SB2X-34-27 was a surprisingly complex service bulletin. The process we use to create these service bulletins starts with what we call a kit drawing which is created by Engineering. The Engineers create this drawing that outlines the steps needed to perform the work, all the parts required, and any special parts that are unique to a retrofit vs. what is done in production.
Because there are a few different airplane avionics equipment configurations, it meant the creation of a pretty detailed 28 page kit drawing that defined the various steps and parts required for these different configurations. It took one of our engineers over two months to research and create this kit drawing.
Once that kit drawing is checked and approved within the engineering department, the technical publications department takes that kit drawing information and creates the service bulletin instructions. Because of the detail required and the multiple possible configurations, this resulted in a 37 page service bulletin. I believe this is the largest service bulletin we have ever done.
Because of the size, it took many weeks to get the instructions written, all the schematics and illustrations created for the first draft. Then it went through a couple of checking cycles to ensure accuracy to the kit drawing.
Before the service bulletin can be released to the field, we like to proof the installation to ensure that all the instructions are correct, and that the manpower requirements are accurate. Because of the multiple configurations, we had to do multiple proofs.
With the proofs completed, we update the service bulletin and/or the kit drawing one last time to ensure accuracy and release the service bulletin internally. We don't release it externally until we have parts available to support orders. Depending on the number and type of parts, this could be right away, or in this case, a few weeks lead time to ensure all the parts were available.
So what appears on the surface to be a relatively easy process of installing another box in the airplane, is actually a very lengthy and detailed process all done to ensure high quality documents, parts, and instructions go to the field.
