Save Time and Money on Each Maintenance Visit by Seamlessly Integrating Flatirons Solutions with Your Current Enterprise Systems
Previously, we explored how MRO businesses improve productivity by deploying Flatirons Pinpoint to consolidate data streams, freeze manual revisions in a visit library, enhance OEM data with key information, and simplify searching vast amounts of data.
This blog examines how airlines and MROs can increase productivity to meet delivery schedule commitments by integrating Flatirons products within their ecosystem, including legacy ERP, maintenance scheduling, spare parts, tooling, and business management solutions.
The Challenge
One of the most significant challenges in the aviation sector has always been quickly returning assets to service and maximizing aircraft, engine, and component utilization.
The Solution: Improve Turnaround Time by Seamlessly Integrating Flatirons Products with Your Enterprise Solutions
Flatirons Solutions delivers the right information at the right time to the right people. With over 25 years of Aerospace and Defense industry experience, we are proficient at integrating with all major enterprise software systems.
Our airline and MRO customers effectively utilize Flatirons Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to integrate our Flatirons Knowledge Center Content Management System (KCS CMS), Flatirons eTaskcard, Flatirons Insight workflow, and Flatirons Pinpoint IETP viewer solutions to exchange information with industry-leading ERP solutions, maintenance planning systems, and spare parts inventory management applications.
Flatirons Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) dynamically interact with the foremost Aerospace OEM technical data and troubleshooting solutions, including Airbus Airman and Boeing AHM. Pinpoint enhances regulatory compliance accuracy by linking up with advanced configuration management applications that provide up-to-the-minute Service Bulletin (SB), Engineering Order (EO), and Aviation Directive (AD) modification status.
We approach integration in 2 ways:
- A customer application calls a Flatirons application through a Flatirons API, or
- A Flatirons application calls a customer application through the customer’s API.
We use many existing APIs or develop custom APIs to meet customer requirements. Let’s highlight a few key integrations.
Figure 1: Flatirons Integration Points
Task Card and EO Authoring Integration Points
- When using the work card editor, a technical author can add forecast numbers from an ERP to maintenance tasks and engineering work cards stored in KCS so that the cards will aggregate in the Visit Manager solution (API 1).
- An author using the work card editor can look up the spare parts and tools from the ERP system and add them to maintenance tasks and engineering work cards stored in KCS. During the work package creation, the most current spare parts and tools are identified to accurately complete the task (API 2).
- Queries can be done to retrieve data from the KCS database to be loaded into an ERP database (API 8).
Visit Creation and Planning Integration Points
- The Visit Manager solution generates a work package of task cards based on the check definition/forecast numbers called from an ERP. The jobs are sorted in a visit based on the priority order set by the ERP so that the highest priority jobs can be completed first (API 1).
- A maintenance planner working in the eTaskCard solution can create a work package for a visit and export a list of work cards to the ERP System. The Visit Manager solution sends data containing a list of work cards and forecast numbers for a visit using a secured method to a maintenance planning application (API 3).
- A user in an ERP System can select a work card link and open the corresponding work card in the Flatirons eTaskcard solution (API 4).
- As a technician working in eTaskCard signs off a work step, enters information in a data field, and completes the work card, the status of each step is linked back to the ERP, and progress is tracked (API 5).
Technical Publication Integration Points
- Technicians can place electronic spare parts orders with an intuitive Pinpoint shopping cart feature inserted into the IPC and linked to your inventory management systems. Check real-time spare parts availability, stock location, and available alternate parts, then place a spare parts order (API 6).
- You can check compliance to determine the EO status of an aircraft so that a technician can verify the EO configuration of the aircraft before starting work. Pinpoint integrates with third-party applications to confirm the compliance status of an aircraft with a specified Service Bulletin, Aviation Directive, or Engineering project. This includes passing the SB/AD/Project number, Aircraft/Engine Manufacturer Serial Number, and completion date back to the technician for verification (API 6).
- The Pinpoint GoTo API allows a third-party application to call Pinpoint and ask Pinpoint to display an EM task (Data Module) or EIPC figure/part information. For example, BOEING Toolbox AHM and Airbus AirNav Airman can call the Pinpoint viewer GoTo API and link to the desired information (API 7).
- A quality assurance user can run a report to generate a list of parts that have been removed and installed during the visit. For a given part number and aircraft tail number, the Pinpoint API returns a response validating if the installed part number is approved for the given tail number (API 7).
Do More with Flatirons
Speed up repairs, optimize turnaround time, and improve aircraft utilization by seamlessly integrating Flatirons APIs with your legacy ERP, MRO, parts inventory systems, tooling, and maintenance planning systems. Because we develop integration points that seamlessly link to your existing business systems, you can rest assured that your previous investments are fully preserved and utilized.
The world’s largest airlines and MRO repair stations use the Flatirons Technical Content Management platform to manage their end-to-end content lifecycle of technical manuals, libraries, engineering orders, service bulletins, task cards, and visit packages. Shouldn’t you?
Contact us to learn more about the Flatirons platform at [email protected].
Up Next
In our next blog, we take a deep dive into Flatirons eTaskcard, the digital technical operations module that allows airlines and MROs to import, revise, and deliver the latest maintenance task cards. eTaskcard turns work packages into actionable tasks and enables engineers and technicians in maintenance work areas to access their work cards via a digital inbox or work queue from any mobile device, desktop, or laptop.
