Maintenance and Modifications
Is Too Much Maintenance Reducing Aircraft Reliability?
Reliability and availability can benefit from less hands-on attention
Bombardier Tucson, Arizona service center
Bombardier’s Tucson, Arizona service center is part of a company network working to optimize maintenance and improve reliability.

An extraordinary amount of data is flowing from aircraft to manufacturers, operators, and data analysis teams, and this informs more efficient maintenance programs and ultimately improved availability. Maintenance support is critical, but fewer visits to the maintenance shop have huge benefits not only for reliability and availability but also for safety.

While it might seem like the term reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a modern development, it all started decades ago with a book written in 1978 by two United Airlines maintenance experts: Stanley Nowlan, director of maintenance analysis, and Howard Heap, manager of maintenance program planning. Their work was sponsored by the Department of Defense, which wanted to find better ways to support different types of military equipment.