How Five Aerospace Companies Are Using IFS Software

Lindsay Bjerregaard

Latam Airlines

As Latin America’s largest airline, Latam wanted to capitalize on its longstanding relationship with IFS by partnering with the software provider to create the new Maintenix Line Planner application. According to Robert Fischer, Latam’s director of IT, the airline came to IFS first about the partnership and now has the advantage of implementing Line Planner’s functionality months before its commercial launch. The application, which is meant to optimize efficiency of planning for line maintenance, has been in use at Latam since September 2017. IFS has leveraged users at Latam for rapid feedback and iteration, making tweaks as necessary.

Diego Paredes, Latam’s deputy manager of continuous improvement, says the airline has seen a host of benefits since Line Planner’s implementation, including improved efficiency and the ability to define a specific day at the station in one click, which allows more time to make better decisions, improve planning and reduce operational risk.

TAE Aerospace

Fountx

As the largest engine MRO in Australia, TAE Aerospace provides a large variety of products and services to customers all over the globe. To meet different customer requirements and international regulatory compliance, the company needed to find a single ERP system to pool its various divisions and requirements into one system. Starting in 2012, TAE implemented IFS Applications and has been using its functionality for maintenance, document management, supply chain, engineering and more.

Working with IFS, the company has also found a way to integrate IFS Applications with its Fountx assisted reality system. Technicians using Fountx remotely are able to log jobs, use voice commands for tasks and input photographic evidence and validation. According to TAE Aerospace, benefits of IFS Applications include having a single integrated solution across all sites, improved business visibility and streamlined workflow management. The software has also helped TAE Aerospace stay in compliance with International Traffic in Arms Regulation (ITARS), Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Defence Aviation Safety Authority (DASA).

Southwest Airlines

Southwest Airlines is currently in the process of implementing IFS Maintenix in its Tech Ops organization, which will be used to manage fleet compliance for the airline's 737-700 fleet. This will include configuration control, compliance status and procedural controls while also streamlining business processes and increasing digital document usage, according to Southwest. The airline expects the Maintenix implementation to enhance visibility and provide greater control over increasing aircraft capabilities and complexity. Southwest's goal is to go live with the Maintenix front end system in the first half of next year.

Portsmouth Aviation

Lindsay Bjerregaard/Aviation Week

UK-based aerospace and defense provider Portsmouth Aviation is one of IFS' early adopters for IFS Applications 10. The company is using the software for functionality such as cryptographic document signatures, which it says is important for security concerns within defense. Simon Vaughan, Portsmouth Aviation's IFS manager, says the biggest wins so far with using IFS Applications 10 have been ease of user experience, real-time data availability and "having a single version of truth."

Tsunami Tsolutions

Lindsay Bjerregaard/Aviation Week

Tsunami Tsolutions, which just won the IFS 2018 Partner of the Year Award, has been working with IFS Maintenix for more than a decade. The company, which focuses heavily on aerospace, provides IT support within a variety of industries-including supporting IFS products for multiple customers.

According to Matthew Atwater, Tsunami Tsolutions CEO, the company handles everything from being the primary users of Maintenix for customers to providing conversion, reporting and processing of data from the system. Atwater says it boils down to helping customers get the information they need from Maintenix. According to IFS, Tsunami Tsolutions has successfully built more than 25 integrations of the company's software solutions since joining the IFS Partner Network in 2017.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider IFS launched a number of new products this week at the 2018 IFS World Conference in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to the rollout of IFS Applications 10, which contains more than 500 new capabilities, IFS launched Maintenix Fleet Planner and Maintenix Line Planner. Fleet Planner, which focuses on long-range planning for heavy maintenance activities, was co-developed and launched with American Airlines. Line Planner, which aims to help planners create, maintain and communicate line maintenance plans more efficiently, was co-developed in partnership with Latam Airlines.

At the three-day conference, a number of aerospace and defense companies shared their experiences with implementing IFS software products. Read on to find out more about how the software is being used across the industry.