Irishman to save airlines billions

THE sky is the limit for an Irish company and its boss after creating software that could save airlines around the world billions of euro a year by revolutionising the way they manage spare parts for their aircraft.

37-year-old Michael Armstrong from Drogheda, Co Louth, has developed computer software that will cut the $50 billion (€38.7bn) spent on aircraft maintenance every year by 40% or $20 billion.

It is called RIOsys, which stands for ‘Rotabale Inventory Optimisation Systems’. His company Armac Systems is on the verge of signing its first deal with a major international airline just four months after it began to market the software.

Mr Armstrong, an engineer with 15 years’ experience in the aerospace industry, admits that the management of spare parts is very complicated but it is vital that it is done as efficiently as possible because a plane that is grounded costs an airline millions.

“Maintenance is very, very expensive and complex and it is critical to the operation of all airlines. You have to get the balance right between what spare parts you should have and where you should hold them. For example it is not much good having a spare fuel pump in London if your aircraft is in New York.”

There are IT systems already in use but he says they do not solve the problem of holding spare parts because they are based around the manufacturing perspective.

RIOsys has utterly changed the way the problem is approached and Mr Armstrong says, “This will revolutionise the aerospace industry around the world.

“In a few minutes it takes an airline’s maintenance data and does what is impossible for a human to achieve. It is the way we have formulated the solution and the way we have modelled it that has allowed us to come up with the solution,” he said.

It also increases the level of service from the parts in stock and, given that 80% of the cost of overhauling a jet engine is the cost of the inventory and materials, Armac is certain of global success.

Mr Armstrong said the aerospace companies he has met were initially “very sceptical, there is a level of cynicism because everybody has been looking at this problem for years.

“When we say we have revolutionary methodology they don’t believe it but then we take their data and process it and they see it for themselves.

“I hope to shortly close deals with a number of major aerospace companies including a number of airlines.”