How will AI work for aircraft maintenance planning?
At a recent panel session, David Chaimovitz , CEO of Setna iO , talked about how the company he founded might use AI. He said;
“Sure it’s a really useful tool that we use where it makes sense. But in the end it can’t replace the knowledge and expertise of a skilled trader who understands their customer”
A similar theme is taking up in Aviation Week where they discuss possible uses of AI in the aviation industry.
The journalist Keith Mwanalushi looks at AI in simulation tools, to maximise maintenance yield and for predictive maintenance. He reports that AI can help to ‘examine [the] issues, identify the most likely scenarios and make better business-critical decisions’.
For example, says Aerogility, spares pools can be modelled. ‘If a forecast anticipates aircraft maintenance delays when specific spares are unavailable, users can plan and simulate the best response by modelling the impact of an expanding or shrinking spares pool to ensure operations can keep working smoothly’.
That said, there’s work to be done on the data first. Ramco Systems suggests “existing infrastructure should have a clear process and workflow to collect the right data, and collected data should be governed by the right workflow controls”.
So we’ll still need experts. To ensure accuracy these systems currently need intervention from data engineers and business units. As we said back in July, we still need to encourage the brightest minds and skilled people into our industry, not least to manage the new technologies that will build our industry into the future.
AI doesn’t know why something happens, it’s just recognises patterns. We still need experts to interpret those patterns.?