The Digital DOM

How going mobile and paperless in your daily operations is your best path to peace of mind

By Arnold Aumasson and Sean Smith, AMS

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An Era of Productivity

Digital transformation has changed the way we work faster than any other disruptive shift in history. Enterprises with high digital intensity improved their productivity by 20% in the 2010 to 2020 decade. Low-tech companies struggled to reach 5%. (OECD, Digitalisation, Productivity and Inclusiveness)

Aviation maintenance is no exception. Larger operators began digital initiatives in the early 2000s with back-office systems, then connected internal platforms to eliminate double entry. The next phase, where most small and mid-sized operators now find themselves, is bringing that same logic to the maintenance floor: the workshop, the hangar, and the remote base.

At AMS, we have now migrated more than 50 organisations from on-premise legacy systems to AIR22. Our experience confirms what the productivity data shows: the behavioural dimension matters as much as the technology.

Behind the Tech, the User

The capacity to act and interact in real time, away from the office desktop, using a tablet or phone, fundamentally changes the relationship between a Director of Maintenance (DOM) and their team, management, clients, suppliers, and daily events.

One of our clients used to spend days, sometimes weeks, chasing signatures across three operational bases and a team of 50 people. Using the electronic signature workflows in AIR22, he reduced this single low-value task by an estimated 50%.

Sean Smith, now heading Support and Services at AMS, and formerly Director of Maintenance at two different aviation organisations, describes the pre-digital reality:

We maintained the training records, scheduling, and tracked billable hours in different spreadsheets, software solutions, and hard copies kept in the company files. It was a constant struggle to make sure the records were properly updated and there was continuity between them. When the company had audits, we often had findings related to different record sets not agreeing with each other. The root cause was that the system we were using was too complicated and open to errors. The lack of access to information when members of my team and I were away from our offices and computers was also a contributing factor. Moving to a mobile version reduced or eliminated the audit findings related to record continuity. It made my life easier managing a team spread over several Canadian provinces, and everybody benefited from this new simplified work environment.

Sean Smith, Head of Support and Services, AMS — former Director of Maintenance

In the routine of a DOM managing 15 engineers working simultaneously, the shift to a single integrated mobile solution produces: up to 20% time reduction and up to 10% error reduction, by eliminating duplicated data entry and the need to verify the same information in multiple places.

The Paperless Freedom

The classic paper lifecycle most maintenance teams still know: create a document, print it, fill it in, scan it, share the digital copy, archive the physical, communicate the archive location. Every step is a time cost and a potential error.

In a digital workflow, work package documentation is always current. Everyone works from the same version in real time. Progress is visible immediately. Audit trails are automatic. Electronic signatures remove the most frustrating bottleneck in the traditional workflow.

Where the Gains Are Most Visible

• Aircraft transfers and fleet additions: one of the CEOs of a leading European CAMO organisation reported that his ATR42 fleet phase-in dropped from several weeks to just 10 days using AIR22 system models and import tools.
• Component and parts tracking on the shop floor: check status, enter defects, check parts availability, update the schedule, all from a tablet without returning to a desk.
• Cross-base record management: one integrated system eliminates version control problems across any number of bases.
• Aircraft transfers between organisations: the most significant time savings come from transfers executed digitally, saving tens or hundreds of hours of manual data input.

What the Digital DOM Looks Like in Practice

The pre-digital DOM starts the day at the office computer, prints a status report, carries it to the floor, takes notes on a clipboard, returns to the office, updates the spreadsheet, sends emails asking for status, waits, chases, files. A significant portion of the working day is spent on information management rather than maintenance management.

The digital DOM starts the day on a tablet. The AIR22 dashboard shows the current status of every open work order, every task in progress, every upcoming deadline, and every outstanding signature request. Defects are entered directly on the floor. Parts status is checked live. Signatures are requested and received electronically. At the end of the day, documentation is complete, traceable, and archived automatically.

Frequently Asked Questions