Air France – the MADERE project
The MADERE system is a professional documentation management system that makes possible the production, administration and publication of the flight operation manuals for Air France’s fleet of airplanes. It gives the user the possibility of importing the inventory of standardised, structured SGML and XML documents provided by the airplane manufacturers (Boeing and Airbus), adapting them for Air France, translating them and expanding them with the experience of the operators, while at the same time preserving the connection to the source documents. In this way, the addition of manufacturer updates is easier to track and analyse.
Ultimately, thanks to single-source and XML technologies, the documentation can be published on various media (CD-ROM, on-board units, Intranet, paper).
The following technologies are used:
- EMC | Documentum for managing the document repository
- PTC Arbortext for authoring and publishing documents
- Free XML technologies.
The system supports approximately one hundred involved persons (technical editors, aviation engineers) and several thousand airline pilots who use the operating documentation.
Air France – the MADERE project at a glance
| History | Initially: FM+SGML application developed to produce Flight operation manuals in paper format and PDF Trigger event: Airbus A380 arrival in the fleet makes the choice for XML evident 2005: eurodoc Systems (with Atos Origin) designated to carry out XML evolution 2006: start of the developing phase of MADERE 2007: system extension with the new electronic format exchange for Boeing 777 and start of production phase |
|---|---|
| Type of documents published | - Manex A = General documents for the complete fleet: GENOPS, MAC, IAC, etc. - Manex B = Technical airplane documents: TU Description, MEL, QRH, etc. - Manex C = Training documents |
| Volumes and quantities | Manex A and B represent 20,000 pages
With MADERE, updates will be done in electronic format for most of the manuals except for the commercial crew, corresponding to a former volume of 24,000,000 printed pages annually |
| Turnaround times | - Scheduled delivery times linked to AIRAC calendar, some manuals have up to 8 updates by year - Shortened delay of the delivery process because of a lower amount of paper |
| Quality level | - Guarantee of traceability of the validation process and the source input - Feedback: mistakes or omissions can be pointed out directly on the document by the end-user and are automatically forwarded to the documentation service |
| Technology | EMC | Documentum, PTC Arbortext editor |
| Production locations | France (Roissy Charles de Gaulle): production of documentation France (Nantes): software development |