Difficulties of GSE Fleet Management

Aviation is proud of being the world’s safest means of transportation for people and goods, and a fundamental aspect that ensures this level of safety is the aircraft and aircraft component maintenance performed by aircraft operators (such as airlines and private jet charter companies) and Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) service providers.

To perform both operation and maintenance activities in aviation, these MRO providers make use of specialized facilities, trained and certified personnel, dedicated tools, and a vast source of ground support equipment (GSE) necessary to comply with aviation safety standards and technical requirements.

No matter the size of the organization, the management of the fleet of GSE can become a complex and very demanding workload. In this article, we will explore the characteristics of Ground Support Equipment that make their management so challenging and introduce a solution that will solve this for you.

Ground Service Equipment Inventory

The catalog and inventory of ground support equipment operated by any organization in the aviation world is vast and diverse: aircraft jacks, platform scales, slings, access platforms, electrical power generators, tow bars, electronic test equipment, and many other specialized equipment are part of the list of GSE used daily in aviation.

To manage this GSE abundance, it must be taken also into account that each piece of equipment has its own identity and therefore needs individual tracking planning and tasking.

The identity of a specific GSE is composed and not limited by:

• The technical identification of the type: part number, name, and manufacturer.
• The equipment unique identification: serial number, date of manufacture, traceability record to any applicable standard.
• The documentation applicable to the specific unit. Some documentation is issued by the manufacturer (operation manual, maintenance manual, illustrated parts catalog, service bulletins), and other applicable documentation is issued by the airworthiness authority of each country (like advisory circulars).
• The maintenance records of the unit (malfunctions detected, solutions applied, spares changed, etc.)
• The maintenance and calibration plan for each unit. That is, the schedule of the unit that shows when the preventive maintenance must be done, and the calendar that details when a periodic calibration must be performed.

By just multiplying the number of GSE units times the number of variables that compose the GSE identity, it is easy to infer that keeping the GSE fleet under control maybe not an easy walk in the park.

What GSE fleet management demands from your organization

The management of a fleet of ground support equipment demands valuable time of critical human resources from your organization, such as:

• planning department.
• maintenance service.
• engineering department.
• logistics and purchasing service
• production quality.
• External supplier audit service, etc.

All these resources are activated each time a GSE unit needs to be tracked for maintenance, repair, and calibration purposes. So, if your GSE inventory is growing and complexity, you will be interested in finding a solution that could do this job for you

The solution you need

We, at e2b calibration, can serve your organization becoming a one stop shop solution for your GSE fleet management. In simple words, we take care of the GSE control, maintenance, and calibration, from end to end, with the expertise and experience of our human and technical resources.

Working with the support of Anytime Assets, a cloud-based platform developed by our company, e2B calibration will:

• Create your GSE catalog.
• Update your GSE inventory.
• Provide each GSE unit its unique identity, associating documents and records.
• Plan the preventive maintenance and periodic calibration schedules.
• Perform calibrations at our own ISO/IEC 17025 accredited lab and outsource calibrations to other qualified suppliers for equipment our of our current scope.
• Perform maintenance to a large diversity of GSE equipment in our facilities.

Maintenance of Ground Support Equipment (GSE) is important for any aviation company.  e2b calibration is an ISO 17025: 2017 calibration and repair laboratory, specializing in MRO and FBO calibration. We perform calibration procedures on-site saving you time and money.  Please contact e2b calibration with your request, and we will be glad to design a solution to your needs.