4,600 plus Southwest employees and third-party staff are now empowered to streamline maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) processes for its fleet of almost 730 aircraft.
Southwest Airlines has deployed IFS as its enterprise maintenance management standard to optimize operational performance by safeguarding aircraft reliability and availability. IFS is now live across the airline’s total fleet of almost 730 aircraft including the Boeing 737-700, 737-800, and 737 MAX 8. This solution will allow Southwest to stay true and focused on its principles of quality and compliance while further modernizing its already industry-leading processes.
Landon Nitschke, Southwest Airlines Senior Vice President, Technical Operations said, “Effectively operating and delivering a fleet of safe and reliable aircraft is our utmost priority and this starts with maintenance. IFS gives us the peace of mind and control we need to not only maximize the airtime of our fleet but deliver what is important to our customers – on-time flights and a great travel experience. The value of IFS does not stop at aircraft maintenance – the solution’s open architecture means we have embedded it and made it an integral component of our enterprise-wide IT ecosystem. With careful planning and preparation, we are proud to have successfully undertaken the largest single MRO system migration in the history of our industry.”
Southwest has undertaken an initiative to replace multiple legacy maintenance and compliance systems to harmonize mission-critical processes into a single solution. The IFS solution provides Southwest maintenance personnel the information they need to streamline configuration control and compliance management processes. The additional insights delivered by IFS are helping drive efficiencies through the transformation and automation of processes enabled with a mobile user experience. As part of its MRO digital transformation, Southwest conducted an end-to-end review and refinement of its processes to identify a greater optimization of its technical operations as well as promote a more digital way of working and moving away from paper. The digitization of processes is also positively impacting compliance by providing real-time validation at the point of maintenance.
Scott Helmer, IFS President, Aerospace and Defense, said, “Southwest is an innovator among the world’s airlines, and this milestone achievement speaks to the company’s ambition and commitment to excellence. Throughout this project, IFS demonstrated an ability to handle the scale and volumetrics of the world’s largest airlines and was subjected to load testing that simulated a fleet of 1,000 aircraft. I am delighted that again IFS commitment to this industry is acknowledged with Southwest’s choice; it is now well-positioned to continue its industry leadership in delivering world-class moments of services for its customers.”
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Southwest has become the latest airline to deploy IFS, alongside other industry leaders that include Air France-KLM Group, China Airlines, LATAM Airlines, Qantas, and more. In deploying IFS for aviation maintenance, Southwest has implemented comprehensive and built-for-purpose airline maintenance functionality built into IFS Cloud.
