# Presentation: 773074

## Health Monitoring and Management Systems (HMMS)

- Rick Domingo, Asst. Division Manager Aircraft Maintenance Division, AFS-301

- June 8, 2006

## Objective

**From a functional basis, understand what HMMS is, how it works, and what the future holds.**

**Notes:**
My objective here today is to discuss HMMS from a purely functional basis.

This is an extremely complex subject and my discussion today is from a very high level.

## Overview

**Evolution of Scheduled Maintenance**
**HMMS as a more efficient and more effective way of accomplishing scheduled maintenance**

**Notes:**
Today, we will look at how scheduled maintenance has evolved over the years to get where we are today.

We will take a very brief look at how HMMS is actually a much more effective and efficient way of accomplishing scheduled maintenance.  

## WHY DO WE DO SCHEDULED MAINTENANCE ?

**To permit an item to continue to do what it supposed to do **

**Notes:**
We do scheduled maintenance so the aircraft can continue to do what it is supposed to do, that is to operate safely.

## Constant Evolutionary Process

**Early days of aviation - Fly-Fix-Fly**
**Post WW2 era – Overhaul Everything**
**Post Prop era – Overhaul Some Items**
**Post Wide Body era – Reliability Centered Maint. and MSG -1, 2, and 3**
**Modern era – Optimize Maintenance Requirements**

**Notes:**
During the days of the Wright Brothers and part of the early air mail days, we fixed things when they broke.  As a result the accident rate was quite hiigh.

During WW2 and after, conventional wisdom said more maintenance is better and we overhauled everything.

Around 1960 when the jets started showing up, we found that overhauling everything was not necessary to maintain the required level of safety and reliability, so we started moving away from the overhaul everything philosophy.

During the early 1970s, we found Reliability Centered Maintenance and moved away from more maintenance is better to only doing the maintenance that is necessary to maintain the design levels of safety and reliability.

Now we are in the area of gathering operational data to show the way to doing the right maintenance at the right time – optimization.

## The Continuing Evolution

**Fixed interval scheduled maintenance programs have been a scheduled maintenance mainstay for over 70 years.**
**Aircraft Health Management and Monitoring Systems (HMMS) are the maintenance technology of the future.**
**These systems are being envisioned for new generation aircraft such as the very light jets, Boeing’s Model 787, and the Airbus Company’s A380.**

**Notes:**
In the continuing evolution of maintenance, we are moving to an automated system that does not use people to accomplish the scheduled task.

Having a system that actually fixies itself is most likely down the road a bit.

## How HMMS Does It

**HMMS incorporates innovative, imbedded sensors, to provide continual real-time aircraft systems and structures health assessments**
**HMMS incorporates on-board state-of-the-art structural and systems integrity computer programs with decision making capabilities**

**Notes:**
How does HUMMS work?

There are sensors imbedded all over the aircraft.

The monitoring system is on all the time providing continuous real time assessments of the aircraft and its systems.

Monitoring all of those sensors is a full time job that is accomplished with on board computers running programs that have decisions making capabilities.
In some cases, these computer systems can turn systems on or off and accomplish abnormal procedures on behalf of the operating crew.

## What HMMS Does

**HMMS evaluates all flight-critical structures for integrity as part of an automated preflight checklist**
**HMMS provides the pilot with visual displays of the health of all systems prior to takeoff**
**HMMS displays any in-flight change in the health of the aircraft along with recommended action or automatically takes an action**
**HMMS automatically updates the life history of the aircraft so that accurate structural integrity assessments can be made**

**Notes:**
HUMMS provides the operating crew a real time view of the health of the aircraft, its structures and its systems.

## The Paradigm Shift  

**HMMS is a different way of doing the same thing**
**HMMS does not eliminate maintenance**
**HMMS embodies a shift to automatic, continuous, real time inspection activity rather than intermittent scheduled activity**

**Notes:**
The use of HUMMS involves a paradigm shift (a shift in thinking)

With HMMS, we are still doing the required maintenance, except that we are relying on the HMMS to tell us when maintenance is required rather than relying on a physical task to tell us whether maintenance is required or not.

HUMMS is more effective and efficient because it on working all the time instead of only when the supervisor hands the mechanic a work card.

## Current HMMS Usage

**HMMS has been implemented on helicopters for years **
**HMMS has been incorporated in auto, marine, and industrial applications.**
**This is the CHECK ENGINE LIGHT**
**This is the General Motors ONSTAR System**

**Notes:**
HUMMS is not new untested technology.

It has been around for a number of years on all kinds of industries.

## More HMMS Usage

**Military airborne target drones **
**Remotely piloted airborne vehicles**
**Space satellites**
**Hubble Telescope**

## What the Future Holds

**HMMS can provide continuous, real time monitoring of most of an aircraft structures and systems**
**HMMS can detect damage or deterioration of systems or structure without human intervention**
**HMMS can utilize an automatic downlink to notify ground stations of required maintenance**

**Notes:**
Continuing the evolutionary process, there may, quite possible, come a day when there will be no scheduled maintenance accomplished on aircraft that operate with no on-board operating crew.

## What the Future Holds

**Boeing 787 Advanced Technology:**
- “An open architecture will be at the heart of the 787's systems, which will be more simplified than today's airplanes and offer increased functionality. For example, the team is looking at incorporating health-monitoring systems that will allow the airplane to self-monitor and report maintenance requirements to ground-based computer systems.”

**Notes:**
Continuing the evolutionary process, there may, quite possible, come a day when there will be no scheduled maintenance accomplished on aircraft that operate with no on-board operating crew.

## FAA Guidance

**New Advisory and Inspector Handbook Material on scheduled maintenance management**
**New material is planned for 1Q CY07**

**Notes:**
The FAA has been working on updating its guidance for scheduled maintenance for over a year.

We expect to publish this new material, including information on HMMS, by the end of the first quarter of calendar year 2007.

## Objective

**From a functional basis, understand what HMMS is, how it works, and what the future holds**

**Notes:**
A quick review of what was covered.

## QUESTIONS?