With over 310 million airline passengers being transported on aircraft maintained using IFS Cloud, we are always looking to update and improve our product offering twice-yearly to ensure we provide the best solution to our customers.
The latest release of IFS Cloud is here. It’s bigger and better than before, with new capabilities set to match the requirements of airlines and Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) providers globally, allowing them to continue to set the standard for service delivery to the aviation industry.
The latest release of IFS Cloud is centered around three core themes:
Putting power potential in the right hands:
This release aims to amplify human and physical asset potential to address the need for staff retention, upskilling, productivity, and asset longevity. One of the key takeaways for Aerospace & Defense companies is the power to integrate electronic logbooks to boost productivity, increase compliance, and minimize aircraft turnaround time.
Driving profitability by fine tuning operations:
In 2024 we are hearing that organizations are focusing on sustained business growth. So, we have geared our next release towards helping organizations fine-tune global operations, lower costs, reduce waste, and empower new business models to build and retain enduring value. A&D companies now can improve operational decision making to drive efficiency and profitability based on a holistic view of an entire fleet’s airworthiness during the maintenance and release to service processes.
Turning sustainability into a competitive advantage:
With IFS Cloud, we are embedding environmentally conscious practices into core operations to go beyond compliance and provide a competitive edge to businesses. We will help airlines and MROs optimize resource utilization, minimize waste, and track environmental impact with paperless digital signatures.
Let’s take a deep dive into how the new release of IFS Cloud is set to power potential, drive profitability, and boost sustainability as a competitive advantage for our Aviation Maintenance customers across the globe.
1. Powering potential: Boosting pilot electronic logbook connectivity
Aircraft logbooks play a vital role in aircraft turnaround. They serve as the primary communication tool between pilots and maintenance ground crews for every flight.
The new release of IFS Cloud features a new API that will integrate third party electronic logbooks directly into the IFS maintenance and engineering system. Gone is the need to rely on paper logbooks!
Electronic logbook apps run on mobile devices and are used by flight crew, both in the air and on the tarmac, to raise defects, review the maintenance status of an aircraft, and escalate any safety or airworthiness issue. So, to ensure these electronic logbook apps run seamlessly whether in the air or on ground, they must be integrated with our M&E system. This enables seamless mobile communication between the pilot, Maintenance Operations Control (MOC), and the ground maintenance technicians.
Not only will the new release of IFS Cloud enable this seamless communication, but as a result it will save time on reporting, analysis, and communication while ensuring a faster return to service of aircraft by minimizing silos of information. The stakeholders involved in aircraft operations will be able to work in unison, to minimize turnaround time for every departure.
2. Drive fleet-wide availability: Supplying aircraft airworthiness status insights
For airlines and defense forces to actively monitor the status of their aircraft, maintaining a steady level of aircraft airworthiness insights is paramount. These insights are critical to keep track of the ongoing maintenance of aircraft. For example, in the case of a technical fault on a passenger airliner, an airline can immediately assess the airworthiness of their available fleet and position a new aircraft in order to avoid any delays or subsequent fines.
The new model of IFS Cloud provides enhanced visibility and control across fleet status and ensures airworthiness of assets down to individual component levels—providing fleet managers, MOCs, and planners with a holistic view of the current fleet status and those aircraft currently in maintenance. The overall result of these capabilities is improved strategic and operational decision making to drive efficiency, productivity, and profitability.
3. Drive profitability: A seamless aircraft release to service process
In the final stages of an aircraft maintenance visit, the final checks will be performed to ensure there are no missing mandatory components, overdue tasks or faults, and near-due maintenance items which may become overdue before the next opportunity for maintenance. Any setbacks in this process will cause a significant delay in the aircraft release to service.
The new release of Mobile Maintenance is integrated with the configuration control systems, which means that missing mandatory components, overdue, and near due maintenance items will be automatically detected and flagged during the maintenance process, not at the end. Real-time notifications and a user-friendly interface ensure technicians are alerted to potential issues before the final stages of releasing an aircraft to service.
By identifying and addressing missing components and overdue or near due maintenance tasks before releasing the aircraft, IFS Cloud will reduce the risk of errors and incidents, improve operational efficiency and as a result boost profitability from every flight.
4. A sustainable and digital competitive edge: Go paperless for complex assembly MRO
Paperless operations have got another turbo charge with the new release of IFS Cloud. The IFS complex assembly MRO solution is now integrated with the IFS digital signature framework to support shop order tasks digital sign off. Here’s how it works:
IFS Signature Service uses a token-based signature, which automatically populates user details. This ensures data security and prevents any mis-authentications. Digitally signed documents can be stored internally or externally with this capability, which provides extra flexibility for ensuring that long-term report keeping remains secure.
Digital signatures also ensure technicians are responsible for sign-offs on critical assets, which will significantly reduce errors common to manual processes, and improve reliability and safety standards among MRO technicians. Shifting from paper-based to digital signatures aligns MROs with the new digitalized era of the industry and enhances efficiency and compliance for both airlines and MROs.
But that’s not all. Reducing paper-based processes will also add sustainability into maintenance operations, especially for an industry as paper heavy as aviation. A number of large carriers and IFS customers have gone paperless in their maintenance operations, such as Qantas, Air France, KLM and Southwest Airlines, with a combined total of more than 1,200 aircraft.
IFS Cloud is set to take Airlines and MROs to new heights
With the new installment of IFS Cloud, aviation maintenance organizations and airlines are able to unlock new capabilities including connecting operations from the sky to the tarmac, enhancing fleet availability, minimizing turnaround times to drive profitability, and driving ESG goals.
Learn more about the latest release of IFS Cloud for aviation maintenance here: IFS Cloud Release May 2024: Reimagine Human-Machine Collaboration for Business Success
