Patrick Markham of aircraft parts and MRO supplier Heico says the industry is wasting time and effort on traceability paperwork that isn’t required.

Parts traceability paperwork travels with the part when it’s manufactured, repaired or overhauled.  The documents prove that the part is airworthy. However, Patrick Markham, Senior VP, Technical Services, Heico, says the industry is going way overboard on the documents it is requesting and supplying.

Received wisdom

He told FINN: “The problem with the industry at the moment is the minimum requirements are actually quite small. You only need an 8130 saying that it’s airworthy. You don’t need all the back-to-birth traceability for all the parts.”

Markham says that some traders are providing multiple documents when just one is required. Often this is because the additional information is demanded by the airline or MRO company.

“That’s a lot of wasted work,” Markham said.

He added: “It’s a big problem because what’s happened in the past is that you’ve got somebody who’s asked somebody else for additional information, and then they think that’s required, so they ask the next person. And then they ask the next person and it continues on, so everybody is working to the highest level, to the last thing somebody asked them, as opposed to working to what’s actually required.”

Raising awareness

“The way we address it is through education and awareness,” Markham explained. “We go to the airlines, we go to the MROs, and we talk to them about what’s actually required.”

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