Method and apparatus using historical data to associate deferral procedures and fault models

A software program comprising software instructions arranged to run on a processor to process information derived from historical data in order to facilitate associating deferral procedures to a fault model for complex systems based on the historical data, the software program when installed and operating on a processor resulting in the processor:

• analyzing the historical data for deferral information to identify a plurality of deferral procedures;
• associating each of said plurality of deferral procedures with a corresponding one or more of a plurality of standard repairs;
• linking each of said plurality of standard repairs with a fault code;
• and
• associating each of said plurality of deferral procedures with one or more of said fault codes that were linked, respectively, with said one or more of said plurality of standard repairs to thereby provide a set of associations between said plurality of deferral procedures and a plurality of fault codes.

An aircraft maintenance and operations support system for automatically associating deferral procedures with an aircraft fault model based on historical data, the system comprising in combination:

• a user interface;
• a computer, coupled to the user interface, having memory for storing software instructions and the historical data and a processor for;
• executing said software instructions to process information derived from the historical data in order to facilitate associating the deferral procedures to the aircraft fault model based on the historical data, the software program resulting in the computer:
• analyzing the historical data for deferral information to identify a plurality of deferral procedures;
• associating each of said plurality of deferral procedures with a corresponding one or more of a plurality of standard repairs;
• linking each of said plurality of standard repairs with a fault code;
• and
• associating each of said plurality of deferral procedures with one or more of said fault codes that were linked, respectively, with said one or more of said plurality of standard repairs to thereby provide a set of associations between said plurality of deferral procedures and a plurality of fault codes.