PFU (EMEA) Limited, a Fujitsu company, the world's leading scanner manufacturer, today announced it has been selected by Flybe to improve the management of crucial maintenance documents within its maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) division. Integrated into solutions provider InSite Data Systems’ DocuStore document management software, the Fujitsu N7100 enables teams to scan, review and approve important paperwork in less than 24 hours.

DocuStore, which is designed to capture documents from a wide variety of sources, has been implemented at Flybe to capture vital information from maintenance documentation within the MRO division, enabling engineering teams to upload, manage and review their documents from the cloud quickly and securely.

Every time an aircraft enters a maintenance bay, the review and repair activities generate large volumes of documents that must be stored and managed efficiently. These maintenance documents being managed through the DocuStore system are crucial, and if lost, the airplane cannot be returned to service, meaning improving the workflow and efficiencies of this process is not only important to save the time of the engineer and speed up approval processes, but also to mitigate the risk of lost or misplaced documents, which could result in significant internal costs. 

The DocuStore solution has been paired with ‘one touch’ scanners from PFU (EMEA) Limited to sort and store information as required, enabling aero engineers to concentrate on their job rather than the management of the documents. The capture, identification and processing capabilities of the DocuStore solution enables the system to manage the entire process, with a complete audit trail for every document indicating who scanned, checked and approved it.

Commenting on the partnership, Nicholas Gorton, Production Support Manager ay Flybe, said: “At Flybe we were looking to improve our document control in two ways. We needed a faster method of electronically capturing the documents and a more user-friendly search function. The improvement in scanning and archiving was immense – we were able to improve the delivery of completed maintenance data to our customers from 20-30 days to 24 hours. The quality of the scans means that our ability to search within the documents has had a positive impact on our efficiency. The N7100 is tough and easy to use too – the hangar is a busy place with documents being fed through the scanner at a high frequency and often in different orientations. The N7100 sorts that problem out for us without human input”

When InSite was asked by Flybe to design a system to capture documents directly from the aircraft service bays, we immediately turned to PFU to provide the capture hardware," said Nimesh Desai, InSite's implementations director. "The ability to connect the Fujitsu N7100 directly to a network without the need for a PC meant it integrated perfectly with Flybe's thin client architecture, while the ability to customise the scanner's touch screen interface enabled us to deliver a simple, efficient user experience. The compact design and price point of the N7100 allows the installation of a distributed collection of scanners ensuring that documents are captured as completed, eliminating the risk of loss and speeding up the approval process."

“For Flybe, any delays that hamper its fleet network can have huge repercussions on the business, so it’s vital that the aircraft servicing runs as smoothly as possible,” explains Mike Nelson, Senior Vice President, PFU (EMEA) Limited. “In an increasingly competitive landscape, it’s vital that businesses can deliver high quality services to their customers in a timely manner. By working with InSite, we’re enabling the MRO division to cut the service time on its aircraft down to just one day, instead of up to three weeks.”