Patent ID: 8423430

Claim:
A method of managing a supply chain of materials used to service fleet aircraft at multiple geographical service locations for a plurality of customers, said customers operating said fleet aircraft, by a single network integrator at a non-mobile central operations center, said network integrator a separate business entity from said customers, comprising the steps of: (A) said network integrator organizing a network of material suppliers; (B) said network integrator maintaining inventories of the materials at customer designated sites, said customer designated sites comprising said multiple geographical service locations; (C) said network integrator managing the material suppliers and the inventories at each of the customer designated sites; and (D) said network integrator providing the customers with electronic access to real-time data over a shared communications network controlled by said network integrator relating to an operational status of systems on-board the fleet aircraft including said fleet aircraft in flight, the real-time data being useful in performing maintenance requiring the materials maintained in the inventories, said real-time data collected by one or more computer servers at said central operations center controlled by said network integrator, said real-time data wirelessly received from each of said fleet aircraft and converted and stored by said one or more computer servers at said central operations center.