In customer meetings, Enigma is frequently asked, “do you support 3D models?” The answer is unequivocally, yes.

For manufacturers, many new products are designed using 3D models and assemblies; delivering that detailed data to mechanics and field engineers seems like a cool piece of functionality for any modern parts catalog. However, the goal for manufacturers should be more than just impressing the guys on the front lines (mechanics, dealers and customers); the goal should be to grow the bottom line.

3D models look nice but they don’t provide all the data that service reps need. A technician needs to do more than spin a part on the screen, they also need the most up-to-date service bulletins, manuals, and schematics, and then they need to order the necessary parts. In other words, mechanics need to know how to fix the machine and how to place an order. If a parts catalog doesn’t include service manuals, bulletins, shopping carts and other collateral such as training videos and brochures, then 3D models provide limited value to the customer.

Most OEMs want to make it easy to maintain their machines and order their parts. This drives customer satisfaction and aftermarket sales. Enigma electronic parts catalog (EPC) solutions do four things: 1) make it easy to package all service and parts information (not just the models or parts lists) into a single integrated parts catalog; 2) publish that catalog to the web, to DVD or to the cloud; 3) make it easy for dealers, mechanics and customers to find parts and service information according to equipment serial number, type, configuration/trim package or other criteria; 4) automate the parts ordering and procurement process.  Enigma helps OEMs create and update a fully integrated parts catalog that improves customer and dealer support.

That’s why Enigma EPC’s do more than display 3D models; they integrate seamlessly with all aftermarket support solutions (ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, ECM, etc.). OEMs can leverage their 3D models beyond engineering and manufacturing…all the way to the service bay. Enigma supports 3D viewing solutions, like Oracle AutoVue and Right Hemisphere. (To learn more about the Enigma-Oracle joint solution for parts ordering, click here.)

OEMs can now reuse 3D models in their interactive EPCs, tying them into back-office order management systems to provide a one-stop shop for identifying, locating and ordering OEM branded parts. Integrating Enigma with 3D models results in a complete parts and service solution that improves dealer, technician and customer support, and drives OEM parts revenue.

I just returned from the 2nd Annual SAP Airline Solution Summit in Dallas, which brought together professionals from around the world from airlines, OEMs, MRO shops, software vendors, IT consultants and even rail professionals. It was an impressive group with a lot of give-and-take between the presenters, the exhibitors and the audience.

During the afternoon breakout sessions, Enigma presented on the topic “Maintenance Scheduling and Integration to Technical Information.” It was a topic that drew a large audience, since we described the impact of OEM revisions on airlines, specifically on the efficiency, consistency and cost of MRO operations. Within this context, Enigma introduced a strategy for improving revision management and adoption through better technology and integration with ERP, tech pubs and maintenance planning systems.

The fact is, how OEM revisions and engineering orders/modifications are managed and integrated into scheduled and unscheduled maintenance activities affects the speed and compliance of aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO). Since we are talking about revenue-generating assets, MRO efficiency and quality affects the very core of business operations. As a result, for many airlines keeping tech pubs and ERP/MRO systems up-to-date and synchronized has become a full-time job. (This is not unique to airlines but affects every transportation company and transit authority.)

Of particular interest to this audience was that Enigma automatically extracts information from the OEM’s illustrated parts catalogs (IPC), maintenance planning documents (MPD) and maintenance manuals (AMM/EM) and then updates the master parts list (MPL), maintenance requirements (MR) and job cards (task cards) in SAP. This ensures that service and parts data is always in-sync across the airline, whether it is used in a hangar/depot or in the field/flight-line. Since OEMs revise and update their technical documents frequently, airlines consider data accuracy and synchronization to be a huge benefit in terms of maintenance productivity, quality and compliance.

Another consideration is that because technical content directly impacts an airline’s second largest workforce (mechanics and engineers), the quality of that content, more than almost any other factor, determines if an MRO/ERP system succeeds or fails. When Enigma shared some industry metrics regarding the number of OEM changes, and the impact on maintenance operations, it proved the point and highlighted the need for an integrated solution of SAP, HCL-Axon and Enigma to improve aircraft MRO.

The audience in Dallas was very receptive to the insights Enigma was able to provide. Following our presentation, we had a number of conversations regarding the application of this solution beyond airlines including: rail, maritime and freight. We appreciate SAP inviting Enigma to participate in this annual event and hope to have similar opportunities in the future.

Get your company's parts and service information on the Web in 90-days, and update it as often as you want. That's one of the many benefits of Enigma SaaS EPC.

Faster setup and faster revisions, these are the hallmarks of Enigma's new offering and they result in more accurate information and better support for customers, dealers and distributors. These are also the features most requested by current and future customers.

Why do I bring that up? Because with the release of SaaS EPC, Enigma continues its record of providing superior customer performance and value. Once again, Enigma has recognized the deep-seated concerns and challenges that face our customers, and have provided a solution. No longer do companies need to outsource the creation of parts and service catalogs to a 3^rd party, and then incur additional costs and delays when changes are required. Now companies of all sizes can afford to have a dynamic and effective web presence for aftermarket sales and support.

We took the industry-leading Enigma 3C catalog technology—currently serving some of the world's largest and most sophisticated manufacturing companies—and crafted a solution that is deployed quickly and keeps the OEM in control of their aftermarket business and customer support. By making ease-of-use a priority and focusing on the needs of OEMs and customers, Enigma SaaS EPC changes the game for companies that rely on aftermarket revenues.

Enigma SaaS EPC is truly an out-of-the-box solution that runs in "The Cloud" and lowers the cost for companies to publish and maintain their parts catalogs and service information. This EPC creates new revenue opportunities for OEMs, and helps dealers/distributors provide faster, more accurate service and support. Because it uses a SaaS model, Enigma SaaS EPC dramatically reduces IT support costs. It complements existing enterprise and e-commerce offerings and improves parts visibility and field responsiveness. Perhaps most importantly, Enigma SaaS EPC improves aftermarket part sales, increases equipment uptime and improves brand loyalty.

There are more benefits that companies will realize by implementing Enigma SaaS EPC but the best way to determine if there's a fit is to have a conversation. We look forward to talking with you about the opportunities and benefits associated with our newest product offering—Enigma SaaS EPC.

Enigma was pleased to host our airline customers at Enigma's 2010 Aviation User Conference. This two-day event in Boston gathered clients and partners from around the world for a wide-array of best practice sessions and product roadmap discussions designed to improve their maintenance and engineering operations.

The focus was on helping our customers realize even greater value from their Enigma investment by integrating ERP/MRO and content management (ECM) systems, thereby bridging the gap between maintenance and engineering (M&E), tech pubs and inventory. One of our longtime customers got the point when he said, "This has grown to be way more than a document viewer!"

The advantage Enigma brings to the aviation community is to ensure service and support data is up-to-date and synchronized across all aspects of aircraft maintenance, which results in faster turn-times, better compliance and lower costs.

The conference sessions were interactive, giving customers an opportunity to ask questions and provide feedback to Enigma executives, developers and technology partners.

Maintenance and engineering executives from some of the world's leading airlines, including Korean Airlines, Japan Airlines and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, attended the conference. In addition, guest speakers from Enigma's key aviation partners, Oracle and SAP, delivered presentations on integrating with corporate IT applications. SAP remarked, "We like working with Enigma because they're smart and aggressive," to which one customer added:  "They are aggressive but they're really, really smart."

At the request of our customers, Enigma is making the Aviation User Conference an annual event, and has also created a Customer Advisory Board to dive even deeper into short-term and long-term development plans for improving aircraft maintenance and back-office integration.

Around the globe, there are many conferences each year dedicated to aviation MRO but clearly there is a need for more dialogue and exchange on these topics. The complex issues surrounding aircraft maintenance planning, engineering and execution demand ongoing conversations with peers, and Enigma was delighted to provide a useful forum for that.

The 2010 ATA e-Business Forum, held a few weeks ago in Seattle, was a great success. Of course, being close to Boeing's facilities presented its own benefits. As my taxi passed their plant, just off Interstate 5, I got to see one of the 787 test planes taking off, and it was climbing out at a serious rate. (Watching airplanes do their thing never gets old for me.) The agenda for this event was well balanced, touching on a combination of S1000D, RFID, EFB and MRO topics. This was a well-executed conference, with over 250 attendees from 120 companies, including airlines, MRO shops, OEMs, consultants and technology providers.

The presenters were clearly interested in advocating emerging data standards, like S1000D, and the impact those standards would have on paperless maintenance and flight operations. And while many presentations focused on overcoming the challenges of implementing new data standards, only a few talked about the current maintenance and tech ops environment and how to improve the lives of mechanics today—rather than sometime in the future.

During the Enigma presentation, I shared some sobering numbers about the prevalence of PDF in airline maintenance and the challenges of getting PDF and XML to coexist in a way that helps mechanics' productivity. (Depending on the airline you talk to, 30-70% of OEM manuals are provided in PDF format.) This is a critical issue because for all the great ideas and good intentions around new data standards, without making the PDF content interactive most of those initiatives won't benefit airlines and MROs.

In the GE Aviation presentation, they highlighted the ability to publish full maintenance revisions of engine manuals in about 70 days, and incremental changes almost immediately. However, GE also stressed that a large number of airlines are 1-2 full revisions behind for implementing those new manuals. GE even admitted that at some airlines, engine manuals are as much as 12 months out of date.

GE's presentation could not have been timed better for Enigma. We followed GE and addressed the very topic they were discussing, which is the persistent challenge that airlines face trying to accelerate the implementation of OEM revisions and integrate tech pubs with ERP/MRO. This problem causes an airline's tech pubs and engineering planning systems to get out-of-sync, which results in discrepancies between how line and base maintenance is performed. GE had no answers to this problem, which is understandable because they simply publish maintenance revisions and let the airlines implement them. Enigma, on the other hand, does have answers because we work with airlines to make them more efficient and consistent.

For many attendees, this was the first time they learned that airlines can now implement a fully-integrated maintenance department that ties together tech pubs, engineering, maintenance planning, inventory, line and base maintenance. This is the key to faster maintenance, lower costs and improved compliance. Based on the large number of follow-up questions and comments, it is clear that airlines are having a difficult time managing all the different data formats and standards they are forced to support. Furthermore, it is clear that Boeing, Airbus and all the other manufacturers will continue to have different interpretations of the relevant specs and standards. It is also clear that the new standards are being phased-in by aircraft model and by type of manual, so existing aircraft will be waiting a long time for the new data formats. While this problem is not going away anytime soon, Enigma reduces the impact it has on the airlines' and MRO shops' business.

As the conference in Seattle came to a close, we were encouraged by the high level of customer interest in solving the challenges of airline maintenance. Having many airline customers, Enigma understands the importance of addressing the growing concerns—economic, regulatory, safety, productivity, quality, retirement, etc.—that have come to dominate today's aviation business strategy, and we can help you address them.

There's not a lot of sympathy for BP's financial troubles right now, given the loss of human life, and the catastrophic environmental and economic costs resulting from the Deepwater Horizon explosion. But it's safe to say that BP is facing some catastrophic financial losses as well. Much of the media will focus on the company's cleanup costs; but even without the cleanup costs, BP is currently losing huge sums of money because the assets the rig was sent to find are literally floating away. There is the opportunity cost, in terms of lost drilling time to find new oil deposits, assuming another rig can't be found to continue operations. Finally there is the replacement cost, which will exceed the original cost of $350M. (It should be noted that BP didn't own Deepwater Horizon but was leasing it from Transocean.)

There's no shortage of finger-pointing right now, and this blog post does not purport to have any solutions or to blame any organization for the tragedy. Whether this tragedy was caused by human error or equipment failure is for the experts to determine. Rather, in this post I want to address the cost of equipment downtime.

For companies that rely on complex, capital equipment to generate revenue, it's critical to keep that equipment up and running. We don't have any definitive data points about the average cost of oil rig downtime, but it is undoubtedly high. Even before labor and maintenance costs, BP was leasing the rig for nearly $500,000 a day according to this source. Given BP's profits, the value of the oil extracted must be higher than that and the loss of this rig has put those assets in jeopardy. According to Bloomberg.com, "Transocean Ltd., the world's largest offshore oil driller, said the sinking of its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico will increase 2010 operating costs by $200 million and will cut revenue by $130 million."

Of course oil companies are concerned with rig maintenance and reliability; it makes economic sense to keep rigs running safely and efficiently. To do that, they need to keep comprehensive records of maintenance and repair operations, invest in preventive maintenance, and provide access to maintenance manuals and parts information. 

A recent news article, however, suggests that oil companies might not be investing enough time into understanding or analyzing malfunctions because they are so intent on just getting the equipment back online:

"The 10-page 2003 report, delivered at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston that year, suggests that the industry was so focused on drilling that it was willing to pay higher maintenance costs to keep rigs operating and avoid downtime rather than address some of the fundamental problems with the blowout preventers...

"Because of the pressure on getting the equipment back to work, root cause analysis of the failures is generally not performed," the report said. "In many operations, high maintenance is accepted as a necessary evil to prevent downtime." Read more here and here.

It just so happens that this week there was a major oil industry conference in Houston, the Offshore Technology Conference. Sponsored by a variety of household oil industry names such as ExxonMobil and BP, this conference is all about the science, nuts and bolts of offshore oil drilling (though its program now also addresses to a smaller degree alternative offshore energy sources such as geothermal and wind energy sources.)

The conference includes hundreds of technical presentations, many of which touch upon maintenance issues, but the vast majority of topics are on exploration and extraction. Here's the agenda. Not surprisingly, BP cancelled a presentation that it was supposed to deliver at the conference, on "The Challenges and Rewards in Operating in the World's Offshore Basins."

There are conferences that are solely dedicated to oil and gas equipment maintenance, and here are two I am aware of:

1. Oil and Gas Maintenance Technology North America
2. Middle East's Pipeline Rehabilitation & Maintenance Conference & Exhibition

Hopefully these conferences will shed light on methods of preventing future catastrophic rig failures, and improving maintenance. As the Deepwater Horizon shows us, the high-cost of downtime comes in many forms.

Attendance at this week's MRO Americas Conference and Exhibition seemed lighter than in past years. Representation from Europe, in particular, was clearly lacking. (Of course, a volcano in Iceland might have had something to do with that.) As a result, using this year's show as a barometer for the MRO market overall might not reveal the actual state of affairs.

Enigma was pleased to join Oracle's booth, where both companies had an opportunity to demonstrate key products for aviation maintenance like Enigma InService MRO, InService JCG and Revision Manager as well as the integration with Oracle cMRO and AutoVue. Oracle also invited Sean Tucker, world champion aerobatic pilot, to join the booth, sign autographs and talk airplanes and flying.

The conference included a number of presentations regarding the impact of globalization on maintenance operations. Coverage of these topics appears to reinforce the ongoing importance of fast access to accurate and relevant data—worldwide. The ATA also ran a couple sessions on airworthiness, regulatory compliance and the challenges for improving visibility of maintenance decisions throughout the MRO process, while also finding ways to control costs.

Despite the effects of Eyjafjallajokull (that's the name of the volcano), this year's MRO Americas Conference was a success. While we missed some of our European colleagues, we learned a lot from those who could attend, and MRO Americas continues to be the must-attend show for all things related to aviation MRO.

In the December Reverse Logistics Today blog, Michael Blumberg (president of the Blumberg Advisory Group) wrote a post titled, Competition in the Aftermarket Never Hurt Anyone in which he claims that competition in the aftermarket is good for an OEM's business. He is talking about independent service organizations (ISO) in the IT space but during a recent conversation he insisted that aftermarket competition is good for every industry.  In the blog Blumberg writes, "The fact of the matter is that independents provide value to manufacturers by the mere fact that they force manufacturers to be proactive and innovative in serving their customers." Given that parts and service generates significant profits for most OEMs, and their dealers, Blumberg's assertion that aftermarket competition is good for OEMs begs the question, "How so?" How is competition good for an OEM? It makes no sense.

In today's economy, profits from product sales are abysmally low. Looking at the automotive industry, when car buyers brag about paying less than a hundred dollars over invoice, you know that parts and service have become the keys to an OEM's survival. This situation didn't come about overnight; product prices were driven down by fierce competition and so, to remain viable, OEMs had to generate profits on the back-end. (Just like the razor and blades business model.) Automotive OEMs, and their dealers, are now struggling against ISOs who use knock-off parts and quick-fix service techniques. And this is supposed to be good for OEMs?

Automotive OEMs have valid concerns regarding 3rd party service and parts. For instance, how will OEMs recoup the profits lost to competitors? Will they raise prices on the initial customer purchase? Blumberg makes the point that customers like choice, but does that require OEMs to put profits at risk? Without profits there is no company, without a company there are no products, without products there is no aftermarket—investments, jobs, customers and partners all go away. In light of this, unless the lack of aftermarket competition is hurting new product sales, or risking customer safety, what is the rationale for OEMs to embrace competition and give away business? It may appear to be a nice thing to do for customers but is it fair to the owners that invested money, or the employees working toward a raise, or the partners hoping to expand operations?

Looking beyond profits, what impact does aftermarket competition have on an OEM's brand loyalty and customer satisfaction? One reason for OEMs to maintain a dedicated service channel (dealer, distributor, repair facility, etc.) is to ensure that high quality service and parts are being installed on their equipment. This is important because liability, warranties and repeat business come into play, and when a repair goes wrong, customers may or may not blame the ISO but they almost always blame the OEM. (Anytime equipment is unavailable for customer use the OEM's brand is tarnished.) OEMs know that positive brand experiences before, during and after a service visit are the key to generating brand loyalty and repeat business. With that in mind, I don't understand how ISO competition helps the OEM's owners, employees, partners or even their customers.

I think Blumberg's larger point is that competition, in general, is good for markets. He writes that, "Most companies win market share and create sustainable, profitable revenue growth through a business model built upon a commitment to customer satistaction, quality processes, highly effecient systems, and well trained people" [sic]. In principal, I tend to agree. However, when it comes to aftermarket parts and service I think it's too easy for ISOs to criticize OEMs and imply they're taking advantage of customers. (We see this in Massachusetts where attack ads advocating for the automotive "Right to Repair" legislation are currently running. This proposed law was critiqued here.) While I won't claim that OEMs always operate with the purest of motives, neither do their smaller independent competitors. It's just harder to blame the little guy.

Should OEMs, from any industry, embrace aftermarket competition for parts and service? Despite Blumberg's post, I'm still not sure how that can be good for them.

This week's Aircraft Commerce: Airline & Aerospace MRO & Operations IT Conference for the Americas was a great success. It's the first time this event has been held in North America—over the past four years the focus was on EMEA and APAC. This was a well-executed conference, with over 200 attendees from 60 companies (from across the Americas) and 22 different exhibitors.

By specifically focusing on IT for airline MRO and operations, this event fills a gap in the current list of aviation conferences. Moving forward, we believe this show will gain importance for the aviation community as automation, compliance and safety become a focal point of technology and cost-saving initiatives.

For many attendees, this was the first time they learned that the wait for paperless is over; the technology is available and is being rolled-out today at numerous airlines around the world. Those in attendance seemed to agree, based on the feedback received from the Tuesday morning presentation: "IT considerations in a modern MRO facility; Will paperless become a reality?" delivered by Scot Struminger, FedEx Service's VP of Airline Technology and Jonathan Yaron, Enigma's CEO. Not only was the audience very receptive to the topic, but Scot and Jonathan were pulled into numerous conversations with attendees throughout the remaining two days of the conference.

As the show in Miami came to a close, Enigma was encouraged by the renewed level of interest in finding IT solutions to address the challenges of operating an airline or an MRO organization. Having worked with many OEMs, airlines and MROs we know we can help the aviation community alleviate the growing concerns—economic, regulatory, safety, productivity, quality, retirement, etc.—that have come to dominate today's aviation business strategy.

The San Francisco Bay Area is nice this time of year, or so I was told. Instead, I got smacked with wind and rain. Nevertheless, Oracle's 4th Annual Maintenance Summit was well worth the inclement weather. Just to put things in perspective, I was at this event because the attendees represent some of the most sophisticated operators of complex equipment on the planet. It's also interesting to note that in 2009, Oracle ALM/EAM products exceeded the 4,000 customer mark. That's pretty impressive.

Presentations were almost exclusively delivered by customers, all of whom were quite open about the pros and cons of their implementation decisions. Customers spoke at length about the technical challenges of converting legacy systems and integrating with financial apps. They also spoke about the organizational challenges of rolling out a modern asset management system to an aging and (somewhat) skeptical workforce.

While I'm sure the speakers were hand-picked, it would be wrong to assume these customers white-washed their experience for Oracle's benefit. They seemed to be truly interested in helping others, even their competitors, avoid the mistakes they had made. Speakers highlighted problems they encountered with the software, the implementation strategy, and their own organizations. Yet in the end, all of the customers I asked were reporting at least 10% improvement in supply chain, maintenance and uptime.

Once the Oracle software went live, companies reported a renewed relationship between the maintenance and finance departments because finance had better visibility into ongoing operations, they could understand the basis for maintenance decisions, and ultimately because the resulting cost savings were clear to all involved.

Many of the companies I met were actively asking, what's next? (i.e. "Now that finance is on our side, how do we keep delivering savings?") These companies were fascinated by the idea of moving beyond asset management and maintenance scheduling, to start optimizing maintenance execution. Our discussions revolved around ways to help mechanics and technicians work more efficiently and deliver more consistent quality. For many of the companies I met, this topic was reaching a critical stage as they face the challenge of a large workforce entering retirement and young replacement workers that lack the required experience.

As Enigma moves deeper into 2010, we look forward to discussing innovative solutions to this problem with the customers and attendees of Oracle's Maintenance Summit. With a rich set of Oracle integrations already in place, Enigma is perfectly positioned to help companies significantly improve their aftermarket business and maintenance processes. And it now seems there are 4,000 of those companies that may be interested.