Aircraft Parts – Data Integrity - It Matters

In the attached article, the FAA is quoted as saying there are 500,000 suspected unapproved aircraft parts (SUP) installed on planes annually.? How many are flying today?? Are they on your planes?? Probably.?

• Do we know where they are?
• How did they get there??
• How come we didn’t know the history of the part before we installed it??

Unfortunately, “knowing” the history of a part is not required.? All we need to know is where the part was the last time it was on wing or repaired.? So, in this safety critical world, we still live in a world of “let the buyer beware” and put the near full burden of “getting this right” on the aircraft technicians.? If we work together as an industry, we can avoid having these SUP end up in the technicians’ hands under wing or in the hangar.

Cumulative errors in part history are mistakenly passed along as a “new truth” when that part is installed on and eventually removed from its latest aircraft host.

The 8130 tag and its global equivalents are a "permission to delete" history. That's not good.

What can you do?

• If you are a Tier 1 Parts Maker (OEM) – Know where your parts are at and their status.? An unapproved part started in your factory or is a fraudulent part (of your brand).
• If you are an engine, landing systems or APU’s builder (complex assets), know which serial numbers are installed on your assets today and which tail’s they are installed on.
• If you are an airframer – always know the “as flown” configuration of your aircraft.? At the end of the day, it’s your brand.?

What will SkyThread do?

• Working with the Tier 1 parts makers – Register all new aircraft parts.? We have the data matrix of what we need to validate this part in the field some 10-15-20 years after its manufacturing date.? During the onboarding to SkyThread we will work back through your 20 years of ERP manufacturing and shipping records to “validate” each part # / serial #.
• Working with the Asset Builders, Register the “as built” configuration of your asset to create an independent validation of the asset when it runs through its first of many events over its life – MRO, overhaul, sale, and lease return.
• Working with Airframe Assemblers, register the “as built” configuration of your asset to create an independent validation of the plane when it runs through its first of many events over its life – overnights, planned maintenance, AOG, sale, and lease return.

What will we do together?

For the Tier 1 Parts Makers – Once we have your part registry, we will work with you and your airline customers to find there parts on wing today.? Of course, they may have been on many tails before today, but let’s begin with “find the parts”.? Next, we find the parts off-wing / in inventory, all over the world and their current state – location, ownership, condition.? Over time we’ll rebuild the provenance and repair history of these parts.?

For the Complex Assets Builders – many of your assets are contracted through PBH, FHS and PBL contracts.? This gives you the contractual ability to capture the data you need about that asset and how it’s maintained over the years.? We will capture and validate that data for you / with you in a triangulated manner – you, the airline and SkyThread.?

For the Airframe Assembler – the vision of building and maintaining an “as flown” configuration of the aircraft is in sight.? We’ll call this the Digital Data Twin.? The benefits of finally achieving this vision are important as we look at the issue involved in aircraft fleet management based on the position of the aircraft in its life

• Early-Stage Platforms – reliability analysis of the individual parts and systems on the aircraft.? We take out the uncertainty of the warranty process through improved transparency of the part on wing.? Spares planning is more difficult here since we have incomplete data on the performance of parts over time. We’ll work with you to better inform your analysis.
• Mid Life Platforms – aircraft are moving through their heavy check cycles, being returned on lease, sold, converted, and modified.? Supply chains here are in a mature state and the focus will be on maintaining fleet readiness.?
• Aging Platforms – Parts are no longer in regular production and USM parts are coming into the aftermarket to keep these planes flying.? Oliver Wyman called this “The Tsunami of used parts” as aircraft are decommissioned.? SkyThread will be working with the asset decommissioning centers to create some level of authentication to these parts coming back into USM markets.
• MRO Providers – This group of companies is the nexus of the “parts going on wing” processes.? They put them there.? But they don’t own the aircraft and, in many cases, do not own the parts being installed on the plane.? For pooling contracts, they manage the parts lifecycles.? ??Our launch customer is KLM Engineering 787 Components Pool, so we’re in a good place to demonstrate the value of collecting, validating, and sharing quality data for removed from and installed on aircraft.

Why Are we here?? That’s a good question.? Working together and sharing was learned by us in kindergarten, but the tough economics and extreme pressures of keeping planes flying, passengers moving, and costs down causes the industry to work in silos.? We began to break the problem down into small pieces and we lost sight of the big picture. ??Despite these issues, air travel is remarkably predictable and safe.? But trouble is always lurking around the corner.

• Experienced technicians are retiring.
• New aircraft are incredibly complex, and computer driven.
• Aging aircraft put extreme strain on the supply chains. ?
• Part counts subject to documentation mishap are increasing – we’re up to over 100 million serialized parts now and that number will double again over the next 10 years.

Other Industry Efforts Underway – There has been a resurgence of processes, technologies, and incentives to “encourage” the collaboration around aircraft safety.? Part markings and tagging are valuable interventions.? Each has strengths and limitations, such as getting to the part “mid-life” to begin the effort.? Remember, we have over 5 million new parts added to the aviation supply chain each year – over 20 years we’ve accumulated over 100 million parts.? How many are uniquely identified?

New technology to identify the parts without touching them includes optical AI technology, which I like.? Like the “touch” technologies before, we’re still required to get access to the actual part to prepare the ID baseline.? ?This will be most accessible at the part birth (SkyThread will be there too) and at the repair of a part after it’s removed from an aircraft.? But the premise of the Optical AI is original authentication, so we’d still have the challenge if we can not associate that specific part to the manufacturing line it came from on the day it was produced.? SkyThread will provide that validation.

Contemporary MRO Systems that are used by the airlines and MRO shops line stations, bases, (hangars and repair centers) – the data is subject to the age-old principle of “garbage in / garbage out” and human intervention in the loading and analysis of the data.?

Tier 1 Parts Makers, Engine Manufacturers and Airframers are all investing heavily in new PLM and ERP systems.? First, those systems do not communicate together well and do not / can’t follow the asset from the assembly line to the airline induction processes and systems.? Individual systems and actors achieve this better than others.? But we can all do better.

SkyThread is targeting the authentication of all 100 million parts in the ecosystem today.? Plus, the 5 million per year coming into the system on new aircraft, engine, and spares.? Plus, the 3 million serialized parts coming off and going on aircraft each year.? Plus, the 5 million parts coming off decommissioned aircraft each year, many moving into the USM markets. Other ledgers and chains will not be an issue for us.? We’re building what we call “the chain of chains” to capture and share all the good work being done to improve our industry.

The Bottom Line – Lessons Learned

• Only Validated Authentic Parts.
• Data Integrity (hours & cycles).
• Data Sharing at the aircraft / engine level.
• If you made the part, know where it is.
• If you fly the part, know where it came from.
• If you buy the part, encourage “back to birth” data.
• If you sell the part, “stamp” the part with your validation.
• If you repair the parts, share your findings.

In The News – Over the past month, I’ve seen more stories on suspected unapproved parts, fake parts, and counterfeit parts.? But this is not a new issue.? The Aviation Suppliers Association began writing about this topic over 15 years ago.? Here are recent news reports -

• Fake parts a real threat | Times Aerospace
• 4 Methods to Stop the Rise of Counterfeit Aircraft Parts
• FAA warns airlines about fake Russian parts

SkyThread Solutions – SkyThread has built the underlying foundation for a Global Parts Registry.? SkyThread for Parts is a single source of information about the authentication and documentation of an aircraft part, its first use of that part in the aerospace value chain and then follow it for life.? The parts in question have been built over the past 20 years, and we’re going back that far in the search for the truth.?

The Tier 1 parts market exceeds $64 billion per year for building and assembling these parts into both the new planes & engines market and replenishing those assets during maintenance. The inefficiency, waste and delays caused by the lack of validated, trusted, sharable, distributed part data is high.? We're collecting, validating, and making this information available to the plane, engine, landing systems manufacturers and the aircraft operators during aircraft events over the life of the aircraft, assets, and parts.

Learn More – Email Chuck Marx at [email protected] to learn more about the SkyThread Global Parts - Registry.

Links to remaining articles in our series – Change management will be the biggest barrier to rapid deployment of these solutions and the data sharing network.? This is overcome through marketing, training & education, and early adopters generating benefits through this environment. To support industry awareness, SkyThread is running this series of articles around the business issues to overcome and our solutions to address these challenges.?

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