A new case study from Razorleaf, Data Automation Project Flies Smoothly for Duncan Aviation, examines how an ongoing partnership between Razorleaf, Aras, and Duncan Aviation has transformed how Duncan Aviation teams manage project scope. A fourth generation, family owned, full-service aircraft service provider, Duncan Aviation supports the aviation needs of business aircraft operators, government agencies, and more. The largest privately-owned business in its field, they do a booming business in nose-to-tail services—everything from refurbishment to maintenance—for global private aircraft.
Art, Engineering, and Regulations
The creative and the technical collide in Duncan Aviation’s Engineering and Certification group. Teams there focus on customer-driven, highly personalized modifications to cabins and cockpits, and their first challenge is translating customer or design-house designs into technical data and specifications that can drive their builds.
The second hurdle is ensuring their plans meet safety regulations. “There are very stringent rules for safety of the aircraft,” says Aaron Lane, Certification Coordinator and PDM Administrator in the Alterations Planning Team. “If you say, ‘I want to put a 10-inch monitor here along the side wall,’ you have to prove that the mount can handle the weight and flight forces, that the power requirements are met, and then produce installation and service documentation, should they be needed.”
Automating the Manual Processes
Duncan Aviation was using the Aras Innovator platform for CAD authoring and product lifecycle management (PLM), which provided a lot of what they needed to manage the teams’ workflows. A foundational component of their workflow is the project data list (PDL), which holds every part and document that might originate from the sales—via the ERP system—and project scoping processes. The PDL in time becomes a master data list (MDL) and then a technical data package (TDP) that can be handed off to a customer and regulatory agencies.
While the PDL was central to their work, Engineering and Certification teams spent too much time manually creating them. When the team needed help, Aras recommended Razorleaf, an Aras partner specializing in PLM implementation and middleware development that bridges digital domains. Razorleaf stepped in and automated Duncan Aviation’s workflow using templatized pathways, capturing known project requirements, and streamlining data entry. “In terms of time savings, our productivity in managing the scope of projects has conservatively improved by 75%,” says Lane.
Once that automation was in place, Razorleaf helped Duncan Aviation enhance processes for handling change orders, engineering orders, and engineering requests. The next phase will center on overall workload and time management, ease of procurement, and bills of materials (BOMs). Their goals include giving departments real-time visibility across multiple projects and reducing system interactions, as well as the possibility of streamlining industry practices. Lane explains, “It’s a long-term goal of ours to get Aras Innovator configured enough to convince the FAA that they don’t need paper copies from us. Digitization and automation will help everyone.”
To learn more about Duncan Aviation, Razorleaf, or their digital engineering partnership, read the case study or contact Razorleaf.
