Going Electronic #2

Traceability

How do you define traceability? The dictionary won't tell you. It's one of those unique aviation terms that we all use ? like Rotable. But when a software company claims that their product offers full traceability, what do they really mean?

You ought to be able to trace any part back to the approved source. Usually that is pretty easy when the part is still sitting in the stores room. Even with a paper system, each part ? or batch of parts ? has the vendor tag on it, or one of yours with your PO number on it. Then you can dig out the PO and find out who the vendor was. In a perfect world, the packing slip with the certification will be attached to the PO. But once the part leaves the stores room, the traceability is usually lost unless your paper system is exceptional.

Unique Batch Numbers

Good software should be able to do much better than that. With WinAir, you can trace EVERY part right from cradle to grave without reference to ANY paper. Even consumables. If a packing fails three years after it was installed, WinAir can tell you where you bought it. And when. Even what you paid for it if you're interested.

Here's how it works. Every part that comes into stores gets a unique batch number. That batch number refers to a database record that lists your PO, vendor, packing slip number, date received, current location, quantity, shelf expiry date, and cost. All that information is available from one number. All you need to do is record the number on the part, or bag of parts, and you have complete source tracing. When you look up a part number in WinAir, you can see not just how many you have on hand and on order, but how many you have in each batch, where they are located, and what they cost.

When a part gets issued out of stores, it gets issued to a task on a work order, and a record of which batch the parts came out of will be stored against that job forever. This allows WinAir to produce not just complete tracing, but very accurate cost reporting, too. No cost averaging, first-in-first-out or any of that nonsense.

This also means that there is incredible historical detail available for every part number. You can see the entire history for each batch including how many were initially received, where every one went and what the sell price was. You can even adjust the cost, or any un-invoiced issue price and WinAir will save a historical record of that too. You can see when parts have been scrapped, lost, or expired on the shelf. You can split a consumable batch and move part of it to a new location.

Rotables get batch numbers too, but unlike consumables, a rotable can have many batch numbers over the course of its useful life. Each time it comes into stores ? either from a vendor, a repair shop, or an aircraft ? it gets a new batch number to track its source. Batches for rotables have a quantity of one and include the component serial number and condition. With a click of the right mouse button, you can sort the historical list for a rotable part number by serial number rather than batch number. Then you can see the entire history for one particular component including every removal from an aircraft, every repair order it went out on, when it came back in, and every issue out to an aircraft.

Many inventory applications don't have history for parts, or they average the cost of parts on hand. They may be able to tell you what your latest cost was, but they will not be able to tell you what a specific part cost you, or where it came from. And very few will be able to tell you where a specific part came from after it has been installed.