QFM takes off at Monarch Aircraft Engineering
In the 21st century, flying is one of the - if not the - most popular modes of transport. Every day, millions of people take to the sky - whether it's for business or pleasure. Aircraft are of course, expensive pieces of equipment and by their very nature, it’s essential for them to be kept in tip-top condition. Which is where Monarch Aircraft Engineering Ltd (MAEL) plays a vital role.
For 35 years MAEL has been offering a critical aircraft maintenance service to the airline industry. With main bases in Luton and Manchester Airport and additional line maintenance at Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, London Gatwick, the company provides total technical support to not only the fleet of Monarch Airlines but also to third party customers. Capability extends to Boeing 757, 767 Airbus A320, A321, A300, A330 and the McDonnell Douglas DC10.
When Ian Callcut took up the role of Property and Facilities Manager at MAE in 1997, it was apparent that while the company was using the latest advances in technology to perform its work, the system used to log vital information relating to this was not of a similar ilk. As Callcut explains:
‘We were using an electronic system but it was just a DOS based system, which had numerous drawbacks. For example, it didn’t have full record life cycle costing and full records of maintenance and service history, nor did it allow access for multiple users. Ultimately, it wasn’t user-friendly and that was what we needed.’
Callcut was aware there were a number of options when it came to finding a new solution and one system he ‘had seen in action while working in London’ was Service Works Global’s flagship facilities and estates management software QFM. Impressed with the software’s wide range of modules – several of which would be especially pertinent to MAE – coupled with the fact that it proved ‘more economically viable than other systems out there’.
Callcut made his choice and set about getting QFM installed, for managing both the buildings and their assets.
‘Setting QFM up’, Callcut says, ‘didn’t present any problems. Service Works Global worked hard to transmigrate our asset register onto QFM. They really made sure it met our purposes’.
Asset Management, (one of the modules within QFM) – means different things to different companies, although assets in this instance relates to equipment such as an aircraft jack or an engine stand, which was something particularly important to MAEL.
‘We needed to allocate planned preventative maintenance against the assets and so I wanted a system that would automatically flag up jobs when they were due,’ he explains. An aircraft jack, for instance, ‘has to be inspected every quarter and so I was able to input a quarterly inspection regime into QFM accordingly. All equipment has to be fully overhauled periodically – depending on the regulations that you’re looking at and the service life of equipment and I was able to put all of this information into the system.This provides a feeling of security knowing that the system will pull up job cards at the appropriate time and we can action them accordingly.’ Callcut’s team can also use QFM to produce asset related reports, ‘for the CAA or the Health and Safety Executive - to inform them that this is the schedule we’ve done and this is the history of that piece of equipment’.
The comprehensive Help Desk module in QFM, which allows the quick and efficient logging of data relating to any aspect of an asset or service in an organisation, proves exceptionally useful at MAEL.
The firm receives an average of ‘90 calls a day’ to its help desk and QFM, observes Callcut ‘enables us to log those calls and put the content of the calls onto job cards, then issue these to get the things done within a pre-arranged service agreement.’
MAEL has always prided itself on its ability to analyse and respond quickly to problems. Through this dedicated approach, coupled with a considerable depth of experience spread across the company, it’s proved itself as a pioneer – notably assisting Monarch Airlines to become the first British airline to operate ETOPS (extended range operations) across the Atlantic. QFM is clearly allowing MAE to maintain its high standards, while also tightening up operations through its ability to store and log vital information and data in a clear and concise way.
For Callcut, another benefit that the system has brought ‘is being able to record man-hours against each task in a more efficient way. Before QFM, if facilities staff spent five hours or ten hours doing a job no one questioned it. QFM allows us to put times against jobs, making our utilisation of people more efficient.’
The implementation of QFM hasn’t only resulted in a more efficient staff, but also more efficient equipment.
‘As a result of using QFM, we have found that equipment doesn’t break down so frequently, because instead of relying on reactive maintenance we can plan more proactively,’ says Callcut.
The fact that QFM can adapt to changing needs, ‘you can add bits later on, modularise it and build it up’ is something that also appeals to Callcut. And his firm has equally found Service Works Global responsive to the demand to add features to QFM that aren’t available as standard.
Callcut explains:
‘when we put in an asset at the moment it doesn’t allow us to depreciate the capital cost. Service Works Global is developing a depreciation module for us, so that when we’ve put the asset in the system, not only can we allocate a maintenance schedule against it, but we can also calculate monthly and annual depreciation.’
Being able to record an asset’s financial lifetime expectancy is key for MAEL. ‘Then we’ll know when the item’s written off, when it has no value. And conversely if we want to sell it on, then QFM will highlight its book value.’
The ability to network QFM across a company’s different sites is something that MAE might well consider in the future. For now, the software runs from the company’s main Luton base and then, as Callcut explains, ‘records are sent here from other locations for asset register updates.’ Plans are however afoot to expand QFM into MAEL’s Manchester site where it has a large aircraft hanger.
The airline industry might have seen some dramatic changes in MAEL’s 35 year history – not least a burgeoning customer base to support, but MAEL’s responsibility has been the same throughout - to ‘satisfy the CAA and customers that equipment used to service aircraft is maintained to a regulated standard and that support equipment is correctly calibrated and fit for the purpose’.
With QFM on board, the company is doing just that.