CTL presents at ATOS/IMAPP® 2012 in the Netherlands
20 Jun 2012 - CTL were at the Technical University of Delft this week, to present at and to participate in ATOS2012 conference sessions on No Fault Found (NFF), and to support the future planning of industry-wide NFF initiatives.
The University was playing host to over 200 visitors to its annual Air Transport Operations Symposium, which also includes IMAPP®, the 2-yearly conference of the product support technical committees of the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics (AIAA). There are 2 of these technical committees active at present, focused on special purpose aircraft and on No Fault Found. The NFF sessions covered the presentation of academic papers, industry papers and industry presentations.
Following an introductory presentation by Lori Fischer, chair of the AIAA Product Support Technical Committees, Giles Huby, CTL Managing Director, provided an extremely well received ‘scene-setting’ presentation on the scale of industry-wide NFF problems through presenting the findings of CTL’s recent Aerospace No Fault Found survey. This work may in future be combined with that of the TU Delft’s aerospace engineering faculty to support follow-up survey work to elicit even more detail. If you would like a copy of the CTL NFF survey findings report then contact us now – details below.
Other members of the AIAA’s NFF Steering Committee also gave NFF presentations at the conference. Mitch Klink of FedEx, and deputy Chairman of the AMC, provided an extremely illuminating briefing on the ‘ship or shelf’ LRU quarantine programme that FedEx uses to generate NFF cost savings of over $2M per year. The programme ensures that LRUs which may have been speculatively replaced during maintenance are only sent for repair if it is confirmed that their replacement actually rectified the fault. Bernhard Meyer gave an in-depth presentation on how the ARINC672 document – Guidelines for the Reduction of NFF (2008) - was devised and how it can be implemented; a presentation which was neatly followed by Jim Saltigerald of Air Wisconsin, who explained the practicalities and benefits of actually implementing the processes stated in ARINC672.
The conference also provided excellent opportunities to see at first hand the wide range of Aerospace activity in the Netherlands, whether this was courtesy of a tour of the University’s Aerospace Faculty, or attending the conference’s other presentations on other air transport subject areas, or visiting KLM E&M’s aircraft MRO facilities at Schiphol Airport. During the KLM E&M visit this gave many of us a chance to get up close and personal with 747 aircraft undergoing C checks, including a guided tour of the workshops responsible for structures, crew seats and inflatable door-slides.
KLM E&M also sponsored a superb dinner for all the attendees at De Lindenhof restaurant, where prizes were awarded for the best academic and industry presentations, and where the attendees were serenaded by the electric guitar and Irish brogue of Ricky Curran, a senior aerospace lecturer from the University. Not something you see every day!
Overall the conference provided an outstanding opportunity for all those involved in AIAA’s NFF Steering Committee to meet up to discuss current initiatives in the world of NFF, to get involved in presenting at the conference sessions, and to plan the priorities and the way forward for the NFF Steering Committee. This includes plans to form working groups to review and refine ARINC672 , and a group to investigate the economics of NFF. Both threads of work are invaluable. To tackle NFF decisively you need a business case to do so and the tools to take it forward; and the business case for reducing NFF is inescapable provided you are collecting the data that genuinely quantifies the problem for you.
If you would like to know more about the AIAA NFF Steering Committee then contact us at CTL or liaise direct with the Chair-person, Lori Fischer. Lori can be reached via
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