The aviation industry has suffered significant losses due to the pandemic, with global in-service fleet numbers at less than 20,000, and over 18,000 sent to storage since COVID-19 hit. This decision to put these aircraft back online rests on a whole lot of hope that things will get better – but as early as now, decision-makers can optimize the results by ensuring comprehensive asset management. With such a system in place, costs can be curbed, losses recouped, and operational efficiency established again. Asset management aims to standardize the proactive management of each aircraft parts, services, and costs – from the time that it has been acquired up until the time it is disposed. In normal situations, this programmatic method is already rife with challenges; in the middle of a pandemic, where access to resources is limited, it is doubly more so, and chief among these challenges are: Possible delays in components maintenance. There are several factors that need to be considered in aircraft components maintenance, such as airframe hours, shelf life, and ‘Time Since First Installed.’ All these must be conflated with potential delays in sourcing the right parts for replacement or upgrade, in order to prevent overfly. Technical complexities. Various asset management tools are available to ease the complexity of the process, but some tools carry their own complexities with them. Digital technology requires proper training to be harness efficiently, for instance, and some organizations may have difficulties with getting that training. Similarly, there are varying systems that need to be integrated into a single platform to make sense of the available data seamlessly and conveniently. Fortunately, there are handy ways to manage these challenges and ensure proper asset management for your fleet. Proactive and Mobile Tracking Taking stock of all potential issues by identifying and tagging them way before they crop up is the best way to ensure complete components maintenance. Such a digital framework will allow greater functionality for: Assigning work and tracking work progress, which keeps you informed of everything that is going on in your operation Equipping your team with the knowledge and tools that they need to deal with components maintenance, and Preparing for out-of-service aircraft, which eliminates the need to leave the work site to request parts and tooling or gather new references while also curbing downtime Using Robust Inventory Integration Tools These tools are engineered to ensure that updated production plans are in place, and that material and tooling are on hand at the right time. By using them, you can optimize information and transactions and deliver them right to your crews, keeping them apprised of where or what the necessary action is. You can even plan ahead and remotely assign crews to meet and work on inbound aircraft, giving them advance visibility into incoming issues, scheduled tasks, and parts and tooling requirements. Once the aircraft arrives, troubleshooting and corrective action can immediately start, allowing you to monitor their requests and progress through real-time dashboards with built-in time tracking to ensure you have accurate return to service information. These and more available through EmpowerMX’s Line Manager, a module that provides your company – be it an airline or an independent third party MRO provider – with the resources and tools that it needs to minimize out of service time and get airplanes back in the air. Allowing for effective control of both scheduled and unscheduled line operations, your crews can directly: work from the aircraft to access electronic task cards digitally sign work review aircraft defects and deferrals; and access reference materials right from the work site Once they are finished, they update work packages, aircraft airworthiness, and readiness all before they leave the aircraft.