, said maintenance data only in a native format of Extensible Markup Language (XML), said maintenance data comprising XML documents and XML database content accessible by a relational database;

(B) delivering a web application to an editing site over a network, said web application comprising an authoring module comprising said computer implemented XML editor, said web application comprising a tool for carrying out and managing maintenance services, said web application comprising executable programmed instructions stored in memory;

(C) delivering the original maintenance data to the editing site in said XML format using the web application delivered in step (B);

(D) allowing XML editing of the original maintenance data at the editing site, said editing performed with said computer implemented XML editor, said editing by a user of said web application, said editing of said XML documents and XML database content comprising said user manually entering data into an electronic form, said user comprising an end user of said original maintenance data, said user controlling with said XML editor access and distribution of said edited maintenance data to other end users of said edited maintenance data;

(E) reconciling the edits made to the original maintenance data, using the web application delivered in step (B); and

(F) publishing the edited maintenance data using the web application delivered in step (B) and allowing creation and management of task cards using a task module comprised by the tool, the task cards assisting in carrying out maintenance services and synchronizing with revisions to an airplane maintenance manual included in the edited XML documents.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein step (C) is performed using a web browser.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein step (B) is performed by transmitting the web application over the Internet.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

(G) storing the maintenance data edited in step (D).

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of:

(H) reusing the edited maintenance data stored in step (G).

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

(G) importing data relating to the equipment using the web application delivered in step (B), and

wherein step (D) includes using the imported data to perform the editing of the original maintenance data.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

(G) using the web application delivered in step (B) to notify users of edits to the original maintenance data made in step (D).

22. The method of claim 1, wherein said web application comprises software for performing and managing aircraft maintenance, said software comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory.

8. A method for creating and managing documents containing maintenance data for aircraft using computer implemented software executing programmed instructions residing in memory, comprising the steps of:

(A) creating original maintenance documents for the aircraft, said original maintenance data authored by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), said original maintenance data comprising major maintenance documents only in a native format of Extensible Markup Language (XML), said maintenance data comprising XML documents and XML database content accessible by a relational database;

(B) delivering a web application to a user site over the Internet, said web application comprising a computer implemented XML editor executing programmed instructions residing in memory, said application comprising a tool for carrying out and managing maintenance services, said web application comprising executable programmed instructions stored in memory;

(C) delivering the original maintenance documents in said XML to the user site using the web application provided in step (B);

(D) allowing editing of the original maintenance documents at the user'"'"'s site using said computer implemented XML editor, said editing by a user of said web application, said editing of said XML documents and XML database content comprising said user manually entering data into an electronic form, said user comprising an end user of said original maintenance data, said user controlling with said XML editor access and distribution of said edited maintenance data to other end users of said edited maintenance data; and

(E) importing data relating to the aircraft using the web application delivered in step (B), step (D) including using the imported data to perform editing of the original maintenance documents, and allowing gaining information about aircraft parts location and identification with a 3-D graphical model using a parts module comprised by the tool, the parts module being configured for integrating with a materials management system to obtain parts inventory information and the editing of the XML documents including editing the information accessed through the parts module.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein step (D) includes appending data to the maintenance documents.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein step (D) includes changing existing data in the maintenance documents.

11. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

(F) reusing the maintenance documents edited in step (D).

12. The method of claim 8, further comprising using said web application to accomplish the steps of:

(F) scheduling the maintenance documents edited in step (D) to be published at a preselected time; and

,

(G) publishing the edited maintenance documents at the time scheduled in step (F).

13. The method of claim 8, wherein step (C) is performed using a web browser.

14. The method of claim 8, further comprising using said web application to accomplish the steps of:

(F) reconciling the edits made to the original maintenance documents using the web application delivered in step (B); and

(G) publishing the edited maintenance documents using the web application delivered in step (B).

15. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

(F) using the web application delivered in step (B) to notify users of edits to the original maintenance documents made in step (D).

16. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

(F) reconciling the edits made in step (D).

23. The method of claim 8, wherein said web application comprises software for performing and managing aircraft maintenance, said software comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory.

17. A system for managing changes in maintenance data for aircraft, comprising:

a host website;

wherein aircraft maintenance data comprises original maintenance data authored by an original equipment manufacturer (OEM), said maintenance data is only in a native format of Extensible Markup Language (XML) and is deliverable from the host website to a user site, said maintenance data comprising XML documents and XML database content accessible by a relational database;

said user site connected to the host website by a network;

a web application comprising a computer implemented XML editor for editing the original maintenance data using XML, said web application deliverable from said host website over said network to said user site, said web application comprising a tool for carrying out and managing maintenance services, said web application comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory, the tool comprising a workflow engine for specifying a process for reviewing and approving the edited maintenance data; and

,

a web browser at the user site, said web browser comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory and operable for receiving and viewing the web application over the network and editing the maintenance data using said computer implemented XML editor, said editing by a user of said web application, said editing of said XML documents and XML database content comprising said user manually entering data into an electronic form, said user comprising an end user of said original maintenance data, said web application operable to allow said user to control access and distribution of said edited maintenance data to other end users of said edited maintenance data;

a library that is accessible using the tool and includes an XML repository and a PDF repository, the XML documents being comprised by the XML repository along with aircraft graphics and aircraft technical records, the XML documents, graphics, and technical records being interlinked, the PDF repository including documents in PDF format and being linked with the XML repository; and

a structures module configured to allow management and maintenance of a repair history database that includes repair details, supporting documentation, and repair locations in spatial 3-D models, the structures module being linked to the library and providing access to the XML and PDF documents.

18. The system of claim 17, further comprising a computer implemented file storage for storing the maintenance data including said XML documents and XML database content, and wherein the maintenance data includes data describing maintenance tasks, and documents describing parts used in the maintenance of the aircraft, said file storage comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory.

19. The system of claim 17, said web application further comprising a scheduler for scheduling the publishing of the edited maintenance data at a preselected time.

20. The system of claim 17, wherein the web application includes Spring web application framework.

21. The system of claim 17, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

24. The system of claim 17, wherein said web application comprises software for performing and managing aircraft maintenance, software comprising computer readable and executable programmed instructions stored in memory.