Download This Article (PDF - 628Kb)| Increasing economic and regulatory pressures make it imperative for airlines to find opportunities to reduce costs and show conformance to manufacturer’s data. Because airline maintenance operations represent a significant cost, airlines have asked Boeing for help in reducing this cost. Recent results show that changing the way service bulletins are prepared and delivered — combined with airline process improvements — can reduce maintenance cost significantly and improve the ability to show conformance. |
by Mark Baker, Tim Dowling, Tony Gruhn, Willard Martinez, Tom Madejski, Dan Pedersen and Don Rockwell, Service Bulletin Engineering |
Boeing has continually made enhancements to the content, format, and delivery of its service bulletins. Past enhancements include digital delivery, simplified English, and tabular work instructions.
Boeing has been working directly with airlines to reduce end-to-end costs for service bulletin incorporation. During this process, it was observed that when airlines create their engineering orders, they rewrite or reengineer service bulletins and rekit or repackage the kit of parts to match their own engineering orders. This reengineering causes unnecessary delays and expense for the airlines in implementing service bulletins.
Boeing developed the “Enhanced Service Bulletin,” also known as the “Next Generation Service Bulletin,” to minimize this reengineering effort while making it easier and less expensive to implement service bulletins. The enhanced service bulletin, in conjunction with airline process improvements, will enable a smooth workflow ensuring that information, parts, and tools are staged in a coordinated manner to support the mechanic during service bulletin incorporation.
Boeing’s enhanced service bulletins incorporate four key features: lean work instructions, faster access to essential information, improved kit packaging, and selective information extraction. These features have been incrementally introduced into Boeing service bulletins as they became available beginning in mid 2003. Today, Boeing develops all new service bulletins to encompass all four features whenever possible.Download This Article (PDF - 628Kb)
