Information management in aircraft maintenance

Well managed information promotes competitive advantage and economic value for the company. The challenge is to use information effectively in complex networks. Decision making in network is complicated due to many independent sources of information. The aim of the present study was to identify and map the internal information flows and used information resourced by functions and roles, to make proposals to the case organization to improve the information management and to improve the situational awareness and process flows. In the present study, an inductive approach was applied, with the aim to find out gaps and bottlenecks of information flow of an aircraft maintenance organization and its network. The empirical part was conducted with observing the processes and with questionnaires. Theoretical part of this study consists on reviewing relevant literature on maintenance management in aviation and information management in aviation. Together with empirical evidence and the literature used in the study the gaps were found and suggestions for improvements were done. The outcome of this study contributes the organization in its bigger goal to improve the productivity. The information management of the network is one actor in the field and will pave the way to smoother operation and situational awareness. The lack of rules and requirements for information management and spreading is a challenge in information management. The excessive data overburden may cause problem in the actors’ situation-awareness due to non-availability of the right information.