Finnair relies on Agilon in its Maintenance Repair Operations warehouse

Finnair Technical Services offers component repairs for the complete Finnair fleet—Airbus, Embraer, and ATR aircraft types—at its hangars at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport. The target is to carry out all maintenance work at the right time with complete transparency, as safely and cost-efficiently as possible, so that planes can take off according to their tight flight schedules.

“Safety is our topmost priority. In service operations, we must have 100 per cent traceability for all our tools to fulfil the requirements of the Part 145 Approval issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA),” says Joni Janatuinen, Project Engineer at Finnair Technical Services.

Challenge: How can tool traceability, availability, and speed be ensured?

All MRO tools have been individually laser engraved. It is essential to know precisely which aircraft each tool has been used on, by whom, and when. 

“One of our challenges was that the shift change times of our logistics partner HUB logistics, who is responsible for the MRO warehouse, sometimes differed from those of our aircraft repair shop. Because of this different shift change rhythm, our mechanics could not always get the tools they needed from the MRO warehouse.”

Another significant challenge was the time spent checking out or returning tools at the counter. This accounted for 45 per cent of the total resource time of all warehouse transactions. A work study showed that waiting accounted for 80 per cent of the time spent at the check-out counter. 

“To start work without delay, checking the tools out immediately without waiting at the warehouse counter is necessary. Due to the above challenges, we started to chart various self-service and automation solutions to boost our operations, implement a 24/7-without-delay principle and minimize waiting time,” Janatuinen goes on.

Solution: a tailored system that works 24/7/365

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In November 2018, HUB logistics started using a Konecranes Agilon® materials management system in Finnair’s largest aircraft hangar. The 14-metre-long and 6.1-metre-high device features two access points, robots, and walkthroughs. About 1,300 tools are in Agilon, with an occupancy rate of over 80 per cent.

Now, the tools occupy only about 30 square metres of warehouse space, compared to 100 square metres earlier.

Earlier, the management of MRO tools was housed in a closed external application. The new system, which operates 24/7/365, has been integrated into the aircraft repair shop’s AMOS enterprise resource planning system. Through this system, everybody can keep track of and monitor MRO tool management. The AMOS enterprise resource planning system also manages Agilon’s access control.

The design team tailored the user interface to meet the needs of approximately 500 mechanics, making it simple and fast to use with features like a barcode reader. Additionally, Agilon includes a carbon dioxide fire suppression system for enhanced safety.

Automation retains full traceability and saves time

Regarding tool monitoring, Agilon fulfils the self-service approach targeted by the aircraft repair shop while maintaining 100 per cent traceability for tools. The photos taken by the system and user identification at the access points improve traceability even further. Also, Agilon eliminates the need to inventory stock and manual entries.

Janatuinen expresses his satisfaction with Agilon and its benefits. About 60 per cent of tool check-outs are done using the system. The rest of the tools, which cannot be stored in the Agilon system because of their size or other properties, are checked out at the warehouse counter.

*The German Jet Airliner Crash Data Evaluation Centre (JACDEC) evaluates the safest airlines in the world annually and gives them a separate safety index. In the 2019 listing, Finnair held the top position with a safety index of 93.91%.