Aerospace Xelerated: Operational Efficiency
Exploring the challenges, opportunities and technical requirements for Cohort 4 sub-theme — Operational Efficiency
tl;dr — 🛫 Applications for Aerospace Xelerated’s fourth cohort are now open, and close 2nd October 2022. Following three successful cohorts led by Boeingand supported by industry partners, the programme will now be run in partnership with Tawazun Economic Council, the defence and security acquisitions authority of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). We’re looking for world-class startups at the seed to series A stage that are building digital services and solutions. Find out more, apply online, or book an Office Hours call.
In Cohort 4, which is focused on digital services and solutions, we are looking to support world-class startups focused on several specific sub-themes. In a series of blog posts, we have illustrated what Boeing, Tawazun Economic Council and its industry partners are looking for from startups focusing on these themes.
This article covers operational efficiency. We’ve also written about flight and passenger journey optimisation, supply chain intelligence, and next-generation workforce.
A side note: our definition of aerospace revolves around the design and manufacture of aeroplanes and the peripherals around that process; rather than spacecraft or satellites. Startups with hardware-only solutions are unfortunately out of scope for this programme. We may hold future programmes with a stronger hardware focus so do stay tuned.
What is operational efficiency?
For this sub-theme, we are interested in digital services and solutions that increase operational efficiency, such as digital factory and data flow management, integration of data systems, or other novel solutions. Other potential areas include solutions targeting improved management of asset/component health, performance optimization and preventive maintenance.
We’ve structured this blog around the following focus areas:
- Digital factory and data flow management
- Performance optimization and preventive maintenance
- Integration of data systems
01 Digital factory and data flow management
One of the key challenges the industry faces is the lack of structured data to use in analytical solutions. How can we leverage predictive analytics when there isn’t any data to analyse? Therefore, we want to see solutions that can increase the efficiency of sourcing and processing data. Solutions tackling big data are particularly important to create richer data sets and richer analytics. With the availability of robust data, we are interested in solutions that can build extensive analytics on all levels — i.e. descriptive, predictive and agnostic.
We spoke to Boeing colleagues to better understand the challenges within operational efficiency. Zhong Zhe Dong, a Boeing Research & Technology engineer, says,
“Data collection, data management and service implementation are three major challenges I’m seeing in this sub-theme.”
02 Performance optimization and preventive maintenance
“I’m particularly interested in seeing solutions that can manage plane asset and/or component health, or solutions that have applications in performance optimization and preventive maintenance. Another interesting area is big data, or AI-enabled aircraft maintenance and repair operations for both safety and efficiency,” says Zhong.
We would like to see solutions that can assist operators in monitoring the deterioration of aircraft performance and assigning the right aircraft to the right flight. Separately, how can Boeing operators better support the operations of airline customers who purchase Boeing aeroplanes?
When asked about the minimum technical requirements solutions in this space need to meet, Zhong says,
“solutions must have the ability for data collection, cleaning and availability of AI/deep learning algorithms.”
03 Integration of data systems
Finally, integration of data systems is a major challenge to address. With the current labour shortage, operators are required to wear multiple hats and juggle different tasks at the same time. In addition, many enterprise software programs operate in silos that don’t “talk to” each other. Our operators say it’s common to have up to 13 different login details — and having to triple data entry to achieve one task. Current solutions to this live in either Excel or on a whiteboard. Therefore, we want to see software solutions that can streamline operations.
Tracy Ji, a Boeing Research & Technology engineer, says,
“the biggest challenge of data integration is having the right tool which aligns well with enterprise data management strategy and protection policy.”
Integration of data systems overlap with the challenges we see in data flow management. Aerospace companies often use a portfolio of software that come from different organisations, all with different data sources as input and output. How might the portfolio be optimised so they complement each other?
Tracy says, “I want to see a platform in which all employees could access the right data to finish tasks based on limits of authority. The solution should provide data security, including the authority to add, delete and edit access.”
Have you developed a digital service or solution? To apply for this cohort, head over to our website.
Learn more about Aerospace Xelerated in our FAQ or watch our Ask Us Anything webinar. You can also book an Office Hours call to discuss your queries with the programme team.
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