CONVERGE Electronic Techlog

Overview
Moving to an Electronic Techlog Process not only saves time and money, but provides significant safety benefits as well.

Despite the advanced application of technology in virtually every aspect of the aviation industry, there remain a number of key processes that have been stubbornly resistant to change. Chief amongst these is the Technical Log (or Log Book).

Adopting an Electronic Techlog process may seem like a daunting task, but it need not be. Transitioning to a modern digital solution need not adversely impact your processes, and will bring benefits to all areas of your organisation.

Our solution is comprised of a tablet device which accompanies the aircraft (On Aircraft) and the systems that receive and provide access to data from that device (On Ground). But first let us highlight some of the benefits of having our electronic techlog.

Inaccurate, late or patchy data is costly - you don't need to settle for that.

Handwritten forms can be difficult to read at the best of times, never mind when being filled in under pressure. After the form has been passed though several sets of hands, scanned and forwarded onto your Technical Records department what you end up with potentially illegible information, hours after it was recorded.

The CONVERGE Electronic TechLog provides you with the exact data that was entered, within seconds of it being recorded. The information can be validated as it's being entered, ensuring it makes sense, is accurate and can be clearly understood.

The always-connected Electronic TechLog ensures that all areas of your business always have access to the current data, across your entire fleet, from wherever they need it. Automatic alerting can ensure key personnel are notified of any potential problems, allowing them to be addressed quicker.

The Converge Electronic TechLog is customisable to your specifications, giving your pilots and engineers familiar layouts and fields based your existing paper techlog, or on other applications you use. It can be as simple as couple of pages of data to fill out, or can be extensive and incorporate other modules such as Damage Recording, or Document Management. And of course with everything being remotely managed, you have the ability to modify your configuration across your entire fleet in a precise, controlled manner however, and whenever, you wish.

With the use of the ETL, we have substantial improvements in quality and efficiency. Through the digitalisation of the data we secure the transfer of error free readings on the current overall real time status of the aircraft, including all maintenance and crew activity. After only a short period from the start date using the ETL live, not a single employee wants to go back to the paper process.

George Vasilou, Maintenance Manager, Cobalt

A lot of the benefits arising from the Electronic Techlog are associated with it's ability to send and receive data (i.e. to be connected to the CONVERGE servers), indeed our solution is designed to be flexible and will use any available type of connection. Also, the hardware solutions we recommend have SIM card slots to ensure they maximise the chance data connectivity.

However, the CONVERGE Electronic Techlog does not require a connection to perform as the techlog. This is a subtle, but crucial, point to understand. Your techlog solution must work whether the location you are in has a mobile phone/WIFI signal or not. If the proposed solution just stops working because there is no data connection - then it is no solution at all.

The diagram above shows a very simple overview of how our solution works.

  • On Aircraft
    Each aircraft has at least one tablet device assigned to it. There are various options such as the type of tablet (Windows, iOS, Android) and also whether you have fail-over devices. Regardless of these decisions we do recommend that the device is assigned to an aircraft rather than using "personal issue" devices. The technical log has always stayed with the aircraft and we believe that is the correct approach when changing to an electronic version. Having a device assigned to an aircraft reduces the risk of incorrect logs being used and also ensures that line engineers have access to the correct state of the aircraft. We also recommend having a mobile printer so that a sector record can easily be left on the ground in locations where there is no data connectivity.
  • On Ground
    The CONVERGE website provides access to the data being sent from the fleet of techlogs. At the core of the service is the provision of the sector data in various formats (e.g. PDF, XML, JSON etc) for archiving and for automatic data feeds into various systems. The website not only allows access to all data, analysis and dashboards but also provides user with functionality to control and configure the system. This includes user and role management; managing the correction process; updating aircraft configuration etc. Depending on the modules included in the CONVERGE ETL this is also where documents are managed, damage is controlled and overnight line maintenance activities can be planned and monitored.
  • Data Interfaces
    Data interfaces were mentioned above, particularly the feed to the Maintenance system. However we see the ability to collate, transform and forward data in whatever format you require to be a key benefit of our solution. We have active automated feeds to multiple systems for multiple reasons and we are happy to support you in making life a little simpler in automating what we can. We can also accept data feeds from multiple systems. The purpose can be to synchronise configurations or work requested with the Electronic Techlog, but we also assist in analysis and reporting of unrelated data.
One aspect that needs to be experienced to truly understand is the impact of having near real-time status across your fleet.

Stop and think about that for second - don't just gloss over the words. Imagine having near real-time aircraft state information about your fleet. Every defect. Every defect action. Every note, check, comment... We can even let your Maintenance Operational Control perform live screen sharing to let them assist a remote engineer in resolving a particular issue.

What is the impact? You can manage a larger fleet with a smaller team. Not only that, but you will have more control than ever before. You will be able to respond to unforeseen events with agility and confidence. Recent events are a prime example. Our customers were able to have there staff work from the office one day, and from home the next without any interruption to information access or aircraft control.

Simple to use, simple to deploy.

Our approach with the electronic techlog is to start with your existing process. That is why we say the techlog is configured for each airline. We do that to make the transition as simple as possible for pilots and engineers. Our aim is to make the Electronic Techlog easy to adopt and USEFUL to them. We want users to quickly reach the point that they do not want to go back to a paper process because their experience of the CONVERGE Electronic Techlog is so positive. With the changes we have implemented over the last year, deploying the techlog is also easy. We describe the process in more detail in Deploy Anywhere, but the summary is that a new CONVERGE Electronic Techlog can be configured "out of the box" - all you need is a username and password we supply.

No data gaps or manual data entry.

Missing sector pages are a thing of the past. Our solution ensures that sectors are recorded consecutively regardless of the availability of data connections. In that scenario the sectors are printed, a copy left on ground before flight, and then transmitted automatically when there is a connection. As a result the completed sectors are automatically converted to the correct data format for your MRO System and forwarded. Eliminating the need for manual data entry of sectors, defects etc.

Automatically managed deferred defects, repeating tasks and checks.

The CONVERGE Electronic Techlog automatically manages the dues dates for deferred defects, repeating tasks and (daily/weekly) checks. The system doesn't allow a sector to be signed off if any of these (and other things) are not in the correct state. If a check is due, it needs to be completed. If a defect is open, it needs to be closed or deferred. If a repeating task is due, it needs to be completed. Defect deferral periods are also automatically managed (we automatically calculate whether a defect is due depending on the combination of deferral criteria assigned), with users being alerted as the due date approaches. The MEL can even be integrated to make managing deferrals even easier.

Get in touch today to arrange a demonstration of the CONVERGE Electronic Techlog, to see how CONVERGE can simplify your overall process, while providing extensive benefits.