Background

In 1998, Michael Lentini bought a FBO that was losing about $5,000.00. He became painfully aware that the aircraft maintenance industry has been plagued with an onslaught of paperwork that was generally making the physical “work” of repairing an aircraft pale in comparison. It is not uncommon, on small repairs, for the paperwork and administration aspect of the job to take as long, or longer, than the repair itself. Lentini found people writing the same items over and over again long hand then giving to someone else to enter the same info into a computer system again.

In order to meet the demands of the Federal Aviation Administration, he needed to not only order parts from his vendors, but had to also perform an incoming inspection to ascertain the validity of the parts (that oil filter is, in fact, an oil filter), receive the part into inventory, log the cure date if the part expires and periodically inventory the parts room to make sure he did not lose precious stock. Lentini also needed to maintain a file of invoices for the parts he had sold, so that eight months in the future, when a customer’s vacuum pump failed, he could figure out where it was purchased and handle the warranty claim.

On the shop floor, the mechanics needed to greet the customer that required work performed on their aircraft, grab a work order form and write down what the customer wanted, fill out a parts order form to give to the parts department, and perform the repairs to the aircraft. Each mechanic was required to write down the corrective actions that he performed on the work order and, when the aircraft was done, get the paperwork to the parts department to make sure that the parts used were billed out.

When the parts department had audited and completed their portion of the paperwork packet, it was then routed to the front office, where the packet was audited by the Director of Maintenance, who would verify that the parts used have the associated tags and form 8130’s, verify that the work was signed off using the correct verbiage, verify that parts needed for the repairs were actually billed on the work order, and ascertain that the mechanic that performed the work also signed off the work in accordance with the Repair Station manual.

At this point a log book entry could be typed up for the work and inserted in the aircraft’s appropriate log book and the paperwork packet was then routed to the billing clerk so that an invoice can be generated from the work order. Parts sheets were reviewed to determine what stock was used on the job, timecards were reviewed to determine how much labor along with the correct labor rate that should be on the invoice, and then FINALLY, the customer can be billed.

EBis is born

EBis was born in 1999 when Michael Lentini bought an FBO. Lentini previously had been in the computer business, he immediately started to look for software to run his shop. He was quickly surprised by the limited amount of software out there and how old the technology was. Lentini found out there was nothing out there that did what he wanted - something written for the shop that met all F.A.A. Repair Station requirements.

Michael then contacted a friend of his, Eric Baal, and Eric agreed to come home over his spring break from college and write something that he could use in the shop - and EBis was born.

Eric spent all summer following around the technicians and seeing what EBis needed to do and how to improve frequent tasks. Word about the application started to spread and EBis was featured in AMT Magazine (Sept 1999). The application, originally created without the goal of selling it, was sold to its first customer in October. Walter Mangon, an Aviation Master Mechanic Award Winner, bought it for his shop, Mangon Aircraft, Inc., in Petaluma, CA.

Over the past seven years, EBis has gone through countless improvements including two rewrites that have kept EBis running on the latest technology. The latest version of EBis 3.0 is the only repair station software written in Microsoft C# using the .NET Framework. EBis 3.0 was released in March 2004 and includes hundreds of improvements over the 2.x version. DatcoMedia has continued to update EBis on a monthly basis and these updates are included free in the yearly service contract. DatcoMedia also takes user input very seriously and are constantly adding features requested by users.

Today, EBis is used by a wide array of users from multiple location jet centers to engine shops to small single location operations from the United States to Canada to Europe. In addition, EBis is used at the factory repair stations for Cirrus, Mooney, and Piper.

Enter the 21st Century

The most dramatic change the aviation industry has seen in the last 20 years is the electronic record keeping and “paperless aircraft maintenance system.”

The investment of EBis, which is multiple times less expensive and more powerful than other packages on the market, will prove to have the best return, by far, of any investment that your maintenance department can make.

By implementing the EBis system and totally changing the way you think about the way you complete various tasks, EBis will streamline the process of repairing or inspecting aircraft and transform time wasted on repetitive paperwork into billable hours.

Using EBis, when a customer requests work to be performed on their aircraft, by simply entering the registration number in the “Create New Work Order” screen, the work order is automatically opened to the proper customer, at the proper labor rate and the aircraft, engine, and propeller information is imported.

Repetitive tasks, such as annual inspections, can be set up easily. Once in the software, a mechanic can click his mouse twice in the open work order and automatically import a series of discrepancies that are associated with the work to be performed. In the case of an annual inspection, a labor kit can automatically fill the work order with unlimited discrepancies and parts required including the annual inspection for the aircraft, engine and propeller, engine oil change, compression checks and FAR 91.207 ELT unit inspections. All in the matter of seconds!

Once the discrepancy is entered, the mechanic clicks the “START” button and the technician has just started billing time on the squawk. From the shop floor, the technician can request parts from the parts department by entering them on the appropriate discrepancy and sending a request message electronically to the parts room, all without leaving the aircraft that he is working on.

When the parts are pulled by the parts department, the parts manager clicks the button to fill the mechanics request. This not only removes the parts from inventory, but also allocates the part to the work order and takes into account any special discounting that the customer may receive, such as a leaseback parts discount.

As soon as the mechanic has completed the repairs, he can fill in the corrective action (either manually, or by using “saved” corrective actions for common squawks) and click the “STOP” button to clock off of the job. At this point he moves the work order status to “Pending” and sends the parts room and electronic message to QC the work order to ensure that all parts charges are correct. The parts room the moves the status to “Review” at which point the Director of Maintenance can review the discrepancies and corrective actions and print a log entry directly from the work order screen! At this point the work order is moved to a “Billing” status, and the shop can get their money right then and there.

By allowing the shop to use the computer as a TOOL, and not simply a data entry device, the amount of time involved in filling out forms will be cut DRAMATICALLY.

Back to the pneumatic pump warranty that was mentioned earlier. Let us assume that a customer does call and inform us that the pump was installed eight months ago had failed. In a matter of moments, we can pull up all work orders performed on his aircraft, sort by date, and open the work order for the pneumatic pump replacement. Once open, under the “Parts Tab” we double click the pump part number, and up on the screen comes the actual pump that was installed, the purchase order that the pump was ordered on, the date it was ordered, the vendor from which we purchased the pump and any core return information. All while we are still talking to the customer on the phone. It literally takes less than a minute! That was absolutely not feasible the way the shop used to operate.

Prior to incorporating EBis in Lentini’s operation, he was faced with the reality that another employee was needed in the maintenance department, and that the new employee’s time would predominantly be spent writing log entries and closing work orders. EBis, in fact, became that employee. And he only had to pay “him” once. Not only did he not have to hire someone to assist the Director of Maintenance in his paperwork duties, but the department’s billing clerks time was reduced from 32 hours per week to 8 hours per week! On the hangar floor, his company’s mechanic productivity (including supervisors) was running approximately 8-10% higher, on average, that prior to implementing EBis. In the parts room, his physical inventories had never been as effortless or (more importantly) balanced!

There is a plethora of additional advantages to the electronic system, such as tool calibration tracking, on-the-job tracking per mechanic, etc. Suffice it to say that once we allowed ourselves to embrace the EBis system and all that it has to offer … there is NO GOING BACK.

EBis, by far, will be the most important tool that a maintenance facility can purchase. Bar none.

Contact Info
DatcoMedia
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