- Before
- Pulls every record for a serial number from scans, boxes and portals, lays them out in a spreadsheet and hunts for the one missing year.
- Now
- Opens each part's life as one thread with the break already searched for; accepts each found link with a reason and signs.
Back-to-birth traceability for one HPT disk, screen by screen
Corvane Airways flies 22 777-300ERs on GE90-115B engines. Engine ESN 906-735 owes its lessor, Aldermoor Aviation Capital, a signed back-to-birth chain for each of its 19 life-limited parts by Friday, October 30. Sixteen are signed. Overnight the agents read 214 pages, with three new documents among them, and rebuilt the chain for the HPT stage 2 disk, and it has a break. Here is what happens next, in the working solution.
- 01Thursday morning
Three chains need her, and the agents did the reading
Ana Duarte · Records engineerAna owns the LLP chains for the 777 fleet. Her Today screen shows 16 of 19 chains signed on ESN 906-735, 12 open breaks across the fleet (5 hers) and 2,418 chains signed this year. First in “Needs you”: the HPT stage 2 disk, S/N GAT-48192 — a break from Mar 2011 to Feb 2013, about $310K of life at stake. Beside it she can ask the agents anything, in plain words.
Overnight: “Traceability agent rebuilt the chain for GAT-48192 from 9 documents and found one break, Mar 2011 – Feb 2013.”
- 02The engine
Every LLP on the engine, each as its own life line
Owen Castellano · Powerplant engineerESN 906-735 is N731CV's engine 1, 19,880 cycles since new, due at Aurora Engine Center for a shop visit from Nov 3. Each of its 19 LLPs shows its life from 2004 to today, cycles left and who signed it, grouped by module. The lowest part is the HPC stage 1–2 spool with 120 cycles left, replaced at the Nov 3 visit. Three chains still need a person: one ready to sign, one cycle difference, one break.
“I can’t plan a workscope around a disk nobody can prove.”
- 03Open the chain
The disk's life as one thread, birth to today
Traceability agentThe thread runs from the manufacturer's FAA 8130-3 “New” of Apr 12, 2004, through Saxby Airways, a removal at Brennock Turbine Works, a sale by Kellerman Aero Parts and two lives on Corvane wings. Cycles climb along it — 6,940, 11,920, 18,421 of a 25,000 life limit. One segment glows: Mar 9, 2011 – Feb 14, 2013, 23 months, no teardown report, release certificate or custody record. In the conversation beside it, the agent explains why: the bill of sale proves ownership, not condition, and under lease LA-0731 the disk would have no life left.
The traceability agent never marks a chain traceable and never fills a gap with an assumption.
- 04Run it now
A search plan, every place it looked, and a find in box 14
Search agentThe search agent had already tried five record sets — the Corvane records library, Saxby's transfer records, the Brennock shop portal (records start in 2015), the Kellerman data room and the Halvard Air archive — and planned the sixth: the DEN scanned archive, 212 boxes and 61,480 pages never indexed by serial. Ana runs it now instead of tonight. It reads every page for GAT-48192 and two variants a scan may produce, and in 4 minutes 10 seconds finds box 14, purchase file PO-13-0091, pages 212–220, where the scan had read the serial as “GAT-4B192”.
“Every place it looked stays on the record, so “not found” can be trusted.”
- 05Found pages
The teardown report, the release, and seven checks
Records reader and checkerBrennock's teardown and inspection report TR-11-0388 of Apr 18, 2011 finds the disk serviceable at CSN 6,940. Its 8130-3 “Inspected”, BTW-13-02271, is dated Jan 22, 2013, and Saxby's non-incident statement covers Jun 3, 2004 – Mar 9, 2011. Every value the records reader took carries its page and confidence. The checker re-tests the link: serial, part number, cycles at teardown, release before installation, repair station BTWR412K approved in 2011–2013, signature and stamp, non-incident — 7 of 7 pass.
Below 90% reading confidence, a value goes to a person.
- 06Accepted
She accepts the link with a reason code
Ana Duarte · Records engineerAna accepts the found link with reason code L2 — “Found in another record set, checked”. The three found documents join the thread, the break turns into a joined segment, and the chain is complete: 12 documents, birth to today, no break, 6,579 cycles left. The agent asks for her signature.
“Nothing joins the chain until you accept it.”
- 07Signed
A signature with a meaning
Ana Duarte · Records engineerAna signs the chain with meaning A2 — “Complete with a document found in another record set” — attesting that the disk's chain is unbroken with 18,421 cycles since new. Her signature records her name, the time and what it means, and it cannot be edited afterwards.
Nothing is marked traceable without a records engineer's signature.
- 08Countersign
A chain that had a break gets a second person
Devon Hartley · Technical records managerBecause the chain had a break, it goes to Devon Hartley's countersignature queue with the box, the pages, the checker's 7 checks and Ana's reason. Devon countersigns. On the same screen, the HPC stage 3–9 spool GAT-41677 is ready to sign with meaning A1, and one cycle difference waits for a decision.
“If a record turned up in a box, I want to see the box.”
- 09Cycles
18 cycles nobody added to a certificate
Cycle counterOn the LPT stage 1 disk GAT-52206, the cycle counter recounts every period from engine status reports, the removal record and the tech log: 11,920 cycles since new, against 11,902 on record. The 2016 release certificate states 5,401, taken from the last monthly engine status report, and removal record RR-16-0317 shows the engine flew 18 more cycles before it came off. The counter proposes the higher count; Ana accepts with reason C1 — “Use the higher, conservative count”.
“The M&E counter is changed by a person, not by me.”
- 10Pack sent · 15 days early
The lessor's question answered, with its sources
Martin Keane · Lease technical managerThe handover agent tests the pack against lease LA-0731, Schedule 4, §7.3, term by term, and builds an IATA movement history sheet per part. Aldermoor's Henrik Sallow had asked about custody of GAT-48192 between March 2011 and February 2013; the agent drafts the answer with the teardown report, the release and the statement cited. Martin approves and sends. With 19 of 19 chains signed, the pack goes to Aldermoor on Oct 15, fifteen days early.
“Martin Keane approves and sends. Nothing leaves without every term passing.”