Aviation Industry Blockchain is Here
“Don’t wait for the stars to align - reach up and rearrange them the way you want them to be.?Create your own constellation” (1)
At MRO Americas 2023, the SkyThread for Parts industry solution was launched!?The convergence of many factors led to the signing of SkyThread commercial agreements to launch our industry sharing data network.?We began our work during the pandemic, noting that when we come out of that “historic” aviation changing event, nothing would be the same again.?The world order for aviation and the roles of the actors in support of aircraft maintenance will change. Two aircraft maintenance leaders have “agreed” with this premise and have signed memorandum of understanding and business partner agreements with SkyThread to proceed.
We continued negotiations with two major global Tier 1 Parts Providers to support these MRO providers with “part birth” and historical maintenance records for the parts in these ecosystems.?Between AFI-KLM-E&M and AJW-T, the blockchain will have “line of sight” to over 4,000 aircraft in the future, on multiple aircraft platforms, and representing tens of millions of aircraft part?
SkyThread for Parts, a SaaS solution, will provide sharable information around the critical part lifecycle events including:
As we induct the airlines that own or operate the aircraft and the Tier 1 parts providers who manufactured the parts, we record and validate the additional upstream and downstream part information that allows for us to finally act on the concept of building a parts life history.?
?Why Now??What’s Changed?
The aviation industry was turned on its head and the emergence of new data, information and analytics will be required to set the world right again with more efficiency and less waste and delays than before the pandemic.?
From an article in Time Magazine in 2020 - Two-Thirds of the World’s Passengers Jets Are Grounded - Here's What That Means.?The skies are eerily empty these days, presenting a new challenge for the world’s embattled airlines as they work to safeguard thousands of grounded planes parked wingtip to wingtip on runways and in storage facilities.?More than 16,000 passenger jets were grounded worldwide, according to industry researcher Cirium, as the pandemic obliterates travel and destroys all the spares planning algorithms that have been running for 20 years. Finding the space and right conditions for 62% of the world’s planes and keeping them airworthy had suddenly become a priority.
Other factors leading to industry readiness for the data sharing network include –
One of the most exciting accomplishments from SkyThread will be to assist the industry in locating these parts (on wing and off wing) and in any condition, around the world.?While not interfering with the existing procurement engines in use today to buy and sell aircraft parts or the EDI layers that handle the ERP-to-ERP transactions.
As an industry we’ve been studying this and preparing for this for over 15 years.?I began presenting on the topic called “Data for the Life of the Aircraft” at the SAP User Group for Airlines (SUGAIR) way back in 2005.?We stumbled onto the premise that blockchain could “solve” for the information collection, validation and data sharing back in 2017.?Was that luck??
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity” - Roman Philosopher – Lucius Seneca.
The industry realizes now that increased levels of cooperation and collaboration around non-competitive matters such as maintaining efficient and safe operations requires sharing information about the parts that we already “share”.?To that end, one of the announcements at MRO Americas was the hosting of the 1st Board Meeting of the Independent Data Consortium for Aviation (IDCA).?The consortium Chairman is Jeff Smith, Digital Product Programs at Parker Aerospace is the Chairman.?The rest of the industry leadership team can be found at https://www.dataforaviation.org/
How does it work?
The journey that aircraft, engines, assemblies, and parts move through over their life creates many opportunities to collect useful information, but more often creates doubt about how assets have been operated and maintained.?SkyThread collects part life data by tail number and delivers validation and trust on that data so that part and plane buyers, lessors and operators need not worry about the lineage of the parts on planes and engines.
Why is this important?
Inefficient data validation and incomplete documentation delay plane and engine transfers, lease returns and many maintenance activities.?This creates excessive safety stocks at the parts level and requires significant forensics labor to document part status before accepting the part and installing on aircraft. This is resolved by employing a curated, blockchain data network for the aircraft, the engines and all their parts.?The full provenance of the parts on an aircraft or complex assembly are captured and validated by SkyThread.
Who loads the data?
The system is built around all the actors that have a designated role in the parts and plane’s life.?This is a “permissioned” network, meaning that to load and see information about the asset, you must have an approved role on that plane or part – The airframer (assembly), Tier 1 parts maker, airline (operator), leasing company, primary MRO (line / hangars), component repair centers and disassembly operations.?If you are in this ecosystem for this part or plane, you can load and view part details.
What data is loaded?
We’re recording the life events of the aircraft across the ecosystem as the various actors’ “touch” the parts and plane.?There will be gaps in life history that can be highlighted and resolved as the plane and its parts move through its life.
SkyThread is building the validation of the plane from the bottom up (original part authentication), top down (mapping of serial numbers by tail) and side to side, as maintenance activities are performed.?
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How is the data validated?
The system uses data triangulation to support part research, looking for gaps and overlaps in the part data and flags those as “gap” events in the chain.?Errors in part number / serial number documentation are avoided by tracing the part data back to original birth (manufacture), assembly on an aircraft, and monitoring serial number flying on aircraft to avoid part quarantine and duplicate serial numbers on flying aircraft.?“The plane” is thousands of serialized parts flying in common formation.
How does the system respect confidentiality?
The system will know the life events of the parts as they are installed and removed from the aircraft.?The primary actors will be able to see the part through its life.?The aftermarket members such as components repair, distributors and brokers will have the ability to protect the nature of their relationships and confidential data (TAT, pricing, availability) from the marketplace at large, as this data is handled contractually and bilaterally.
How secure is the data?
Blockchain is the most secure cloud architecture.?The distribution of the nodes prevents successful intrusion, corruption, and deletion of the data.?The data, when loaded, is immutable.?It can’t be changed.?When data about a part or plane is loaded, it’s permanent.?
How is the system funded?
First, the companies that load the data receive tokens from SkyThread, which are monetized when the data is viewed by others.?Data on the parts coming off the plane are viewed on a “pay per view” basis by permissioned actors.?Views are likely to occur in support of secondary activities such as inbound parts planning, parts repair analysis and in conjunction with aircraft events such as an aircraft maintenance, sale or return on lease.
What is the System Architecture????
SkyThread is an independent Solution as a Service (SaaS) built using blockchain.?The solution embraces a “chain of chains” architecture to engage stand-alone systems that are also capturing relevant part data.?The solution is best integrated to the MRO, ERP, EDI, and ARM systems of the industry actors for maximum value, and aligns with existing airframe, engine, and airline MRO lifecycle solutions.?We’re engaging all parts and all planes over the next aircraft event cycles.
What is the Business Value to the Industry???
SkyThread provides the friction free data platform and solutions that:
How do I view the history of the parts on this plane?
Your company may have a SkyThread license.?You will be authenticated to view the part history by your company.??For more information on loading your parts (on-wing and off-wing), your part history, or how to engage with SkyThread contact us at [email protected]
SkyThread for Parts
For more information on what we’re doing, see my SkyThread article series on LinkedIn. In the first week of the series, I included a history of how we’ve come to realize there is a better way to achieving what we call “Data for the Life of the Aircraft”.?We’ve been working with blockchain (and other technologies) to develop ways to use blockchain to achieve the industry business needs for data transparency and trust.?In the 2nd week of the series, I included a short post on “Lessons Learned in Blockchain”.?Now we’re making progress and working with over a dozen companies around the world in their respective parts and plane ecosystems to achieve “breakthrough” results.?
Here are the links to the prior articles in the series.?
Aircraft on Ground (AOG)
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(1)?????Quote by Pharrall Williams