Creating maintenance budget forecast

You can create a maintenance budget forecast for a maximum of twelve years, for a sub fleet, aircraft model or an aircraft, in this page.

• Select "Create Forecast" under the "Create Maintenance Budget Forecast" business component.

The "Create Maintenance Budget Forecast" page appears.

• Enter the following fields in the "Search Criteria" group box, to search for an aircraft for which you wish to generate a maintenance budget forecast. Data entry in the following fields is optional:

• Click the Search pushbutton to retrieve the search results.

Note: The system retrieves the aircraft registration number based on the search criteria, only if the aircraft registration number is mapped to a sub fleet.

The system displays the following in the Search Results multiline:

Note: If all the fields in the search criteria are left blank, or if both the sub fleet number and the aircraft model number are entered, then the system displays all the aircraft registration numbers, aircraft models and the sub fleet numbers defined for the login organization unit, in the specified order.

Note: If either the sub fleet number or the aircraft model number is entered, the system displays the sub fleet number or the aircraft model number as the first row in the multiline, and the associated aircraft registration numbers in the subsequent rows.

Note: The system displays the total number of aircraft, only if the identifier is sub fleet or aircraft model.

Note: The system displays the “Average Flight Hours”, “Configuration Class”, “Model type”, “Aircraft Type” and the “Aircraft Ownership” details, only if the identifier is aircraft registration number.

• Enter the following field:

• Check the box in the Select column of the multiline to select the sub fleet, aircraft model or aircraft, for generating the forecast.

Note: Ensure that atleast one record is selected in the multiline.

• Click the "Create Forecast" pushbutton to generate the maintenance budget forecast.

The system generates a maintenance budget forecast at the aircraft level, considering the user-defined forecast duration.

Note: A scheduler must be run at regular time intervals to update the actual scheduled and unscheduled work unit count and the cost incurred on the scheduled/unscheduled work units, in the data warehouse.

The system performs the following on clicking the “Create Forecast” pushbutton:

• Considers the system date, as the forecast start date. If the forecast is generated in the middle of the month, the start date of the month will be considered as the forecast start date.

For example, if the current system date is 10 Jan 2005, the forecast start date will be considered as 01 Jan 2005.

• Calculates the forecast end date, by considering the user-defined forecast duration, from the start date.

Note: If the forecast is done for a model or a sub fleet, the system computes the start date and the end date for each aircraft associated with the model or sub fleet.

• Retrieves all the “Active” work units that are associated with the aircraft and with the components attached to the aircraft, from the “Aircraft Maintenance Program” and the “Component Maintenance Program” business components.

Note: If the forecast is done for a model or a sub fleet, the system identifies all the “Active” aircraft maintenance programs associated with each aircraft that belongs to the selected sub fleet or model, and also identifies all the "Active" component maintenance programs associated with all the components attached to each aircraft. The system forecasts all the "Active" work units associated with the identified aircraft maintenance programs and component maintenance programs.

• Resets the schedule dates of the precluded work units as identified in the "Aircraft Maintenance Program" or "Component Maintenance Program" business components, whenever a superceding work unit is executed.

Note: A significant number of work units are precluded by superceding work units, which when executed, fulfill the requirements of the precluded work units, in the "Aircraft Maintenance Program" or "Component Maintenance Program" business components.

For example, if a '300 Hour Inspection' work unit fulfills the requirements of a '100 Hour Inspection' work unit, then the '300 Hour Inspection' work unit would be set as the superceding work unit of the '100 Hour Inspection' work unit. In this case, each time the '300 Hour Inspection' work unit is executed, the next schedule dates of the '100 Hour Inspection' work unit will be reset based on the compliance date of the '300 Hour Inspection' work unit.

Note: The component-related work units will not be forecasted, if the components attached to the aircraft whose maintenance cost is forecasted, have reached their ultimate life value.

Date-based schedule forecasting

Note: The system retrieves the date-based schedule value for the aircraft/component work units, from the corresponding aircraft maintenance program / component maintenance program.

Parameter-based forecasting

Note: The system retrieves the usage parameter utilization value and the next schedule value for the aircraft/component related work units from the corresponding aircraft maintenance program / component maintenance program.

Cost Details

• Retrieves the parameters for computation of material cost and resource cost from the "Maintenance Task", "Aircraft Maintenance Program" or "Component Maintenance Program" business component for scheduled work units, and from unscheduled work orders or "Flight Log" business component for unscheduled work units.

Note: If the “Labour Productivity” is set as “Considered” in the “Set Options” activity, then the “Productivity” and the “Multiplication Factor” specified in the option settings will be considered for computation of resource cost.

Note: The unscheduled work units are considered for budget forecasting only when the “Historical Period for Unscheduled Cost Calculation” is specified in the “Set Options” activity.  If the historical period is specified, the resource and the material costs will be computed as the ratio between the costs incurred on scheduled and unscheduled work units. 

For example, if the "Historical Period for Unscheduled Cost Calculation" is 5 years, the cumulative labor time for scheduled work units is 20,000 man hours and unscheduled work units is 30,000 man hours, it is assumed that for every 2 hours of estimated scheduled labor time there would be 3 hours of unscheduled labor time. The resource cost will be computed in the ratio of 2:3.

Similarly for material cost computation,

If the "Historical Period for Unscheduled Cost Calculation" is 5 years, the cumulative material cost incurred on standard work units is 1000$ and unscheduled work units is 2,000$, its is assumed that for every 1$ spent on scheduled material requirements, there would be 2$ spent on unscheduled material requirements. The material cost will be computed in the ratio of 1:2.

Note: If “Labour Productivity” is set as “Considered” in the “Set Options” activity, then the system considers the labor productivity and the multiplication factor for labor productivity, for computing labor costs.

Click here for a Case Study (1) on cost computation details, if Part and Resource Requirements are assigned for a work unit in the “Maintenance Task” business component.

Click here for a Case Study (2) on cost computation details, if Part and Resource Requirements are not assigned for a work unit in the “Maintenance Task” business component.

Computation of scheduled resource cost

The resource cost estimated against each scheduled work unit which can be a task, standard procedure or a work package, is computed based on the resource hours and skill rate. The resource hours is retrieved from the “Maintenance Task” business component for work units of type task and standard procedure, and from “Aircraft Maintenance Program”, “Component Maintenance Program” business components for aircraft/component related work units of type work package.

Note: While computing the scheduled resource cost, the cost for each skill will be identified separately as the product of the resource hours, skill rate and estimated numbers, and the individual costs will be added to find the total scheduled resource cost.

Computation of scheduled material cost

The material cost estimated against each scheduled work unit which can be a task, standard procedure or a work package, is computed based on the material requirements recorded for the work unit.  The material requirements is retrieved from the “Maintenance Task” business component for work units of type task and standard procedure and from “Aircraft Maintenance Program”, “Component Maintenance Program” business components for aircraft/component related work units of type work package.

Case Study - 1

Part and Resource Requirements are assigned for a work unit in the “Maintenance Task” business component.

* Total Maintenance Cost  = Total Scheduled Cost + Total Unscheduled Cost.

Case A: Scheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Case B: Unscheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Case C: Scheduled and unscheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Case D: Scheduled and unscheduled work unit reporting is available for the historical period.

Note: In Case D, the forecasted unscheduled resource cost is computed as the product of the ratio between the unscheduled and scheduled resource cost for the specified historical period, and the total scheduled resource cost, where,

For Example, if the scheduled resource cost is 150$, the unscheduled resource cost is 300$ and the total scheduled resource cost is 65$, then,

Unscheduled Resource Cost       =    (300/150) * 65 = 130.

Note: Similarly, the unscheduled material cost is computed as product of the ratio between the unscheduled and scheduled material cost for the specified historical period, and the total scheduled material cost, where,

For example, if the scheduled material cost is 1000$, the unscheduled material cost is 500$ and the total scheduled material cost is 1000$, then,

Unscheduled Material Cost            =    (500/1000) * 1000 = 500.

Case Study - 2

Part and Resource Requirements have not been assigned for a Work Unit in the “Maintenance Task” business component.

* Total Maintenance Cost  = Total Scheduled Cost + Total Unscheduled Cost.

Case A: Scheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Case B: Unscheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Note: In Case B, the scheduled cost incurred on the work units for the historical period will be considered as the unscheduled cost for the historical period, as the part and resource requirements are not assigned for the work units, in the “Maintenance Task” business component.

Case C: Scheduled and unscheduled work unit reporting for the historical period is zero.

Case D: Scheduled and unscheduled work unit reporting is available for the historical period.

Note: In Case D, the unscheduled resource cost is computed as the sum of the scheduled resource cost and the unscheduled resource cost that correspond to the specified historical period, where,

Similarly, the unscheduled material cost is computed as the sum of the scheduled material cost and the unscheduled material cost that correspond to the specified historical period, where,