Embraer Health Management Systems Boost Reliability

Aircraft Health Management Systems (AHMS) are, quite simply, systems that will detect faults before they occur, allowing sufficient time to accomplish preventive maintenance and avoid avoid unscheduled interruptions. But with increasing complexity and “big data” for analysis, AHMS's offer much more in terms of capabilities. Benefits The benefits of AHMS can be significant, and focus on increased fleet availability. By averting unscheduled maintenance and prioritizing preventive maintenance than waiting for a component to fail, degrading systems can be detected and multiple delays and cancellations avoided. The revenue and cost impacts to airlines can be substantial. During a visit to Embraer in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, we had the opportunity to discuss the experience achieved with their E-Jet fleet and the new enhancements that will be incorporated on the E-Jets E2 that will enter service in 2018. The E-Jet system has provided significant benefits to operators since the advanced monitoring systems were introduced. Embraer’s Capabilities With the E2-Jets, Embraer will be moving to its second generation of AHMS, introducing the AHEAD-PRO software for its airline customers. AHEAD-PRO is a web-based platform used to monitor the health of E-Jets, providing timely maintenance data in an easy to use format. Major features include fault anticipation, with the system receiving failure information in real time from the Engine-indicating and Crew Alerting System (“EICAS”) and Central Maintenance Computer (“CMC”) messages. Each message is also automatically linked to the appropriate page of Embraer’s troubleshooting publications. Embraer presented an example of how the system works on an illustrative flight, as shown in the diagram below: In the example above, a Reactive Maintenance Action, not triggered by health management, would likely have the following sequence. Without an HMS alert, maintenance would likely begin at 12:00pm, and the next flight would be delayed. 08:00 Aircraft departs from MAD 09:18 An EICAS message, inhibited during flight, i.e. with no action required from flight crew, is triggered. 11:00 Aircraft lands at VIE and ENG 1 NO DISPATCH becomes active 11:05 Aircraft arrives at the gate & Pilot reports the failure 11:15 Technician arrives at the gate 11:20 Technician contacts MCC with correlated Maint. Message 12:00 Maintenance action starts (T/S, parts & Technician) With the HMS alert, maintenance would begin much sooner, reducing the delay and helping to maintain the schedule: 08:00 Aircraft departs from MAD 09:18 An EICAS message, inhibited during flight, i.e. with no action required from flight crew, is triggered. 09:20 The EICAS + Maint. Message is available for MCC 09:50 Maintenance plan is ready (T/S, parts & technician) 11:00 Aircraft lands at VIE 11:05 Aircraft arrives at the gate 11:10 Maintenance action starts (T/S, parts & technician) In this scenario, nearly an hour is saved through the alert processes of the AHMS. The savings from eliminating a delay or cancellation fall straight to the bottom line. One of the more advanced features of the system is that the alerts include a fault code, that can automatically open the correct page within Embraer’s technical publications to immediately provide the relevant information to technicians on site. This also provides time savings and the ability to have technicians review their maintenance procedure prior to the arrival of the aircraft. Fleet Monitoring Embraer’s AHEAD-PRO system is quite visual, with red, yellow, and green indicators indicating a level of severity, as shown in the image below. This illustrative example page has a lot more red and yellow than was actually being experienced in the real-time customer service center in Sao Jose dos Campos. The red means that the aircraft needs to execute an action before next flight and the yellow means that the aircraft can be available for next flight with restrictions (MEL item). This allows an airline’s operations control center to immediately be aware of immediate and potential problems, and take appropriate actions when a situation requires it. The yellow means that a CAS message, related to a MEL item, was active during flight. This is accomplished through the analysis of fleet-wide data, and the development of parameters and measurement conditions that indicate a potential failure. Statistical analyses enable the calculation of alert and critical action levels for pre-emptive parts changes, enabling an airline to schedule maintenance during an overnight stop or to re-route an aircraft through a maintenance base to conduct preventive maintenance and avoid an AOG. the color indication is solely based on triggered EICAS message during flight. With adequate time for maintenance planning, this can enable the airline to not only avoid AOG situations, but also balance maintenance workloads based on the criticality of actions required. Let’s examine some of the results Behind the scenes, however, benefits accrue. Maintenance workloads can be balanced, with fewer AOG situations that interrupt normal workflow and impair productivity. In addition, inventories can be optimized through close monitoring of component performance, planning for high value items in advance of failures, and addressing no fault found “NFF” problems through data analysis. The health monitoring experience for E-Jets has shown substantial impact since it began in June 2010. About 60% of the E-Jet fleet uses AHEAD-PRO. (note: AHEAD-PRO is available for current E-Jets and will be adapted for E-Jets E2 fleet. There will be a single tool to support both fleets.) Similarly, after health management began, unscheduled rotable removals began to drop significantly - although an initial increase resulted from pending failures not previously detected before falling to a more normal level, as shown in the chart below. These two charts are excellent examples of the promise e-Enablement should offer. Advanced Capabilities for the E2 Jets The E-Jets E2 have been designed specifically to work with advanced diagnostics, and include several important features. The monitored parameters are available on the avionics bus, and can be recorded for later analysis or processed and sent in real time to the airline. The aircraft features both in-flight and on-ground automatic bi-directional communications, and the aircraft transmission module can utilize either wi-fi or cellphone (3G/4G) capabilities; WI-FI and cellular is available only on ground. Embraer has established a ground infrastructure for “big data” analysis and trending, and will be ready to support the E2-Jets with AHMS at EIS. In addition, Embraer and its suppliers have contractually agreed on how to handle “health management removals” that are recommended by the system. The new system will provide for 5,250 different parameters that are measured, with memory storage for 200 flights on board. This is a massive increase in the amount of data available and collected on board an aircraft. The aircraft CMC processes, on-board, more than 10,000 fault reports, generating 5,000 maintenance messages out of it. These fault reports will be available for Product Improvement.. Events that exceed load limits, such as hard landings, severe turbulence, landing gear overspeed, VMO/MMO operations, and flap/slat extension speeds will also be monitored by the systems and reported. This should reduce delays and cancellations from “false alarm” events. The Bottom Line Aircraft health management systems provide growth in aircraft reliability through three areas -- data driven analytics that predict failures, faster processing of issues in the field, and active monitoring of reliability to avoid unscheduled maintenance.

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