5,400 technicians worldwide to use new technology for maintenance efficiency, boost on-time departures
Burlington, MA — September 13, 2004 — United Airlines today said it has entered into a long-term agreement with aftermarket service and support technology provider Enigma Inc.
United said it will use the Enigma 3C Platform to deliver service and parts information for its entire fleet of aircraft in real-time to its 5,400 Aviation Maintenance Technicians (AMT) around the world. United Airlines said the Web-based solution is expected to reduce overall fixed costs and improve on-time departures by optimizing aircraft maintenance.
The global implementation, based on Enigma 3C Version 8 Release 2, will be deployed via the Web to streamline the distribution of more than 100 service manuals and parts catalogs. Enigma said it will replace existing electronic and paper-based systems currently used by technicians to repair and service United Airlines' fleet.
Implementation of the multi-year e-maintenance solution is a joint effort among United Services and United's information technology (IT) organization, as well as Enigma's services group. Phase 1 of the project will be completed in Q4 of 2004.
United Services said its engineers and AMTs require access to a wide variety of maintenance information. The Enigma solution is a product encyclopedia that draws from more than one million pages of parts and service data, which includes the specific information the AMTs need to service a particular aircraft.
This product encyclopedia represents a combination of maintenance manuals, illustrated parts catalogs, service bulletins, engineering orders, technical revisions, customer-ordered changes and best practices covering all aircraft fleet types flown by United. As a result, both flight line and base maintenance activities will be accomplished faster and at less cost, according to Enigma.
Greg Hall, senior vice president, United Services, said that United Services — the maintenance and engineering division of United Airlines — is dedicated to implementing new technologies that enhance safety, improve efficiency and decrease operational costs. "Enigma's product gives us an important competitive edge by reducing the time it takes for our maintenance technicians to access critical information. This, in turn, allows us to provide the highest level of maintenance reliability performance to the airline, contributing to our competitive edge in customer satisfaction and record-breaking on-time performance," he explained. "It is also critically important to United Services as we drive toward becoming a leader in the aircraft [maintenance, repair and operations (MRO)] business, for United's fleet and for the fleets of our many customers around the world."
According to Greg Taylor, director of applications development at United, by leveraging the standards-based, n-tier architecture of Enigma 3C, United plans to tie the e-maintenance solution directly into existing business systems, including document management systems. "United will be able to manage and maintain the Enigma solution with internal resources, eliminating outside support costs and ensuring all business systems remain in compliance with appropriate federal and financial regulations," he said.
