Hangar Work Order – An overview

The scheduled maintenance is structured into two basic categories – heavy maintenance and light maintenance. Light maintenance activities do not require prolonged grounding and can be carried out during normal halts of aircraft; these are performed at the line stations. Heavy maintenance activities are extensive, requiring prolonged grounding of aircraft. These are less frequent as compared to line activities, and are typically executed in “Hangars”, where the requisite facilities are available.

Work order represents the authority to execute the stated maintenance activity on the maintenance object (aircraft or component). The document carries all information pertaining to the maintenance activity(s) to be executed; it acts as a communication by the planner/technician to the execution personnel. A work order is typically associated with a single responsibility center – the work center- that is responsible for its execution. The hangar maintenance execution process is triggered by the allocation of the aircraft “visit package” by the central production planner to the respective execution facility. The visit planner at the execution center firms up the work scope, plans material and resources and releases work orders to all the work centers which are involved in the execution of the maintenance activities on the aircraft.

The planners for the respective work centers undertake detailed execution planning and the material requirements are communicated through “material requisitions”. Employees, work group and facilities are identified and maintenance jobs are allocated. Non–routine discrepancies reported during the course of work execution are processed into corrective work orders.

Getting familiar with the activities inside