Technical publications application

Technical publications contain information, such as airworthiness directives or customer service notices, from vendors, manufacturers, and regulatory agencies. Technical publications can trigger maintenance events and affect work planning forecasts.

The Technical Publications application stores technical publications from sources such as manufacturers, vendors, and regulatory agencies. Technical publications can have complex criteria to define which aircraft they affect. The Technical Publications application tracks the following information:

When you create a technical publication, you can specify whether an upgrade is applied to multiple aircraft. Typically, software items that have the same part number but are installed in different positions are updated in this manner. You can upgrade all the software within the aircraft at the same time, including the child pieces of equipment that are in build positions that are defined on the technical publication.

On the Engineering Orders tab, multiple engineering orders, each with an associated job card, can be created for a technical publication. Each engineering order is used to create a task card for each affected aircraft. The task cards are used to create work orders to implement the requirements of the technical publication. When you specify an engineering order for a technical publication, you can optionally select the Complete Associated Engineering Orders check box to automatically complete all associated engineering orders. By using this option, when any individual work order is completed, all task cards that are generated from the technical publication for a particular aircraft are automatically completed. If you choose not to automatically complete all associated engineering orders, you avoid deactivating associated engineering orders, and each task card work order must be completed individually. You can also select the Complete All Engineering Orders Before MOC check box to complete all associated engineering orders before the method of compliance is reported for each of the associated aircraft.

When a technical publication is duplicated, if any of the associated engineering orders have relationships defined in the Activated By section, these relationships are not copied to the new technical publication record. If required, you must manually recreate the relationships in the Engineering Orders tab of the duplicated technical publication.

When you specify an engineering order for a technical publication, you can define a range of frequency iterations, including intervals and task cards, so that regulatory compliance is maintained. A frequency iteration defines how many times inspections are completed to comply with the requirements of the technical publication. When you create a frequency iteration, you can specify whether the task card is deactivated when the last frequency iteration is completed. You can change whether the task card is deactivated only during the last frequency iteration.

A frequency iteration can be time-based or meter-based. You have flexibility in defining a frequency iteration, and iterations can occur at different intervals. For example, you can define a frequency iteration that consists of three meter-based iterations: the first inspection occurs every 10,000 miles for two iterations. The second inspection occurs at 25,000 miles for three iterations, and the third inspection occurs at every 50,000 miles. You can also define alert and warning intervals for each frequency iteration.

Technical publications include the following types of records from manufacturers, vendors, and regulatory agencies:

Technical publications are managed at the part set level because technical publications are associated with models and configuration-managed parts. When you create a technical publication, you can specify an organization and a site to further limit the applicability of the technical publication. For example, you can choose not to specify the site and organization so that the technical publication applies to the entire part set. If the technical publication applies only to the aircraft that are stored at a single site, you can specify that site so that the technical publication has limited applicability.

You can add a terminating action to a technical publication. A terminating action defines a condition that is required in order for a recurring inspection to be terminated, for example, a certain level of physical wear is recorded. Terminating actions are useful because not every requirement in a technical publication can be reduced to a series of programmable statements. Terminating records ensure compliance with the requirements of the technical publication.

You can track design changes and requirements by relating technical records. A related technical publication can provide information, define a relationship that requires action when maintenance events occur, or define a relationship to a modification record. Relating a technical record to a modification record creates a complete record of the engineering design standard.

You can edit some attributes of an active technical publication to ensure that the applicability and engineering embodiment processes accurately define the requirements of the technical publication. Before you edit an active technical publication, assess the impact of your planned changes. Changes to an active technical publication can require manual updates to task cards or work orders that are associated with the technical publication. For example, you update the part number or serial range of an applicable piece of equipment that was already embodied. If the updated part number means that the piece of equipment is no longer applicable, you must manually change the embodiment status of the piece of equipment to not applicable. Similarly, if you update an interval or threshold on an engineering order that is associated with a technical publication, you must manually update the associated task cards.

You can use the Edit Technical Publication action to edit an active technical publication. When you select the Edit Technical Publication action, you can edit build items, part numbers, serial ranges, and models. You can also add engineering orders that are associated with the technical publication. You can delete engineering orders only if they have not generated any task cards. If an engineering order has generated task cards, you can select the Deactivate Task Cards check box on the Engineering Orders tab to change the status of all associated task cards to inactive. On the Technical Publication tab, clear the Create Task Cards check box to prevent task cards from being automatically created for aircraft or equipment records that are associated with an active technical publication.

To make technical changes to other attributes of a technical publication, create a superseding record and specify the superseding publication and the supersedence date on the original technical publication.

Enterprises typically must maintain and report the status of their technical publications to external regulatory agencies.

Examples of using technical publications

The records department of your enterprise receives a new bulletin, directive, notice, or other type of publication. This publication might come from a manufacturer, vendor, regulatory body, or another authorized department in the enterprise. You create a technical publication to document the new information and attach any supporting electronic documentation. You establish criteria to identify the aircraft that are affected by the technical publication. Criteria can include position, part number, serial number range, models, or configurations of models. You create an engineering assessment record for the technical publication so that you can determine if the technical publication applies to the aircraft and what method of compliance the aircraft will use. You complete the assessment in the Engineering Assessment Orders application. In the Technical Publications application, you create engineering orders to establish what work needs to be completed so that the aircraft complies with the technical publication. You can create initial task cards, job cards, and possibly follow-up task cards that establish work requirements. You can also enter task card actions to define the interaction among task cards. Other technical records might deactivate the task cards.

If your records department receives a new bulletin, directive, notice, or other publication that supersedes an existing technical publication. You define the superseding technical record. Then, you open the superseded technical record and change it to point to the superseding technical publication. The status of the superseded technical publication is changed from Active to Superseded.

Your enterprise receives a new aircraft and decides that it is a configuration-managed aircraft. You create an aircraft record for it and designate it as configuration-managed. The build data interpreter identifies the technical publications that the new aircraft must comply with task cards and any work orders that are necessary to initiate the compliance process are generated for any technical publications that the new aircraft must comply with.

A regulatory body or an internal audit department notifies your enterprise that it plans to investigate the incorporation status of one or more technical publications. You create a report to identify the compliance of aircraft that are associated with the applicable technical publications.

Parent topic: Creating technical publications
Parent topic: Configuration Management module