Clear Skies Ahead
Or turbulence. It’s our choice.
By Chuck Marx, SkyThread Chief Strategy Officer
Note: this post is part of a 52-week series Chuck is posting about digital aviation. This post is Week 5.
I’ve been in this industry for over 40 years now. Over 5 million miles flown. Just after I began my career, the DC-9 was heading into retirement after a production run of 1,000 aircraft. 1982 was “pre-personal computers, pre-internet and of course, pre-tablets”. It was a simpler time. But ironically, the systems we built and use today to handle the complicated routines of aircraft engineering and maintenance are largely “of that era”. Sure, the modernization has begun. But the industry is still largely driven by paper-based processes and manual entry, and re-entry, and re-entry. The inefficiency, waste and delays are large, and the errors and inconsistency of the end-product are “high”.
The tapestry of systems required to keep our planes flying safely is remarkable. I’ve supported many airline mergers, systems implementations, and integrations over my career. There are at least 20 systems within an airline that “send and receive” information about aircraft parts and planes so that the right part is sent to the right plane at the right time in the right place and installed by the right people. Yet the cost to assemble all this information into a cohesive picture of an aircraft when it’s being sold or returned on lease can exceed $1 million. It’s a manual process.
The next generation of aviation leaders, and more importantly, the group behind them, won’t appreciate inheriting this situation. I’ve tried to retire twice, but here I am. Back in the saddle with a 2 year old start-up to “make this right” for the teams of aircraft engineering and maintenance leaders behind us. Today, about 45% of the mechanics are under 40 years old and grew up in the digital age. Yet we give them “paper” to work with.
What’s the point? Let’s work harder to improve the digital acumen of our businesses supporting the commercial aviation industry. Changed attitudes. Make the investment. Reduce the inefficiencies. I’ve seen some good improvements in the underlying systems that I’ve personally installed at airframers, Tier 1 parts makers, airlines, and MRO suppliers, but we’re not there yet. And these systems do not talk to each other. Both within a company and between companies.
Yet, the aircraft have become flying computers! An article in Aerospace Manufacturing in Design talks about the aircraft being “millions of data points flying in tight formation”. Remember when we had a similar phrase about our old “mechanical” aircraft, but we called it “millions of parts flying in common formation”. The article talks about a B787 generating 500GB of data per flight through thousands of sensors on board, transmitting or downloading data to support maintenance, position spare parts and anticipate component failure. But once that data gets on the ground, for the most part, it’s gone. We’re still not assembling “Data over the Life of the Aircraft” at the tail # level and sharing that information with the industrial actors whose mission it remains to “keep planes flying”. We debate “whose data this is”. Maybe it’s the plane’s data.
The internet is now 40 years old. Let’s use it. Web 3.0 was coined to bring visibility to the use of blockchain technologies to support decentralization of data, scalability, data validation and security and tokenization of data to enable sharing. About 6 years ago, when I ran A&D for PwC, we completed a strategy assessment of the use of Digital Solutions in the aerospace industry. Back then, there were over 200 companies generating some $30 billion in services in support of commercial aviation. The growth rate for these small companies was over 3x the rate of the underlying aircraft parts, airframe, and maintenance businesses. But again, there was and still is no assimilation of this data by aircraft tail number.
Why is this important?
Despite all the industry successes, it’s reported that the commercial aviation industry spends about $30 billion a year recovering from maintenance induced irregular operations (IROPS). Planes grounded “mid schedule” where the airline needs to reposition the plane (for repair) and accommodate the crew, passengers, and cargo. This translates to an average of $1.2 million per tail number per year. Maintenance induced disruptions have many causes, well known to the operators. But at the end of the day, it comes down to an unplanned situation on the aircraft (a part) that was not forecast and could not be remediated to continue the plane’s schedule.
The industry spends some $2.8 million per aircraft (and engines) per year on maintenance. But the high level of deviation in that spend is troubling—The range in maintenance costs ranges from “best practice” levels of $2 million per tail on the low end to over $4 million. At the same time, the industry is carrying some $40 billion in spares stationed around the world to “keep planes flying” and reduce the TAT issues of AOG and planned maintenance work in the hangars.
There just may be a link between these aged systems, these systems that don’t share data and the high variability in costs required to keep our planes flying. And when they don’t fly, the recovery costs are just too high.
Going Digital - SkyThread, along with several other Web 3.0 and digitally enabling companies, are ready to break this dependance on our aged, non-communicating systems. We’re working across the ecosystem to achieve this.
Work with the airframers to re-engineer the document delivery concurrent with the aircraft delivery in an electronic format suitable for loading into both the airline engineering and MRO solutions and the SkyThread for Planes Utility Layer.
Working with the major MRO systems providers to build the data entry portals that allow for the induction of the aircraft into their systems in a repeatable, consistent and error free manner. And then efficiently transfer that aircraft and all pertinent data into maintenance operations and prepare for eventual sale or return on lease.
Working with those same MRO solution providers to reduce the response time to “surprises” on the line or in the hangar when the plane is opened for repair. Parts visibility, status and history are “not great”.
Developing a “template” for each aircraft platform that allows for the maintenance of aircraft configuration (by part number) into the “as flown” digital twin of the aircraft.
Documenting the part sourcing and demand strategy “by tail number” to reduce the high level of uncertainty in the spare planning processes. This will develop the digital thread for spares.
Documentation of the warranty clauses in the aircraft to enable all parties to efficiently execute warranty situations. This avoids warranty leakage, improves customer service, and avoids unnecessary costs associated with arbitering the warranty claim.
Documentation of the leasing clauses related to aircraft and engine configuration to enable efficient management of that aircraft or engine and its eventual return on lease.
Research around aircraft documentation management solutions that are in use today for recording aircraft maintenance events by tail number and enable the shared validation of that data.
Once completed, we move the aircraft into the next stage of its lifecycle journey into the blockchain. Before I retire, again, I want to see the logo on each aircraft door that says
“This Plane is on the Chain”
Let’s leave a better industry for the next generation of engineering and technical operations teams.