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Aircraft maintenance failure is a critical issue that directly impacts the safety of crew members and passengers. The maintenance process is complex, comprehensive, and continuous, encompassing activities such as Servicing, Maintenance Repair and Overhaul (SMRO). Given the significance of these processes, close attention from oversight authorities is crucial.

Outsourcing such intricate areas to external parties can introduce various risk factors, making it an unwise policy. Therefore, it is essential to conduct regular inspections and maintenance on the entire aircraft, adhering to international standards mandated by oversight authorities such as CAA, FAA, JAA, CEMILAC, and RCI, among others. Continuous monitoring of assemblies, sub-assemblies, Rotables, Shelf-life-parts, and Line Replacement Units should be conducted after a specified period or flight hours/flight cycles. Certain parts require replacement due to shelf life or flight cycle expiry at predetermined intervals. Additionally, cleaning aircraft and avionics components is also an integral part of the maintenance process. By following these guidelines and complying with international standards, we can ensure the ongoing safety and reliability of aircraft operations.

Aircraft Maintenance Failure
Maintenance execution

• Personnel
  • Health
    • Social life
    • Sleep
    • Stress
    • Work load
  • Skill
    • Training
    • Motivation
    • Experience
• Maintainability
  • Sub-system
    •   Isolation
  • System
  • Aeeoi
•  Information
  • Maintenance plan
  • Communication
    • Written
    • Verbal
  • Maintenance documentation
    • Manuals
    • Drawings
  • Material
    • Spare parts
    • Equipment
      • Tools
      • Protective outfit

• Time

 Functional Testing

• Function check-out
• Fault diagnosis
  • Fault localization
  • Fault recognition
• Monitoring
• Inspection

Maintenance planning

• Resources
  • Man-hours
    • Parallel work tasks
  • Logistics
• Time
  • Required maintenance time
  • Maintenance availability

•  Maintenance documentation
  • Managerial/ technical/ administrative description
    • Modifications
  • Maintenance record
    • Historical failures and faults
    • Current failures and faults
  • Maintenance strategy
  • Maintenance objectives
  • Maintenance policy

•  Maintenance procedure
• Activities

  Feedback

• Work progress
  • Hinters
  • Consumed time
• Operational experience
  • Maintainability
  • Modifications
• Fault diagnoses
  • Failures
  • Faults

The root cause analysis of the vital causes in a structured fishbone template helps us understand the reasons for Aircraft Maintenance Failure. As prevention is always better than cure, we have listed below how and why this template is advantageous for anyone attached to the aircraft industry. One can think of some preventive measures before facing any mishaps or accidents.

Who should use the Aircraft Maintenance Failure template?

• Anyone who wants to understand why aircraft maintenance fails.

Why use this template?

• Easy understanding of the causes of maintenance issues in aircraft.
• Tailor this template using smartQED for your own problem-solving.
• Design or widen your own templates for different types of problems and incident analysis in smartQED.

Curated from community experience and public sources:

• https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Fish-Bone-Diagram-for-Aircraft-Maintenance-Failure-Analysis_fig5_323880295