Material Planning and Inventory Control

# Categories of Aircraft Spares

Primarily, aircraft parts can be divided into two categories:

1. Component
2. Consumable

Component :

Components that can be repaired, overhauled, and reused multiple times.

Examples include landing gear, avionics, engines, and instruments.
1) Rotable:

 Wheels • Brakes • Crew Oxygen Mask • Radar Transceiver • Flight

Attendant Handset • Altimeter

2) Repairable Parts:

 Oxygen Bottles • Main DC Power Battery • APU Starter, Electric • Fire

Detector • Lights

1. Consumable

1) Expendable Parts:
Expendable spares are items that are used once and then discarded.
Examples include disposable filters, tires, brake pads, and batteries.
2) Standard Parts:
Consumable spares are items that have a limited service life and are regularly
replaced during the replacement of a component or expendables.
Examples include nuts, bolts, washers, gaskets, O-rings, seals, and lubricants.

3) Bulk Material:

A list of consumable materials used in bulk in quantity It consists of oil, grease,

sealant, adhesive, coating, cleaning agent, fluid, compound, tape, etc. Most of the
bulk have a self-life. Hence, these products may be ordered on an as-needed basis

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to ensure adequate customer shelf life. Material code is the preferred method for
ordering bulk materials.

4) Raw Material
Selected materials that are likely to be consumed during general aircraft repair and
line maintenance activities Sheet, bar, tubing, honeycomb core, wire, etc. are
examples of raw materials.

Scrap Rate Scrap Rate Life-cycle

Rotable Negligible Asset, held on Indefinite
Repairable Between 0% firm’s books until Persists until scrap
and 100% surplus or scrap
Consumables 100%, one Consumable, Consumed at time
time use expensed at time of use
of issue

KITs:
KITs are those parts that contains few items inside for a particular maintenance
work. Example: Filter Kits, Engine Change Kits.

# RSPL:

A Recommended Spare Parts List (RSPL) is an authentic and customized

document provided by the manufacturers to the operators for efficient spare parts
planning. A manufacturer develops RSPL based on the operator's fleet size,
operating plan, and national variance.

Key points about a Recommended Spare Parts List (RSPL) include:

 Part Number
 Part Name
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  Manufacturer
 Budgetary price
 Spare Parts Class
 Essentiality code
 Phase provisioning
 MTBUR (mean time between unscheduled removals)
 Quantity per set: Quantity installed in aircraft
 Recommended quantity
 MEL Category

# Material Planning Tools:

In this section, we will discuss the basic concepts behind the provisioning of
aircraft spares and materials. The following are basic tools that need to be
considered before provisioning:

o Operational Goals
o Financial Constraints/budget
o Fleet size
o OEM recommendation
o User experience
o National variance
o Characteristics of aircraft parts.
o Base/Station Allocation
o Repair TAT (turnaround time)
o Operator Experience (similar fleet)

Sources for Spare Provisioning Data When beginning the spares provisioning
process, the inventory manager has a number of data sources to choose from for
part data. They include: data from the aircraft manufacturer; operational data from
another carrier with the same or similar fleet; data from an MRO (maintenance,
repair, and overhaul) partnering with the carrier for spares provisioning and
repair/overhaul or the data from industry experts or consultants.

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# Schedule and unscheduled maintenance planning.

Line Maintenance:
Line maintenance is the maintenance plan for the day-to-day maintenance of aircraft. It also covers the
unscheduled maintenance of aircraft.

- Frequency: Performed before or after each flight.

- Scope: These are routine, quick checks conducted by maintenance personnel at
airports between flights. They ensure that the aircraft is safe and in working order
for each flight.

Base Maintenance/ Schedule Maintenance/:

Scheduled checks of aircraft, often referred to as maintenance checks or
inspections, are essential for ensuring the safety, airworthiness, and reliability of
aircraft. These checks are conducted at predetermined intervals based on the
aircraft's type, usage, and regulatory requirements. Here are some common types
of scheduled aircraft checks:

1) A-Check:

Periodic maintenance of aircraft after 4-6 months or 800-1200 flight hour interval.
777/787: 1000 FH
737: 120 D
Dash -8: 6 months
Time duration: 2-4 days

Scope: A relatively quick inspection, it includes basic visual checks, fluid level
inspections, and servicing.

2) C. C-Check ( C1, C2, C3 ):

Interval- 2-5 years
777/787: 3 years
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737: 2 years
Dash-8: 5 years
Duration: 10-15 days
Scope: A detailed inspection and maintenance procedure that includes a thorough
examination of aircraft structures, systems, and components. It often involves
component replacements, painting, and extensive work.

3) Heavy Maintenance ( C4 / D-Check)

Interval : 8-12 years
777/787: 12 years
737: 8-12 years
Dash-8: 8 years

Duration: 45-60 days

Scope: The most extensive and time-consuming check, requiring several weeks to
months of downtime. It involves disassembling the aircraft to inspect and overhaul
nearly all its components and systems.
Besides the above schedule maintenance, there are some more schedule
maintenance items like engine overhaul, modification, etc. that are also part of the
schedule maintenance.

# Demand Priorities:

(I). A.O.G (Air craft on ground):

In the aviation world, AOG is the highest priority for demanding an item from the
warehouse for use on the aircraft or for procuring the item from the
manufacturer, vendor, or supplier due to stock not being available with the
operator. The time limit for satisfying an AOG order is 24 hours, or instant. In the
event that the item is not available from the manufacturer, other operators could
be requested for help. Aircraft production serial number, CAAB registration
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number, type of aircraft, etc. shall invariably be mentioned in all AOG demands.

(II). Critical Priority :

After the AOG, some of the operators or manufacturers use the critical priority.
This priority is used to impress a requirement that is running on concession and
may result in the grounding of the aircraft or the unserviceability of the
equipment. Priority justifications need to come from the user. Priority order
charges are generally higher than the normal cost, and charges for the material
follow-up action and other treatments will be given to the critical priority in
meeting the target, as in the case of AOG. The time limit for satisfying critical
orders is 3–7 days, or the earliest possible time.

(III) I.O.R:

IOR priority means immediate operational requirement. This is the priority, which
is graded after the AOG and is critical. The provisionary, keeping in view the
consumption trend of an item, may decide to upgrade an outstanding order to
IOR. The time limit for satisfying an IOR order is 15–30 days. The first follow-up
action will be taken after 7 days from the date of placement or upgrade of an
order. Such follow-up action will continue at a 7-day clear interval or even earlier,
depending on the delivery status received from the supplier. If the target of 30
days fails, the consumer will be consulted for upgrading priority.

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# Reorder Process
Consumables:

In the case of new set-up items, demand is raised based on data derived from
material planning tools.

In the case of setup items, demand should be raised as per AMU (average monthly
use) depending on the annual consumption of that particular item. As an example,
if the consumption of a particular item is 6,000 units and the monthly use is 500
units, the provisioning formula in that case would be as follows:

Part Res/Rep
AMU Order Qty Order Points
No. time

AMU X Rep 500X12=6000 units

Times, 500X8=4000 units
X 500 4 Months
500X 4=2000 500X6 = 3000 units
units. 500X4=2000 units

By the application of the above provisioning formula for ‘X’ item, we observe that
the maximum stock holding level is 12 months and so the initial indent will be
released for quantity 6000 i.e. AMU 500x12 months = 6000 units. The cyclic
demand on reaching to order points will be calculated and released.

Suppose quantity 6000 received in stock and consumption started according to

AMU. Release the 1st re-order demand when the stock reaches to quantity 4000
or 3000 or 2000 based operator’s inventory policy.

In addition to above formula re-order points depends of the shelf life of the items
and availability in the market.

Components:

Initially the spare float of Component items determined based on the date of
material planning tools. After that re-order is placed against an BER/SCRAP unit .

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