Essential Interface | MRO Management

10th May 2022

This article was originally published in the April 2022 edition of MRO Management Magazine

by Mario Pierobon

The interface between the continuing airworthiness management organisation (CAMO) and the maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company is a critical one to ensure the efficiency and safety of both airworthiness management and maintenance operations. Lately, maintenance planning and scheduling software has developed to better facilitate the interface between the CAMO and the MRO.

The CAMO-MRO arrangements foresee that the CAMO side schedules maintenance and then the MRO side is responsible for executing it, explains Dave Purfurst, global pre-sales director at Rusada. "The MRO side in return also discovers unscheduled maintenance, which is reported back to the CAMO side, who then instruct whether to perform or defer," he says. "The data collected by both sides helps the other work more accurately and efficiently, so it really is a two-way relationship where neither side can successfully operate without talking to the other."

Purfurst highlights that the ideal solution is to have both CAMO and MRO functions managed by one solution. "As so many processes and data points are exchanged between them, one can only achieve maximum efficiency by having these fully integrated. In ENVISION, both sides have live visibility over the progress of work packages and work orders through various dashboards and reports," he says. "This visibility is vital for planning as the CAMO side has a clear view of hangar capacity, available resources, and current unscheduled maintenance. Meanwhile, the MRO side has an accurate pipeline of work coming their way and can plan accordingly."

Enhancing interface efficiency

According to Purfurst, the area in the CAMO-MRO interface that has the most room for improvement is the exchange of data between operators and third-party MROs. "Many have moved away from transferring records via paper, but the practice still exists. To be more efficient, organisations must look to electronic interfaces for the transfer of data," he says. "These however can still present problems as there is no one format for these records to reside in. This means a maintenance provider could have different task card formats for each of their customers, making it very hard for them to attain maximum efficiency."

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