MRO Software & Processes for Manufacturing Operations

Overview

Increase the Visibility, Control, and Efficiency of your MRO Operations.

Solumina Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) by iBase-t delivers new levels of visibility, control, and efficiency to aerospace & defense sustainment. Pulling in data from PLM and ERP systems and integrating seamlessly with Solumina MES, it streamlines the maintenance, repair, and rebuilding of complex systems and units. By replacing paper-based processes and siloed applications with Solumina MRO, sustainment providers gain a powerful set of benefits.

Gains Driven by
Solumina MRO

- Utilize as-designed and as-built specifications to improve planning and execution efficiency
- Streamline workflows, traceability, and efficiency
- Embed quality across your operations

Manage maintenance execution in a consistent, repeatable way to minimize risk and downtime
Standardize and enforce best practices
Break down siloes and weave disparate digital threads into a digital cloth

Solumina MRO by iBase-t

Digitally transform your sustainment execution with Solumina MRO.

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Introduction to Solumina MRO

What Does a Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) System Do?

Solumina MRO supports the execution of maintenance, repair, and rebuilding of complex assets – from engines to airframes, replaceable components and more.

MRO is critical for complex systems and units, which come with a lifetime of scheduled maintenance, repairs, upgrades, or overhauls. However, managing MRO execution in this industry comes with unique challenges – from tracking thousands of parts to keeping up with manual revisions and ensuring regulatory compliance. Traditional paper-based processes simply aren’t up to the challenge.

Solumina MRO software eliminates the pains associated with paper, centralizing all information in a single digital platform that improves data accuracy and reduces turnaround time. It improves daily MRO operations, enabling continuous improvement by standardizing and enforcing best practices and quality processes. It transforms the tracking of component removal and installation with as-maintained traceability.

Weave Digital Threads Into a Digital Cloth

Complex products experience a lifetime of maintenance and repair activities after delivery, including upgrades.

An MRO solution creates a digital record of these activities, allowing manufacturers to create a holistic digital cloth from their digital threads. To succeed in weaving a digital cloth that best supports complex manufacturing, particularly when sustainment is critical to program success, manufacturers should look for:

Ability to share 3D models via STEP and 3D PDF
Ability to share maintenance materials via standards like S1000D
Connectivity to leading ERP applications prevalent in MRO industries
Support for industry service standards such as FAA A, B, C and D Checks
Ability to handle field-level, depot-level, and factory-level repair/refurbishment sequences

Getting Started

Five Steps to Implement Digital Transformation in MRO Operations

Achieving a more complete digital thread across all involved systems is not always easy. It requires careful planning, investment in the right tools and technologies, and a commitment to change.

Here are some key steps businesses can take to successfully implement digital transformation of MRO operations:

1. Assess your current systems and processes: The first step is to identify areas where digital transformation can have the most significant impact. This may involve conducting a thorough review of your existing MRO operations, including data collection and analysis, asset management, maintenance scheduling, and more.

2. Develop a comprehensive digital strategy: A digital strategy is essential for successful digital transformation. It should include a clear roadmap for implementation, as well as goals and objectives for improving efficiency, reliability, and profitability.

3. Invest in the right tools and technologies: To implement digital transformation, businesses need to invest in software, integration, and even digitally enabled devices such as sensors where warranted. This may require a significant investment upfront, but the long-term benefits can far outweigh the costs.

4. Train your employees: Digital transformation requires a significant cultural shift, and businesses need to invest in training their employees to use new tools and technologies.

5. Monitor and measure your progress: Effective monitoring ensures that digital transformation efforts are having the desired impact. The right systems can help by collecting and analyzing data on key performance indicators such as maintenance costs, asset uptime, and productivity.

Industries

Industries served by
Solumina MRO

Solumina MRO was specifically designed for industries built around complex products with multiple levels of sub-assemblies.

While a broad range of industries can benefit from Solumina MRO, it is especially beneficial for critical environments involving complex products.

Major industries that benefit from Solumina MRO include:

Aerospace & Defense (A&D)

Ensuring the safety and airworthiness of aircraft and other vehicles is a complex task that extends through its lifetime. Solumina MRO enables A&D sustainment providers to gain a competitive edge by making their MRO processes more efficient.

Shipbuilding

Large sea vessels come with demands similar to aircraft. There are many areas that need 100% reliability, such as navigation, propulsion, and electrical systems that will cost commercial profits if they fail. Solumina MRO helps shipbuilders optimize their MRO processes in these conditions.

Industrial Equipment

Solumina MRO supports the maintenance of equipment like industrial gas turbines and other highly valuable machinery with long lifecycles. Some common industrial equipment that can benefit from Solumina software includes compressors, pumps, valves, and turbines.

Nuclear

Some of the most complex assets and facilities can be found in the nuclear industry. Nuclear fusion reactors and the facilities that house them require exhaustive and customized maintenance. When there is no room for error, Solumina MRO helps ensure efficiency and accuracy.

Electronics

All of the above industries use electronics in the form of delicate sensors, electromechanical components, and more. Solumina MRO supports the unique maintenance tasks and tracking that these critical electronics require.

Solumina MRO in Aviation

Solumina MRO helps drive continuous improvement in the aviation industry.

Rising demand for air travel, paired with major backlogs in the production of new aircraft, is increasing the need to maintain older aircraft for longer periods. Amid this increased demand, sustainment providers must grapple with strict compliance and quality standards as well as razor-thin profit margins.

To meet the complex demands of sustainment in the aviation industry, you need MRO software designed for these conditions. Solumina MRO helps aviation service providers with:

MRO Software Continues to Be a Critical Tool to Manage the Many Costs and Risks Associated with Aviation Maintenance and Overhaul

The aviation industry’s growth in this complex environment requires MRO software that enable enterprises to keep up with these conditions. Download our white paper, Six Innovation Areas in Digital MRO, to learn more.

Features

Processes Transformed by
Solumina MRO

Whether you are an OEM managing your own sustainment or dedicated MRO service provider, Solumina MRO delivers robust functionality that supports and improves a large range of operations in complex sustainment.

Complex Disassembly & Reassembly

Detailed part tracking streamlines disassembly, reconditioning, and reassembly of complex products.

Repair

Manage repairs – and help prevent failures by detecting when equipment is out of acceptable performance ranges.

Retro-commissioning

Improve the performance of existing equipment and facilities by upgrading and modernizing components and systems.

Rebuild or Overhaul

Disassemble and inspect machinery and systems to identify defective, damaged, or worn parts.

Scheduled Maintenance

Optimize scheduled maintenance activities to ensure cost-effective operation and acceptable performance ranges.

Supplier Quality Management

Improve visibility and control over supplier quality to reduce total costs and improve efficiency.

Featured Resource

“iBase-t’s software solution for Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) operations enables new levels of visibility, productivity and reliability for complex, discrete manufacturers and MRO shops.”

Brochures

Solumina MRO Brochure

Solumina Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) by iBase-t enables new levels of visibility, productivity, and reliability in the sustainment of complex assets.

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Benefits

Benefits Of Solumina MRO

Solumina helps sustainment service providers increase throughput and maintain profit margins.

In an increasingly competitive industry, Solumina MRO enables sustainment providers to optimize resource management, expedite turnaround times, and record every step for compliance and monitoring. Additional benefits include:

Enhanced Productivity

Increase throughput
Streamline planned and non-planned work processes
Utilize as-designed and as-built specifications to improve planning and execution efficiency
Provide technicians with online work orders containing illustrated instructions, 3D models, specifications, tooling and parts lists, and inspection requirements

Real-Time Visibility

Collect high-quality data in real time
Track tooling, parts, and resources
Collaborate seamlessly with manufacturing and procurement teams
Provide real-time insight into key indicators of performance, work order status, and resources
Gain visibility into consumption of supplies and tooling

Process Improvements

Minimize manual processes, reducing redundant data entry and clerical errors
Implement changes to manuals and regulatory directives in real-time, preventing misguided work
Reduce risk and downtime with consistent MRO processes
Standardize and enforce best practices

Embedded Quality Control

Record a full history of each step, how it was completed and by whom
Prompt technicians and inspectors to electronically sign work completion and approvals with required certifications
Use Corrective Actions to manage investigation, root-cause analysis, and resolution of quality and compliance issues
Utilize sustainment data to improve the design process

Automated Compliance Documentation

Automatically log all data collection and approvals into history and storage at every step
Integrate CAPA processes that can handle complex problems and solutions
Use compliance as a tool for process improvement
Ensure that only certified mechanics perform specified work steps and that only calibrated gauges are used

Advanced Technologies

Advanced MRO Technologies

Supporting the MRO Workforce of Tomorrow

Digital MRO solutions are effective in their own right, but they are strengthened considerably when working within a broadly connected infrastructure that supports integration with the latest emerging technologies – from augmented reality and robotics to artificial intelligence.

Solumina MRO delivers out-of-the-box integration capabilities that allow manufacturers to seize these opportunities and transform the latest technologies into their competitive edge.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a maturing technology that can help harness the vast amounts of data produced by complex sustainment processes. By analyzing the maintenance data in Solumina, AI could identify trends in the type and frequency of overhaul or modifications needed for specific assets, enabling predictive maintenance scheduling and execution. It could also recommend additional services, flag recurring issues, and even identify design flaws. This could lead to more proactive, efficient MRO execution and improved asset reliability.

Augmented Reality & Wearables

Augmented Reality (AR) software, often used in combination with wearable devices, can streamline sustainment by providing visual instructions for work processes. Wearables allow technicians to view these instructions and collect data handsfree and untethered from their computer station, so they can work wherever needed. This can deliver a range of benefits, from streamlining work processes to reducing training time.

Smart Devices

Smart tools and devices are key elements of Industry 4.0 manufacturing and sustainment. Smart machinery enables continuous improvement and process optimization. It gives visibility into quality analysis with a wealth of data generated during use. The more connected the environment becomes, the more benefits it gains. When all devices are connected in real time, data can trigger activities and alert workers instantly, delivering agility to quickly adapt to any issue that arises.

3D Printing

3D printing is increasingly being adopted by manufacturers and sustainment providers to save money and reduce the impact of supply chain disruptions. By 3D printing components, MRO providers can efficiently produce unique parts for one-of-a-kind systems without depending upon suppliers. Solumina’s support for out-of-the-box integration with CNC machines and other equipment can provide better visibility into how effectively additive manufacturing and maintenance is enhancing MRO operations.

Solumina MRO for Complex Sustainment

For discrete manufacturers that handle their own sustainment, Solumina MRO is natively integrated with Solumina MES, providing the interdepartmental functionality that’s needed in the most demanding environments.

The Solumina Manufacturing Operations Platform combines planning and scheduling, resource management, quality management, manufacturing execution and sustainment in a single, integrated system. As a result, complex manufacturers can holistically manage production, quality, MRO, and the associated supply chain.

Solumina MRO is also ready for the future. It provides the infrastructure needed to implement advanced capabilities such as AI, augmented reality, IoT connectivity, and more. In short, Solumina MRO is ready to help power the next generation of Industry 4.0 sustainment.

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MRO

Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul