Aircraft Maintenance and Repair — Blockchain Use Case
Introduction
Commercial aircraft have millions of parts that need to be tracked with their associated maintenance and component programs. Every movement, change in ownership and condition of aircraft spare parts, for reasons such as modification, maintenance, lease and exchange, must be reported to assure airworthiness. Apart from tracking the part and aircraft maintenance history, service bulletins (SBs), and airworthiness directives that an aircraft needs to comply with, results in a plethora of data.
Problem Statement
The data related to maintenance and spare parts is stored in multiple systems which vary from one organization to another which involves — Airlines, MROs, OEMs and Regulatory Authorities. These systems are required to efficiently track, trace and report the movement, modification, and maintenance of aircraft spare parts and communicate this data throughout the whole supply chain. In the traditional process, MRO provider do not have direct access to the maintenance information. Due to lack of historical component records, request for information leads to increase in turnaround times and rising costs.
Solution
The blockchain technology can provide transparency for airframers, airlines, and suppliers. There is a potentially massive impact on airlines alone. As a result of an accurate record of a plane’s configuration and maintenance history, it could reduce downtime and unplanned maintenance costs, increase its value on the secondary market, and encourage employee productivity.
Blockchain technology certainly offers a transparent, reliable, and secure solution for data management between airline operations, MROs, OEMs, and national aviation authorities for Certificates of Airworthiness.
The blockchain, by its very nature, assures the integrity of data, which could be retrieved during audits or accident investigations as maintenance records, components specifications, or flight logs.
Smart properties can be created on blockchains to facilitate the tracking and tracing of tangible (e.g., aircraft spare parts) as well as intangible assets (e.g., Certificate of Airworthiness). Smart properties are identified by a unique code that enables them to be tracked, controlled, and exchanged without involving intermediaries. In the blockchain network, these transactions are recognized as blocks. Blocks are added to the previous chain of blocks once the network reaches consensus on the spare part transaction. Participants can read, write, or review transactions based on their roles. An aircraft maintenance process is illustrated in the following diagram by streamlining use cases with the most important roles involved:
Industry Initiatives
Blockchain technology has been tested by Air France KLM for aircraft maintenance.
A new initiative from Lufthansa’s Industry Solutions division aims to bring together software developers, aircraft manufacturers, MRO service providers and other parties to build a foundation for blockchain use in the aviation industry through the Blockchain for Aviation (BC4A) initiative.
References:
https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2017/10/05/air-france-tests-blockchain-for-supply-chain-tracking/
About Author
With over 19 years of enriching experience in the industry, Aarti is an expert in areas like Business Analysis, Product Management, Customer Engagement and Presales. Throughout her career, Aarti has contributed to the industry via various white papers and articles on topics like RPA and Cognitive Automations, Data Lakes, Artificial Intelligence, Phygital Airports, Innovation in Airlines, Digital Journeys, and Digital Onboarding in Banking and many more. She has been associated with client consulting engagements in multiple geographies. She is working as Associate Vice President — Innovation and Strategy at Xebia IT Architects. Prior to Xebia, she has worked with eminent organizations like Interglobe, American Express in various challenging roles. Her areas of interest span across thought leadership and building modern solutions with Next Generation Technology areas across AI, Automation and Analytics.
