Lifecycle of an airplane in a blockchain (Business Process)
In our blog post about “Blockchain enabled business processes” we showed how and why business processes can make use of blockchain technology using the Unibright Framework. Today we want to present an example of a blockchain-powered business process used for managing an Asset-Lifecycle.
For presenting a real-world exmaple, imagine the lifecylce of an airplane. It is being built, sold to an airline, being inspected, perhaps has some incidents happening, being sold to another airline and so on. All of these events are of interest to different actors in the lifecycle of the airplane.
Now, lets look at three people representing different roles, that interact with the asset:
Andrew works in the buying department of a big airline and has to decide if he should buy an airplane from an insolvent competitor. He wants to be sure to know as much as possible about the history of the airplane.
Tina works for a regulatory authority, granting the approval for airplanes to be used in public transfer or not. Besides her unannounced random checks, she would like to have a better view on any airplane changing ownership or facing an unplanned inspection.
Bob wants to decide on a holiday flight and is looking for an airline that can detailed information on the offered airplane for a specific flight. He is also willing to pay a few bucks more, if he is provided with this information, because Bob likes to be safe about his decisions.
The challenge: Several parties need to access information on an asset gathered over years and has to be safe from manipulation. All events in the lifecycle of the airplane like owner change, planned and unplanned inspections, numbers of flights and covered distance should be saved and trackable.
How blockchain technology helps: A smart contract in a public blockchain is the perfect way to gather and store information over a long period of time, and guarantee availability, immutability and independence from any intermediary.
Using the Unibright framework: The involved companies can all rely on the technical interfaces provided with the “Asset Lifecycle” Template. The integration into the individual systems of each party can be established by defining suitable workflows based on the template by using the Unibright Workflow Designer. The Unibright conformant smart contracts can be published into a public blockchain by the Unibright Contract Lifecycle Manager and are connected to the individual IT systems by the Unibright Connector. The current state of the process can be monitored any time with the Unibright Explorer and can be presented to the public.
Andrew, Tina and Bob are able to keep track of ownership transferals, maintenance and repair history in the complex lifecycle of an aircraft. For all parties getting in touch with the final product the safety and reliability of the involved aircraft is traceable in a trustworthy environment thanks to blockchain based business integration! Have a good flight!
