The technology age holds great potential for aircraft maintenance, maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO), and basically any other part of aircraft operations. While software programs are not particularly new, dating back into the 1990s, they have improved by an order of magnitude. There is now no shortage of software systems and mobile applications which can do any number of tasks from supply and logistics to data analytics. Let’s take a look at a few of the best of the market.

Quantum MX

Garnering a solid 5/5 stars on Capterra, Quantum MX is a full service software suite which is designed to work equally well on PC or mobile devices. Quantum is designed with the MRO facility, A&P shop, and Part 145 repair station in mind.

Quantum MX provides the following features to maintenance operations:

• Compliance management
• Component tracking
• Flight time tracking
• Inventory control
• Labor hours tracking
• Logbook tracking
• Maintenance scheduling
• Work order management
• Price point: $

Quantum MX provides the tools necessary to streamline maintenance admin, logistics, record keeping, and flight hours. The mobile platform makes researching items practically effortless, and it is very inexpensive at a mere $50 per month. Any A&P operation, regardless of size, can afford this one and it has excellent reviews.

Flightdocs

Organizations seeking an inclusive, all-in-one digital tracking and record keeping software solution should heavily consider Flightdocs. In use since 2003, Flightdocs is not a fly by night operation. They have developed steadily into a frontrunner of the industry by creating a program which intuitively works across multiple platforms, Flightdocs offers a single solution for maintenance, flight operations, and inventory management.

Flightdocs covers the entire spectrum of aviation maintenance management features which are:

• Compliance management
• Components tracking
• Flight time tracking
• Inventory control
• Labor hours tracking
• Logbook tracking
• Maintenance scheduling
• Manuals
• Service bulletins
• Work order management
• Price: Unknown

It may not seem like a whole lot to the non-mechanic, but access to manuals and service bulletins is a huge deal; most maintenance manuals run in the hundreds of pages and are very difficult to carry to the job site especially when troubleshooting requires a number of said manuals. Condensing all of those onto an iPad, along with service bulletins, saves a ton of space. Also, it adds efficiency when technicians can conduct a simple search and find the correct section in seconds.

Price point is not listed so it is the veritable wildcard in the Flightdocs equation.

AvPro Software for Aviation

AvPro Software might just be the Original Gangster of aviation maintenance software, having been in use since 1984! Obviously something must be working right if they are in their 35th year of continuous use.

AvPro comes highly rated as a very thorough and comprehensive maintenance management software program. In all honesty, purchasers in the modern age might be turned off by the archaic appearance of the software, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. AvPro offers the following services:

• Compliance management
• Components tracking
• Flight time tracking
• Inventory control
• Labor hours tracking
• Logbook tracking
• Maintenance scheduling
• Service bulletins
• Work order management
• Price point: not listed

AvPro does not get high marks for presentation; it looks very much like the system used by the U.S. Air Force in the early 2000s. That being said, the system used by the USAF during that time frame is still used and has proven to be reliable and user friendly so age is no determining factor on usability.

AvPro receives excellent marks on Capterra by users, particularly for their customer service. It is easy to understand why they have not spent exorbitant money to revitalize the looks of the software; aviation maintenance is a software niche if there has ever been one, and most operations employing it are much more concerned with functionality over aesthetics.

EMQIM by ENGRAV

EMQIM is a full-service software suite of products built with the entire organization in mind. ENGRAV offers aircraft maintenance management, continuing airworthiness management, flight ops management, and logistics management software all under one umbrella.

EMQIM is deployed via Cloud, SaaS, and web-enabled services so it is easily accessed from mobile devices as well as PCs, allowing easy cross flow of information from one user to another.

The reviews for EMQIM are very impressive, with an overall 5/5 cumulative. Here’s what some of the users have to say:

“The software can manage the complete aircraft operations i.e. Flight Operations module, Engineering & Maintenance module and Logistics module.”

“Compute does not need any standard specification to run EMQIM .The cloud based software can be accessed from any system (pc, laptop, tablet or phone)”.

“As a user of EMQIM, we have found the software system to be a perfect all round operations management. Traceability, accountability and the level of detail that has gone into the organization of our documentation and records via EMQIM have been really impressive.”

EMQIM provides end users the following functions:

• Compliance management
• Components tracking
• Flight time tracking
• Inventory control
• Labor hours tracking
• Logbook tracking
• Maintenance scheduling
• Manuals
• Service bulletins
• Work order management
• Price point: not listed

ENGRAV has obviously put a lot of money into their web design and content, which places them higher over the bar compared to AvPro, although the services both have about the same level of user satisfaction. If first impressions are the deciding factor, though, ENGRAV wins by a mile.

FlyPal by BytzSoft Technologies

Parent company BytzSoft is nothing new, dating back to 1997, but FlyPal does not show its age. FlyPal is the most versatile platform reviewed yet, offering basically every conceivable deployment method imaginable including

• Cloud, SaaS, web
• Installed: Mac and Windows
• Mobile: Android and iOS native

FlyPal is a truly comprehensive software suite, providing crossflows of information between HR, QA, Production Control, Maintenance Control, Engineering, and Inventory & Logistics control, i.e., all of the stakeholders.

To expand on this a little, FlyPal is actually the first on this list which includes HR in the information loop. Why does this matter? Since it is an all-inclusive software product, it includes flight crew resources like crew rostering, flight scheduling, duty time limits, and aircrew training. It is very important to include this as a key characteristic of the equation; segregating flight operations from maintenance operations is counterproductive and serves to better nobody as it is a symbiotic relationship.

The services offered by FlyPal are:

• Compliance management
• Components tracking
• Flight time tracker
• Inventory control
• Labor hours tracking
• Logbook tracking
• Maintenance scheduling
• Manuals
• Service bulletins
• Work order management

MRO software’s impact on aircraft maintenance

After taking a look at a few of the leading MRO software suites, it is pretty obvious as to how they are changing the way aircraft maintenance is done. What was once laborious in compiling data from a number of sources is now easily compiled on a mobile device (most of the systems are SaaS or web enabled) to paint a picture of the entire operation.

A floor technician can now use their phone to track labor while perusing applicable service bulletins, all while appreciating the fact that an entire library of technical data is searchable in the palm of his hand.

At the same time, the maintenance manager is able to determine trends in inventory use and volume using data analytics by the same service. Down the jet way, flight operations is able to monitor the overall health of the fleet and track flight time in real time.

Dispatch is racking and stacking aircraft coming out of maintenance vice those due in, because maintenance operations is scheduling said maintenance simultaneously.  

Can MRO software be all Inclusive?

This is a tougher question which does not appear to be directly answered by any of the system, there are at least one or two systems which lend themselves to aviation maintenance beyond aircraft; i.e., GSE.

ENGRAV’s EMQIM DMS is a fairly stripped down variation of their flagship EMQIM software. DMS states it can store documents and manuals of basically any type related to maintenance, so it appears to be an ideal solution to keep tabs on your high performing GSE solutions. Your GSE is state-of-the-art machinery and should be maintained with the same fervor as the aircraft it services. EMQIM DMS is a very secure means of storing documentation and digital equipment manuals in a secure, cloud-based storage solution.

The other way of utilizing the existing software suites is by categorizing GSE as components, of which many of the systems are built to record. In this way, a single piece of GSE could potentially be associated with an individual aircraft as a component.

Conclusion to MRO and aircraft maintenance software

Aircraft maintenance software systems are a mix of new and old. A lot of the systems were designed so robustly that they have hardly required radical redesign over the decades. The most significant change affecting these systems is the advent of mobile operating systems, so most of the software systems are able to offer full functionality on mobile browsers.

It isn’t just aircraft maintenance which has shifted to the digital realm; a lot of the software designers mentioned also offer similar systems for industrial maintenance and heavy equipment maintenance. The principals are the same, really. Having the capability to access all of the different metrics pertinent to aircraft maintenance at the palm of your hand, for all members of the team, will save untold man-hours. The systems, while not explicitly for GSE, offer capabilities which can easily be adapted to monitoring, documenting, and scheduling maintenance for GSE systems.

If you haven’t transitioned to a maintenance software system yet, you are severely behind the curve and are shorting yourself and your operation. There are systems available to fit any budget and for any size of operation, and many have free demos so do yourself a favor and explore your options today.

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