ASG-Safari Solutions Extends MIRO Technologies' GOLD™ Solution, Providing AAR with Greater Reporting Capabilities
Industry: Aviation/Aerospace
Location: Wood Dale, Illinois
AAR is a leading provider of products and value-added services to the worldwide aviation/aerospace industry. Products and services include customized inventory management and logistics programs; maintenance, repair, and overhaul of aircraft, aircraft components, and engine components; engine and aircraft sales and leasing; and the manufacture of cargo systems, composite structures, and mobility systems. Headquartered in Wood Dale, Illinois, AAR serves commercial and government aircraft fleet operators, original equipment manufacturers, and independent service customers throughout the world. AAR is one of the world's leading aviation after-market support companies, with more than 2,400 employees located around the world. Further information can be found at www.aarcorp.com.
The Challenge
The challenge faced by AAR was not unique: its employees and customers required better insight into their data to make critical business decisions, especially in regard to budgeting and inventory. Previous methods of reporting were labor-intensive and involved multiple individuals and a variety of steps before the information reached the ultimate user.
Although data was available in the host application, analysts experienced difficulty in combining tables to consolidate information for the required reports. It was also often difficult to determine which tables contained exactly the right information. There was no "auto-import" feature, which permits the data to be pulled from the application into the user's viewing tool of choice; this forced analysts to utilize multi-step processes to identify the data, process it, merge it together, and then produce the final output for the end-user. The entire process took an average of three hours per report.
ASG Solution
Beginning in 2001, ASG and its partner, MIRO Technologies, Inc. (formerly Spirent Systems), deployed the ASG-Safari suite of solutions to enhance the capabilities of MIRO AuRA users. In 2003, ASG and MIRO Technologies decided to extend ASG-Safari to users of MIRO's GOLD application. AAR was one of the first GOLD customers to take advantage of this expanded functionality. Through the use of ASG-Safari solutions, specifically ASG-Safari InfoServer, ASG-Safari Administrator, and ASG-Safari OpenAccess, AAR has significantly expanded its ability to report on the data provided by the GOLD application.
ASG-Safari Administrator has enabled AAR employees and customers to gain better insight into all of the information contained within the GOLD application. According to Mark deRu, Director of the AAR's Logistics Development, analysts at AAR have a much clearer picture of the overall data structure. "The ASG-Safari data dictionary has really been an asset for us in understanding how the data is stored and maintained in GOLD," he stated.
Furthermore, GOLD data is organized and consolidated by ASG-Safari Administrator, processed efficiently by ASG-Safari InfoServer, and directed to the user's viewing tool of choice via ASG-Safari OpenAccess.
Measurable Results
As a result of the implementation of ASG-Safari solutions, AAR's reporting capabilities have not only been expanded, but the steps required to produce reports have been streamlined significantly. Reports that were produced through a multi-step process are now available at the click of a button, and they can be processed in a fraction of the previous three hours per report.
Data joining (view creation) is now easier and faster, enabling the delivery of greater volumes of data to AAR's employees and customers. As a result, the budgeting and inventory-level analysis conducted by the program management team has improved significantly, providing timely information in much greater quantity.
Lorrinda Baldwin, AAR Logistics Supervisor, estimates that AAR's usage of the information provided by the GOLD application has doubled, primarily because of the improved insight into the data provided by the ASG-Safari solutions. "It is difficult to recall how we produced reports before we implemented ASG-Safari," she said.
