Maintenance, repair and overhaul management

1. A method comprising:

encoding a model hierarchical framework for maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business management in a computer readable medium, the model hierarchical framework comprising:

a first layer identifying business areas in a model MRO business, the first layer comprising first links to a second layer identifying a model process within at least one of the business areas, the second layer comprising second links to a third layer identifying a model sub-process within at least one of the processes;

mapping software tools to the business areas, including each process and sub-process;

accessing the computer readable medium and comparing a specified MRO business to the model hierarchical framework;

determining a specific sub-process of the specified MRO business corresponding to the model sub-process in the model hierarchical framework; and

identifying a sub-process software tool from the software tools mapped to the model sub-process.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining a specific process of the specified MRO process corresponding to the model process in the model hierarchical framework;

identifying a process software tool from the software tools mapped to the model process; and

selecting the process software tool for application to the specific process of the specified MRO business.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein said business areas comprise a flight operations management business area, a maintenance execution business area, a maintenance management business area, an engineering and maintenance support business area, a material management business area, a product development business area, an enterprise management business area, a strategic management business area, and a demand generation business area.

4. A method for managing IT support for a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) business, the method comprising:

encoding a model hierarchical framework for MRO business management in a computer readable medium, the model hierarchical framework comprising:

a first layer identifying business areas in a model MRO business, the first layer comprising first links to a second layer identifying a model process within at least one of the business areas, the second layer comprising second links to a third layer identifying a model sub-process within at least one of the processes;

accessing a mapping of model software tools to the model MRO business processes and sub-process to compare specific software tools for a specified MRO business against the model software tools; and

customizing at least one of the specific software tools based on the comparison to fit the specified MRO business to the model MRO business.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a benchmark analysis of the specified MRO business against the model MRO business.

6. The method of claim 5 , where the model MRO business comprises an industry best-practices model MRO business.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising performing a gap analysis of the specified MRO business against the model MRO business.

8. The method of claim 7 , where performing the gap analysis comprises determining a lacking process absent from the specified MRO business based on a comparison of the specified MRO business to the model MRO business.

9. The method of claim 7 , where performing the gap analysis comprises determining an improvable process in the specified MRO business based on a comparison of the specified MRO business to the model MRO business.

10. The method of claim 1 , where the specified MRO business comprises a pre-implementation MRO business.

11. The method of claim 4 , where the model MRO business comprises an industry best-practices model MRO business.

12. The method of claim 4 , where the specified MRO business comprises a pre-implementation MRO business.