CLOCK STOPPAGE

IFS MAINTENIX AIRCRAFT STORAGE

Revision 1.2
2020-04-27
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Table of Contents

1. IFS MAINTENIX – CLOCK STOPPAGE .................................. 1

1.1 DOCUMENT INTENT ............................................................................................. 1
1.2 HIGH-LEVEL DESIGN ............................................................................................ 1

2. IMPLEMENTATION ................................................................. 2
2.1 SOFTWARE USAGE .............................................................................................. 2
2.2 EFFECTS ON TASKS ............................................................................................ 3
2.3 TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION .......................................................................... 5
2.4 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS .......................................................................... 6
2.5 UNINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS .................................................................... 6
2.6 TESTING OPTIONS ............................................................................................... 6
2.7 ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS ..................................................................... 7

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1. IFS MAINTENIX – CLOCK STOPPAGE

1.1 DOCUMENT INTENT

This document will explain the design of a Clock Stoppage solution that is a response to the COVID-19
aircraft grounding event that is affecting IFS Maintenix customers in 2020. Boeing, Airbus and other
aircraft manufacturers have released Clock Stoppage advice that outlines the implementation of a
storage maintenance program that will allow aircraft operators to extend scheduled maintenance for
routine tasks having calendar time intervals. IFS Maintenix does not come standard with a Clock
Stoppage solution. This document will outline the functionality of a software extension to the product that
will meet this business requirement.

Please read this document fully to understand if your business would like to implement this solution.
Elements of the software must be customized for each customer. Please engage A&D’s global technical
support team through the customer support portal for customization and delivery.

1.2 HIGH-LEVEL DESIGN

The clock stoppage solution will apply deadline extensions to calendar tasks. The intent of the clock
stoppage caused by COVID-19 is to allow postponement of some maintenance program tasks as directed
by the aircraft OEM and approved by the operator’s aviation authorities while aircraft are under a
storage/parked aircraft program.

The advantage to planning and maintenance will be to prevent a backlog of maintenance tasks which will
in turn facilitate the return to service (RTS) of these parked aircraft. IFS Maintenix tasks will only go
overdue if their postponement was not allowed under the rules stipulated in the Boeing MOM and Airbus
OIT. These tasks will need to be completed prior or during an RTS work package.

Software will run in the background that will apply deadline extensions to a task’s calendar deadline
based on a set of customized identification rules. The deadline extension will be a length of time
determined by the end user for each aircraft, leveraging an existing UI feature called Blackout. Affected
deadlines will have their scheduled to plan high information set to 0 to allow the business to benefit from
the additional yield of the extension. The rules for this extension are intended to comply with advice given
in Boeing MOM-MOM-20-0232-01B, and Airbus OIT 999.0026/20 Rev 00.

IFS Maintenix software has a Blackout feature. This enables businesses to mark aircraft as not flying
during specified periods of time. The effect in IFS Maintenix is for usage-based deadlines to acknowledge
this period of storage. Deadline forecasting algorithms would otherwise simulate accrual of usage based
on the configured forecast model. During these periods no usage accruals will be forecasted, and the
effect is to have more accurate forecasted usage-based due date. This is an aid for medium- and long-
term planning. The blackout feature does not have coverage for calendar deadlines, therefore the need
for this software extension.

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2. IMPLEMENTATION
2.1 SOFTWARE USAGE

Blackouts
To create a period of clock stoppage, add a blackout period to an aircraft. You can add and remove
blackouts as required. The software has support to backdate the beginning of the storage period. The
period of blackout includes the start and end date. In the example below the total period is 51 days. The
period from 11-MAR-2020 to 31-MAR-2020 is 21 days, and April is 30 days. Days appearing in this list
should not include any days where the aircraft has flown.

When extending a blackout period, we recommend adding new blackout events, as the UI does not permit
editing of existing events. Delete and create blackouts as required—the software will automatically adapt
to the new period. For the purposes of the software, the RTS date will be the last date specified in the
blackout events.

The UI allows for overlapping periods, but the clock stoppage solution does not support overlapping
periods, this will improperly extend deadlines. Please ensure accuracy of the blackout events.

Blackouts will appear in the Historical > Additional tab of the aircraft’s inventory details page.

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Task selection criteria

A standard set of rules will be used for task identification and applying the deadline extension. Affected
tasks include blocks and requirements where:
• Highest inventory is an aircraft with a blackout
• Status is ACTV
• Based on task definitions
• Not including AD, AWL, CMR and component life limit types. A custom set of rules will have to be
designed for your solution to comply to this rule.
• Not having a soft deadline
• Calendar scheduling parameter
• REPLs that are driven by affected tasks

Aircraft Rollback
The software has the capability to roll back all changes to individual aircraft. If a mistake was made, and
an aircraft has been improperly labeled with a blackout, you can delete all the blackouts. The tasks will
have their extensions removed, and returned to their original deviation value. The sched to plan high
value will also be rolled back to the baseline value.

2.2 EFFECTS ON TASKS

Active task
Calendar deadlines will have an extension added equal to the length of the blackout period. The Schedule
to plan high value will be reset to 0. New extended deadlines will be visible.

Tasks with preexisting deadline extensions will be preserved. For example, a task with an existing 10-
day extension would have a 61-day extension in the example above. Extensions will be converted
appropriately for CHR, CWK, CMON, CLMON, and CYR calendar data types.

Extension rules
To comply with Airbus and Boeing advice, the allowable extension will be capped. Preexisting
extensions will be applied on top of any capped value.
• Airbus
o Tasks with less than 30-day intervals will be extended up to RTS date.
o Tasks between 30 CDY and 1 CYR
▪ If due during storage, will be limited to 3 CMON extension from RTS.
▪ If due after RTS, up to 3 CMON from original due date.
o Tasks more than 1 CYR
▪ If due during storage, 6 CMON from RTS
▪ If due after RTS, 6 CMON from original due date.

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• Boeing extensions will be capped to 180 days.

Forecasted task
Deadlines on forecasted tasks will be updated by the nightly deadline update job
(MX_CORE_UPDATETASKDEADLINES). The last due deadline will reflect an updated start date and
reflect an updated usage remaining value.

Completed task
Extended tasks will have had their sched to plan high value set to 0. Completing a task within the sched
to plan high window of the original due date, with or without an extension period, has the following task
rescheduled from LASTDUE. Tasks completed during or after the storage, with a sched to plan high value
of 0, enables the next active task to be rescheduled from LASTEND or WPEND. The next due tasks will
therefore not be penalized for the days the aircraft was parked.

If a deadline extension was applied to a task, and was later completed while in storage, any additional
modifications to blackouts will be applied to the new active instance.

Task history entry

One or more history entries will be added to tasks explaining the nature of the change.

Task revisions
Task revisions can proceed as normal, albeit with a few known limitations. If a requirement revision does
not modify a scheduling parameter, updating a task actual to a new revision will not alter any scheduling
details. There is a noted exception to this in section 2.7 for tasks based on effective date.
When updating a task to a new revision where a change has occurred on a different scheduling
parameter, no modifications will affect the calendar deadline.

When updating a task to a new revision where any change has been applied to the existing calendar
scheduling parameter, the deadline extension will be maintained, but sched to plan high value is reverted
to the baseline value. Therefore, the task will still have an extension, but the next task may be scheduled
from LASTDUE. This could be prevented with the use of the Enable Manual Scheduling feature, but it
was determined that applying this to tasks would prevent the synchronization of potential future
requirement interval escalations. For example, C check requirements have been escalated from 6 to 8
years, but tasks set to manual scheduling would remain at a 6-year interval until their completion, or
manual intervention.

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2.3 TECHNICAL IMPLEMENTATION

Overview
The components of the solution are a database procedure, an oracle job, and a tracking table. The
implementation is intended to be transparent to the end user.

Deliverable contents
File Purpose Output

auditCADeadlines.sql Initial audit for task scope Outputs to SQL window, not to file

IFS Maintenix – Clock Documentation

Stoppage.pdf

installBlackoutExtension.sql Installs software Install.log

reportBlackoutExtension.sql Extracts affected tasks for review reportBlackoutExtenion.csv

testBlackoutExtension.sql Test script BlackoutExtension.csv

uninstallBlackoutExtension.sql Uninstalls software Uninstall.log

Oracle job: GTS_JOB_BLACKOUT_EXTENSION

The process will run at a scheduled interval of 6 hours, using Oracle’s standard DBMS_SCHEDULER
job scheduling framework. When adding or removing blackouts to an aircraft, please anticipate up to 6
hours wait before changes are applied to an aircraft. The business need will determine the frequency of
the job. Initial feedback from operators indicates that 6-12 hours is an acceptable wait period for
production.

Advantages of this design over alternatives is that several changes to blackouts can be applied to a single
aircraft, and only the final state of the aircraft will be pushed to tasks. In testing, a trigger-based solution
was causing too frequent changes to task extensions.

Disadvantages of this design is the lack of visibility into the status of the job. The end user should look
for historical task notes next business day to confirm changes have been applied.

Table: GTS_BLACKOUT_TRACKING
This table will store information for the last known blackout duration for each aircraft. It is used to detect
the delta of change to blackouts and determine if action is required for a given aircraft.

Stored procedure: GTS_PROC_BLACKOUT_EXTENSION

The stored procedure will apply changes to tasks. It will follow this process:
1. Compute total number of blackout days by aircraft.
2. Compare current blackout period to last known blackout period.

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3. For each aircraft where a change to total blackout days has been detected:
a. Collect tasks meeting filtering criteria.
b. Compute total allowable deadline extension, based on manufacturer advice, per task.
c. Apply deadline extension.
d. Set sched to plan high to 0.
e. Create history entry.
f. Apply same changes to any REPL driven by the task.
4. Update tracking table with new blackout period.

2.4 INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

To install the software run installBlackoutExtension.sql from the Maintenix oracle schema. The job will
run once immediately, then regularly according to the schedule.

2.5 UNINSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

When the time comes that all aircraft have a known RTS date, we recommend uninstalling the software.
To uninstall the software run uninstallBlackoutExtension.sql. The oracle job and procedure will be
dropped. The tracking table will continue to exist in the data model, in case this information needs to be
referred to in the future.

2.6 TESTING OPTIONS

Initial consultation
IFS will ask for advice on the best strategy to identify AD, AWL, CMR and life limit tasks in your system.
After initial consultation with IFS, run auditCADealines.sql to extract a fleet-wide list of tasks that will be
in scope for change. Perform iterations of this script as required to ensure the customized task filtration
criteria is accurate.

Production clone
Proceed with installation instructions. Every 6 hours the procedure will run and apply changes to the
system. Setting up some blackouts before installation will allow you to immediately review some changes.

Production-like
Modify installBlackoutExtension.sql, to change the oracle job to run every minute.
Replace: repeat_interval => 'FREQ=HOURLY;INTERVAL=6',
With: repeat_interval => 'FREQ=MINUTELY’,
Proceed with installation instructions. Every minute the procedure will run and apply changes to the
system allowing for faster iterations of testing.

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Offline script and review

Proceed with installation instructions. A script named testBlackoutExtension.sql has been included in the
package. This script will simulate all the same changes as the procedure and roll back the changes. The
script will produce a CSV output of all the changes that would occur with the current state of the system.
The information can be reviewed in a spreadsheet application for easier bulk review. This method allows
for iterative testing. Changing to a COMMIT will allow changes to be applied.

2.7 ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS

The solution only covers a Maintenix functional gap for calendar deadlines. There is no scope for
additional rules for FC and FH usage tasks.

Baseline task revisions that change any scheduling details will retain extensions but revert sched to plan
changes. This may cause the next task to be sooner than you are entitled. However, if the extension
period exceeds the sched to plan period, the system will use LASTEND/WPEND.

Component robbing may allow tasks with incorrect deadline extensions to be used on other aircraft. When
robbing a part, tasks should be reviewed, and extensions removed or modified to comply with
manufacturer advice.

The UI allows for overlapping blackout periods. The clock stoppage solution does not support
overlapping.

The process will run at a regular interval—the changes to deadline extension will not appear immediately
after creating new blackouts.

There is a known issue in Maintenix where tasks scheduled from effective date do not preserve deadline
extensions across updates. Revisions to these tasks may lose their entitled extensions.

Advice from other manufacturers other than Airbus, Boeing and Bombardier has not been considered.
Unless specified during initial consultation, aircraft from other manufacturers will use the Boeing ruleset.

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