Parts Inventory
MRO Case Study

This digital dashboard puts repair information, signatures and recordings just a click away. Time spent searching for bulky manuals and forms is gone. All your inspectors and mechanics need for an engine overhaul is at their fingertips. Inspector sign off. BOM explosions, manuals, pictures, and tooling required is all on one screen in front of the right person right now.

Jet Engine Repair & Overhaul - more than Rocket Science

Not many businesses disassemble their product then re-make it. AeroThrust, an FAA repair station, starts the jet engine remanufacturing process with complete disassembly, followed by cleaning, inspection, repair, reassembly and finally testing. The AeroThrust plant spans a city block and contains several hundred mechanics and inspectors working on over 20 engines at a time. Tracking of paperwork is important. By the way, the individual parts must be replaced on the same engine they came from. No swapping of parts is allowed.

Problem:
Parts were being misplaced! Labor increased and schedules slipped while workers hunted for the missing part. Some of these parts cost upwards of $40,000 new and $20,000 used and take weeks to procure. The old system required the part be “moved” with a user entry on a hand held device noting the operation the part was “moved” to. Each operation was assigned a work center. The user could not “move” a part to a work center not listed on the router for the part.

Be Real:
How could this fail? First, the user could “move” the part to the wrong operation electronically while delivering the part to the correct operation. The RF device is unaware of where the user is standing. Second, a conscientious worker could expedite the part based on a needed repair not listed on the router. Various scenarios exist but all yield a physical VS electronic disconnect on the part location.

Solution:
Use a cheap bar code scanner and long cord. Connect the scanner to a PC already in the shop via USB. Map every PC to the work center(s) that the PC is physically near. Disable the scanner keyboard wedge feature. Write a VB.NET program that starts at login polling the USB port for a scan. Process every scan. Anyone can grab scan a part without interruption to the keyboard user. The VB.NET program connects to the Progress® Appserver upon scanning and moves the part or records its location if the movement is unexpected as misplaced. Queue scans if the Appserver is unavailable.