Maintenance & Engineering

Maintenance Planning Document (MPD)

The key for safe, reliable and cost-efficient aircraft operation is scheduled maintenance.

Aviation is one of the most regulated industries. Airlines operate within a quite demanding set of regulations, implementing rules and acceptable means of compliance with the goal to keep air travel safe and aircraft airworthy. Aircraft maintenance is undeniably a major factor to achieve safety and airworthiness. Beyond safety, the mission of aircraft maintenance is also to maintain reliability of the aircraft and all its inherent systems. Finally, aircraft safety and reliability are expected to be accomplished at a minimum total cost. It is opportune to perform regular maintenance in order to avoid unexpected/unplanned aircraft unavailability. The key for safe, reliable and cost-efficient aircraft operation is scheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance requirements are to be found in various documents, issued by Airbus, component manufacturers or by airworthiness authorities. In order to ease operators burden to manage different sources, Airbus publishes these source requirements in the document called the Maintenance Planning Document (MPD). The MPDs mission is to provide operators and maintenance organization with an easy access to these scheduled maintenance requirements and to publish complementary information needed to plan and perform the required maintenance. The MPD contains maintenance requirements, which are:
Already mandated or recommended by various source documents Repetitive Scheduled Routine maintenance On aircraft level Not any additional stand-alone maintenance requirements Not one time inspections/tasks Not unscheduled maintenance Not troubleshooting/defect correction Not on component level

The Maintenance Planning Document is available for each aircraft family. It is an envelope, not customized document valid for all aircraft of a family. The MPD is provided for: A300 A300-600 A310 A318/A319/A320/A321 A330 A340 A380 The MPDs main source documents are: Maintenance Review Board Report (MRBR) ALS Part 2: Damage-Tolerant Airworthiness Limitation Items (DT-ALI) ALS Part 3: Certification Maintenance Requirements (CMR) ALS Part 4: Ageing Systems Maintenance (ASM) ALS Part 5: Fuel Airworthiness Limitations (FAL)

Additional requirements from below listed documents may also be incorporated into the MPD: Airworthiness Directive (AD) All Operator Telex (AOT) Operator Information Telex (OIT) Service Bulletin (SB) Service Information Letter (SIL) Configuration, Maintenance and Procedures (CMP) for ETOPS The MPD is never the primary source for any maintenance action. Behind each MPD task there is an independent source.

The MPD sources vary in data format, layout, revision cycle, syntax and data fields provided. When incorporating maintenance tasks into the MPD, potentially missing information is filled and MPD specific information is added. MPD specific information is e.g. Manhour information, split in Task-MH, Access-MH and Preparation-MH Vendor Recommendations: MPD Appendix 3 provides complementary planning information for MPD tasks with interval VR Time Controlled Item (TCI) marker: Marks MPD tasks connected to equipment that needs to be tracked individually from airframe Access to the Landing Gear Overhaul Manual Cross reference lists between MPD and tasks, source requirements, AMM references, modifications (MOD) and Modification Service Bulletins (MOD SBs) Accesses, Preparations and Zones References to manuals providing additional information

Most important added value of the MPD is the link to the maintenance procedure, which describes the maintenance task in detail. Detailed maintenance procedures are published in the Aircraft Maintenance Manual (AMM). In other words, the MPD is the link between the concise maintenance requirement and the detailed maintenance procedure.
The MPD provides concise information on the The AMM provides information HOW WHAT WHEN WHERE WHO of maintenance.

to perform maintenance in detail.

The MPD is published in various formats for different use cases: AirN@v is the standard solution for advanced consultation of Airbus maintenance and engineering technical data. The Planning Module of AirN@v provides access to the MPD, with filtering capabilities, search functions and hyperlinks to other AirN@v documents. Page style format for printouts. Spreadsheet format for easy and quick consultation with filtering capability, not well-suited for printouts. (Text Structured Data Format) Plain ASCII file for upload into a Maintenance Information System (MIS). (Standard Generalized Markup Language) Format for upload into a Maintenance Information System (MIS).

AirN@v / Planning

PDF Excel TSDF SGML

The MPD contains approved maintenance requirements which are declared as Instructions for Continuous Airworthiness (ICA). Despite this, the MPD itself is not an approved document or declared as ICA. To satisfy these needs, operators are requested to establish a maintenance program, which needs to be periodically reviewed by their local aviation authorities. This program may be called differently from operator to operator. Some call it Operator Maintenance Program, others call it Operator Maintenance Schedule or Aircraft Maintenance Program. Airbus publishes the MPD as a basis for this operator maintenance program. MPD tasks need to be adapted to local requirements, some may need to be adjusted to the equipment that the operator has installed on his fleet, and others need to be customized to the operation of an airline.

Due to the fact that most operators consider an update of their maintenance program as a high burden, Airbus tries to keep the number of MPD revisions to a minimum. The MPD is only revised, after a major source document is revised. Major MPD source documents are MRBR and ALS Parts. In between MPD Revisions, the MPD is re-issued on a quarterly basis. In these MPD Issues, only AMM references and the VR Appendix are updated.

2011
I00 I01 I02 I00 I01
MPD Rev. N

2012

2013

Release of new MRBR: MPD Rev. N+1

I00

I01

I02

I03

Release of new ALI report: MPD Rev. N+2

1 2 3 4 Quarter of the year

As an additional service, MPD Revision Information are published in the Maintenance & Engineering Community on www.airbusworld.com.

MPD Revision Information

Published after revision of major documents

Published quarterly, in parallel with AMM

Continuously updated Highlights new or changed maintenance requirements to be introduced in the next MPD revision

MPD Revision

MPD Issue

Reflecting new or changed maintenance requirements Revision of operator scheduled maintenance program needed

Updates AMM and VR information Revision of operator scheduled maintenance program not needed

The MPD Revision Information contains new or changed maintenance requirements which occur between MPD Revisions and may be introduced in the next MPD Revision. It is possible to setup an email notification service from the M&E community on AirbusWorld to be informed about new MPD Revisions, Issues and Revision Information. There are various checks implemented into the MPD process to ensure quality. The scheduled maintenance process is audited by the EASA on a regular basis. In addition there is a periodic EN9100 audit. Beginning of 2011, a new function was introduced to continuously check the MPD quality from a customer point of view. The function is not located within the MPD department, but in the department providing services based on the MPD. Customers are cordially invited to contribute to the MPD development. Contribution is easy and can be done via the existing working groups, committees and symposiums that influence the MPD and the MPD source documents. The most influential are: Technical symposiums MRBR working group meetings Structure Task Group (STG) meetings Industry Steering Committee (ISC) meetings

Individual feedback is always welcome and can be given via the Airbus Scheduled Maintenance Frontdesk sched.maint@airbus.com Airbus provides the Maintenance Planning Document as a free of charge service. Beyond this there are also additional services available.

Airbus offers the AirPl@n suite of services to support our customers to develop their customized Operator Maintenance Program and the associated maintenance planning.

AIRBUS S.A.S. 31707 Blagnac Cedex, France. AIRBUS S.A.S. 2012 all rights reserved, Airbus, its logo, A300, A310, A318, A319, A320, A321, A330, A340, A350, A380, A400M are registered trademarks. Concept design by Function Communication GDIC. Confidential and proprietary document. This document and all information contained herein is the sole property of AIRBUS S.A.S. No intellectual property rights are granted by the delivery of this document or the disclosure of its content. This document shall not be reproduced or disclosed to a third party without the express written consent of AIRBUS S.A.S. This document and its content shall not be used for any purpose other than that for which it is supplied. The statements made herein do not constitute an offer. They are based on the mentioned assumptions and are expressed in good faith. Where the supporting grounds for these statements are not shown, AIRBUS S.A.S. will be pleased to explain the basis thereof.