When it comes to managing MRO operations in an integrated manner, there are two types of solutions that are commonly used. The first is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that has been designed for use in a wide range of businesses, with the ability to be customized to some extent for each of them. The second is MRO IT enterprise management (MRO IT) system software that has been purpose-built to serve the aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul industry.
ERP software is generally built to be industry agnostic and can be configured for the given deployment based on specific industry needs, to a certain degree, according to Saravanan Rajarajan Saran, Ramco Systems’ director of solution consulting.
What ERPs Can Do for MROs
ERP systems are used by industries such as manufacturing to integrate business functions such as finance, human resources, inventory management, and production planning into end-to-end unified platforms. This makes it possible for all aspects of the business to be seen and managed using a common shared system. Such integration makes it easier for managers to stay on top of what’s going on, and to spot and remedy problems quickly when they occur. Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft are among the big names in the ERP market.
One potential advantage of using standard ERP systems and customizing them for use in the MRO sector is cost. Since ERP systems are widely used across lots of different industries, they often come with a lower price tag compared to MRO-specific solutions. This is because ERP vendors sell in higher volumes than MRO IT systems vendors due to their sales into many markets. This higher volume allows ERP vendors to lower their per-unit cost.
A second advantage of using ERP systems is training costs, but only if employees in the MRO are familiar with using ERP systems from other industries.
As well, ERP systems can be modular in their design, allowing customers to only buy those components that are relevant to their businesses. Meanwhile, basic business practices like accounting, inventory, customer databases, and sales are common to every industry, and can easily be adapted in a standard ERP system. In fact, some ERP modules may not need any customization at all.
A further advantage associated with ERP systems is the ability to enable improved integration across different departments within an organization. Once an ERP system is in place, information flows seamlessly between departments. This enables better coordination and decision-making throughout the organization.
Saravanan Rajarajan S (SARAN) Ramco System
As to whether ERP systems can be sufficiently customized to work well in the MRO sector? That depends on the specific ERP system, said Saravanan Rajarajan Saran, Ramco Systems’ director of solution consulting. “Effective usage of the ERP in core maintenance operations depends on how flexibly the ERP can be configured to unique maintenance requirements, both in terms of usability and functionality,” he explained. “For example, an airline wants to see an aircraft’s manufacturer serial number rather than having it recorded in the ERP as a generic asset number.”
What Makes MRO IT Systems Stand Out
The big difference between ERP systems and MRO IT systems is that the latter have been designed with MRO requirements and functionality in mind. As such, these platforms are tailored to the specific needs of the MRO industry, their clients and suppliers. This means that major program customization is unnecessary, which is not the case with standard ERP system software.
One such MRO IT system is made by Ramco. “The Ramco Aviation Solution is a fully web-centric application developed from the ground up specifically for the aviation industry,” said Saran. This system offers an integrated platform for airlines, defense clients, helicopter operators and MROs to centrally manage functions such as maintenance and engineering, supply chain, safety, compliance, quality, planning and financial control, among others.
“ERP software is generally built to be ‘industry agnostic’,” said Saran. “It can be configured for the given deployment based on specific industry needs, to a certain degree. In contrast, MRO-specific IT systems are built to address the specific industry, segment or function within the aviation industry. ERP systems normally encompass most of the functional modules required for an organization — for example, Human Resources, Finance, Supply Chain, Maintenance, and Engineering — whereas MRO-specific IT systems may need to interface with additional systems to support a company’s complete organizational needs.”
Chris Clements Swiss AviationSoftware
Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS) is another maker/vendor of MRO IT system software. Its AMOS system “has been on the market now for more than 30 years,” said Chris Clements, senior sales representative with Swiss AviationSoftware. “This solution has established itself as one of the go-to solutions when new businesses are looking to upgrade their current solution or indeed start-ups who are looking for best of breed from Day One. Within a single solution, MRO activities can be managed from first contact, quotation, execution and ultimately billing.”
MRO IT systems are specifically designed to manage complex aircraft maintenance workflows, track aircraft components and their service history, handle work orders and inspections and ensure regulatory compliance. Vortex Aviation image.
Like many ERP systems, AMOS is modular. This means that different components can be fitted together to customize the solution as needed.
AMOS starts with a “core solution,” Clements explained. “Then you can add various optional modules such as AMOSmobile/EXEC, the mobile solution for maintenance technicians; AMOSmobile/STORES, which allows stores keepers to work away from the stores counter; and most recently AMOSeTL, which brings AMOS on board the aircraft and puts it directly in the hands of pilots, cabin crew and technicians.
Because they are not cookie-cutter solutions, MRO IT systems tend to cost more than ERPs and can take longer to implement. But that’s the price for adopting an enterprise management system tailored specifically to the MRO industry’s needs, and the benefit. “AMOS’ strength as an MRO-specific software solution lies first and foremost in its integration capabilities, both internal and external,” said Clements. “The totally integrated processes that AMOS provides ensures that the flow of data is seamless, supporting the customer’s processes whilst ensuring consistency and real-time updates.”
In situations where an MRO needs to connect its system to those of external customers such as airlines and suppliers, an MRO IT system such as AMOS “has a huge number of APIs available” to make this possible, Clements said. “This enables consistency and real-time updates across all of the connected systems. Again, as a software solution, AMOS has been developed from day one from within an aviation environment (Crossair) to ensure that industry needs were met directly.”
One area where ERP systems may not be able to meet MRO requirements is the specialized maintenance and repair processes used in the aviation industry that are not employed anywhere else. In contrast, MRO IT systems are specifically designed to manage complex aircraft maintenance workflows, track aircraft components and their service history — which is very important in this time of widespread counterfeit parts — handle work orders and inspections, and ensure that everything being done within the organization complies with regulations.
As well, trying to adapt a broad-based ERP system to meet MRO industry needs can be daunting. At the very least, doing so will require “considerable time, deep expertise, and customization costs to develop and maintain this ERP system over the life cycle of its usage,” said Saran.
In addition, there will be exposure to risk by the ERP’s users due to the reconfiguration of the system and the use of potentially untested alterations to make it work. “Then there is the learning curve for the users,” Saran said. “The ERP may not work the way they are accustomed to, so learning to use the ERP tends to be longer when compared to MRO-specific IT systems.”
Because they are purpose-built for aviation, MRO IT systems are more likely to integrate seamlessly with related software applications such as flight operations management and inventory control. This allows for better coordination between different departments within an MRO or airline, justifying the decision to use an MRO IT system rather than an ERP.
A further area where ERP systems may fall short is with respect to industry-specific analytics and reporting requirements. Many MRO IT systems are designed to provide detailed insights into aircraft performance, maintenance costs, and forecasting for future needs. These features allow airlines to make data-driven decisions regarding fleet maintenance, and MROs to tailor their offerings to these decisions accordingly.
“MRO IT systems are designed within the context of industry practices, which means that the solution can be deployed with no, or minimum, customization,” said Saran. “As MRO IT systems R&D is focused on a specific domain, products get enhanced continuously with respect to regulatory and statutory requirements. In ERP deployments, such enhancements may result in additional costs, depending on the extent of vendor support and/or customization.”
Making the Choice
We’ve seen the facts. So how does an MRO decide between an ERP and MRO IT system? Should they base the decision on cost or capability?
The answer lies in what the MRO is seeking from its enterprise management platform. “If the organization wants a higher degree of fit or quick turnaround, then the MRO IT systems options would be the best fit,” Saran said. “An ERP could be the best fit if the organization has the preparatory knowledge to execute whatever needs to be customized and has the internal talent to maintain the system.”
Another salient question to ask is what is the ‘Total Cost of Ownership’? For instance, an ERP may cost less than an MRO IT system initially, but a user has to factor in the additional costs of making the ERP work in an MRO environment? Is the ERP really ‘off-the-shelf’ ready or does it require customizations and maintenance that will push up its total cost? And remember: It’s a well-known fact that cookie-cutter ERP systems make their bread and butter on customizations.
“At Swiss-AS, convincing customers to invest in AMOS can be a challenge for our salespeople,” Clements admitted. “However, this challenge is quickly overcome when clients determine the best path for realizing added value in their business. “When supporting our sales prospects in making their best decisions, we are able to demonstrate that AMOS offers the opportunity to implement industry best practices, ensure consistency in data quality and ultimately have control of all the events driving financial data and processes. As well, for those clients who want to digitalize their businesses, Swiss-AS is able to provide digital solutions that combine mobility and paperless processes.”
The Bottom Line
There is no doubt that standardized ERP systems, when properly customized, can provide efficiencies for the MRO industry. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the more focused functionality offered by MRO IT systems is more intrinsically suited to the needs of the aviation industry.
For the April 2022 edition of Aerospace Tech Review, I wrote an article entitled ‘Blockchain: The Future of Tracking Aircraft Parts?’ In that story, we explored the application of the blockchain digital identity system to tracking parts from their dates of manufacture to end of life, and how blockchain could address serious issues such as Suspected Unapproved Parts (SUP); in other words, fakes. Blockchain’s robust security features — with each part being assigned its own unique blockchain identity at start of life using its serial numbers, transactional data, maintenance records, and 8130 tags — can also be used to detect stolen parts as they enter the aviation supply chain. Blockchain can also expose supposedly ‘refurbished’ parts that have actually exceeded their operational lifespans and are not fit for re-use.
Time has passed since that first article: Where does blockchain usage stand today in the aviation industry? Is it catching on, or have events moved on since our first article? That’s what this blockchain update article is meant to find out.
A Quick Blockchain Refresher
To retain consistency with our initial blockchain story, let’s begin with the same definition. “Blockchain owes its name to how it works and the manner in which it stores data, namely that the information is packaged into blocks, which link to form a chain with other blocks of similar information,” said the Lisk Foundation, the nonprofit group associated with the Lisk blockchain application platform. “Once the data is recorded in a block it cannot be altered without having to change every block that came after it, making it impossible to do so without it being seen by the other participants on the network.”
Gary Hochman Quantum Marketing Group
To put this definition into more accessible language, “Blockchain can simply be understood as a transactional ledger, similar to an accounting ledger used for banking,” said Gary Hochman, a partner with Quantum Marketing Group. “It provides a start point and an end point for information. The ledger can be shared to see current transactions and used to identify historical transactions based on the data contained in the transaction.”
David Bettenhausen Aerotrax Technologies
“Here’s my definition: Blockchain is a trusted, permissioned transaction platform maintained across distributed computers in a peer-to-peer network, utilizing incentives to ensure good behavior,” said Jeff N. Smith, Parker Aerospace’s head of digital product programs. Again, blockchain is designed to be secure by its very nature. “Verified participants in the network are only allowed to add records,” noted Aerotrax Technologies CEO David Bettenhausen. “This creates an immutable record of all transactions that is indisputable and auditable.”
Jeff N. Smith Parker Aerospace
Mark Roboff, CEO and co-founder of SkyThread (which is building a blockchain data exchange network for commercial aviation), prefers to define blockchain by explaining what it isn’t. “Blockchain is not cryptocurrency. It is not tokens. It is not Bitcoin. It is not NFTs,” he said. “Instead, blockchain is a data structure ecosystem where data is distributed amongst the many players that are part of a blockchain network. And the way that blockchain implements its security is in the design of its data structures, which is really, really, very clever because it allows us to create these secured, distributed data ecosystems where any time information is tampered with, it’s immediately detected because of how information is chained together using cryptography.”
Mark Roboff SkyThread
A tamper-resistant identity system for aircraft parts that is impossible to hack. That’s what blockchain offers to aviation. But that’s not all: “The information needed for us to get value out of a blockchain has everything to do with having data on our parts and around its movements beyond the four walls of our manufacturing plant,” said Smith. “Blockchain means that we don’t have to integrate with each and every one of our customers’ ERP or maintenance systems, which we’d never be able to do or maintain anyway. Meanwhile, just as our customers want clean data from a part’s origination point, so do we — which ties into the incentives’ aspect of blockchain. A permissioned blockchain provides us with security and trust associated with the use of the technology. This foundation gives us the security necessary to share this to the chain and know that it is only being shared with a permissioned node partner and in the way we have agreed to share data. Without this kind of built-in security, no one would be willing to share this type of data.”
An Example of Blockchain’s Strengths
To get a sense of how blockchain can improve the aircraft parts servicing sector, let’s look at an example.
Quantum Marketing Group has two entries in the aviation blockchain tracking market: QCcapture and PartsFax. “We started looking at teardown parts and found a need to document their condition, and from that activity we filed a patent to create a standardized part trace methodology,” Hochman said. “That patent was issued in 2022. We then filed for a continuation patent to apply blockchain, artificial intelligence and other value-added features to our applications QCcapture and PartsFax.”
According to Hochman, the combined benefits of these enhanced programs include automatically pushing updated blockchain data, voice, and video records to cloud storage, improving part out and line maintenance part documentation with blockchain trace data tracking being accessible through the company’s mobile app, and being able to find out how many times a part has been serviced, leading to more accurate part valuations. Using blockchain for parts tracking and monitoring also makes it easier to ensure compliance with relevant regulations, track parts shipments and any damage that occurs to them enroute, and improve QC (quality control) throughout. Blockchain can also shorten servicing turnaround times by providing repair depots to assess the state of the affected part before it is shipped, and detect any missing elements of the part using attached photos and videos.
Blockchain is a data structure ecosystem where data is distributed amongst the many players that are part of a blockchain network. The way blockchain implements its security is in the design of its data structures, which creates secured, distributed data ecosystems where any time information is tampered with, it’s immediately detected due to how the information is chained together using cryptography, says SkyThread’s Mark Roboff. Photo Credit: Werner Aero image.
Blockchain identities can be integrated into the existing parts databases operated by airlines and MROs, and enable better data sharing among everyone concerned. This speeds up the process of parts acquisition, installation, monitoring, repair, and removal. “This data can be FAA, EASA, CAAC, ARSA, or ASA-integrated,” said Hochman. It can be accessed and updated using apps running on Android, Apple, or Windows devices that each have access to a camera, video, and voice recording capability.”
Obstacles to Deployment
Back in last year’s article, it was made clear that blockchain was a long way from being adopted by the aviation industry. No matter how well-suited blockchain is for aircraft parts tracking, issues such as who would pay for the deployment and maintenance of a blockchain system, who would have access to the data, and risks of self-interested businesses exploiting blockchain insights to enrich themselves need to be resolved before this technology can achieve widespread acceptance and deployment. Also stuck at the starting gate is a proposed solution of creating a unified blockchain system for the entire aviation industry, with a neutral party managing this system for everyone’s mutual benefit.
Today, not much seems to have changed. “There are many challenges to creating an industry-accepted standard for blockchain,” said Hochman. “There is the issue of who is going to monitor and ensure standards to be created by one or more consortiums or other industry groups all wanting to be the proven accepted solution. Then there is the politics of who owns the data and who will share and not share historical records. There is also the issue of security and private information: OEMs, MROs and repair shops do not want to share with competitors, and there is the issue of who is the company person responsible for blockchain within aviation organizations: CTOs, IT management, or quality control and compliance management?”
There are further issues that need to be addressed for blockchain to find its place in parts tracking. For instance, “Blockchain for parts needs to start with the OEM when the part is manufactured,” Hochman said. “Documenting the part’s existence and condition (new) at the factory is what starts the security aspect using the part’s ID number and serial number (authenticity) which will follow the part through its life cycle whether installed on a newly manufactured aircraft/engine or for stock. This is especially true for flight critical, life limited and USM parts (Used Serviceable Material).” Will OEMs be willing to shoulder this cost? Will their clients be willing to share in the expense? Like the ever-thorny issue of splitting a restaurant bill between a table of 12, the question that matters most is: “Who pays what?”
When it comes to the deployment of blockchain in aviation, Aerotrax’s David Bettenhausen has his doubts. “Theoretically, blockchain would be well-suited to the task if it were to be properly implemented across the entire supply chain, then it could provide cradle-to-grave traceability,” he said. “The challenge is traction: When competing on priorities across the entire organization at an airline, MRO, or OEM, using blockchain to track aircraft parts is not very far up the list of their priorities based on the conversations that we’ve had. Instead, decreasing AOG time, improving reliability, empowering people to accomplish their work, and maximizing MRO velocity are higher priorities. Now some may make the case that using blockchain to track aircraft parts could result in solving some of these priorities, but this is dependent on the overall network adoption of the blockchain. And that is dependent on thousands of companies — from mom-and-pops to massive defense prime contractors — all saying ‘yes’ to buying into the blockchain system.”
This is why Aerotrax Technologies has moved away from blockchain for its cloud-based aircraft part tracking system. “We made the decision because blockchain was ultimately slower, more expensive, and riskier,” Bettenhausen said. ‘I say this with the background that we built in this space for years. We signed on big customers, we tested blockchain software, we implemented it in numerous places, but we could never cross the valley of proof of concept/pilot into commercial. This forced us to take a step back and completely redesign the platform from scratch.”
However, SkyThread is finding success with blockchain. “We are deploying SkyThread for Parts — leveraging the SkyThread Blockchain — at some of the largest OEMs, Tier 1s, airlines, and MROs in the world today,” said Roboff. “In the past six months, we’ve publicly announced commercial agreements with Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance, AJ Walters, L3 Harris, and Parker Aerospace.”
The Push for an Industry-wide Standard
The obvious need to improve data sharing across the aviation industry — and not just for parts tracking — has resulted in the creation of the IDCA: the Independent Data Consortium for Aviation. It is a global consortium of aviation companies seeking a way to share data “in a non-competitive manner,” said the IDCA’s http://www.dataforaviation.org website. “Its objective is to create a more efficient marketplace, where both waste and the time required to get to a common solution is minimized.”
The areas where the IDCA hopes to foster a common trusted platform for aviation data sharing start with parts tracking from birth to disposal. But it also hopes to encompass Aircraft on Ground (AOG) servicing, diagnosing technical problems common to all operators, lease ownership transfers, and preserving mandatory aircraft safety data even in areas experiencing conflicts.
Ravi Rajamani IDCA
So where does blockchain fit into the IDCA’s vision? According to the IDCA president, Ravi Rajamani, this is an open question. “What we are trying to do at the IDCA is to develop consensus rules for ensuring that data can be shared in a reliable, secure manner across all the participants in this ecosystem,” he said. “If blockchain proves to be the best way of getting to that, then that’s fantastic. But if tomorrow we come up with a better way of getting there that follows the requirements that we are going to set up, then fine — we will switch. But I don’t think we should get hung up on blockchain. It’s the rules that are above that, that are important.”
Where We Stand Now
Based on the feedback we received for this article, there remains a lot of enthusiasm in the aviation industry for the kinds of benefits that blockchain can provide, but not necessarily for blockchain itself.
Certainly, the implementation of blockchain would entail extra time and expense for the aviation industry, whether limited to parts tracking or for a whole range of functions as the IDCA envisions. But this will likely be true for any industry-wide data tracking/sharing/verification standard and/or system that the industry may ultimately settle on. Moreover, because humans engaged in profit-oriented businesses can’t always be trusted to put the Greater Good above their own selfish desires, some sort of neutral authority with the power to back its decisions will be required to make any such system work.
This is the irony of the current blockchain debate. Many of the issues being cited have little to do with blockchain as a discrete aircraft parts tracking system, and everything to do with the general concept of a trusted industry-wide data-sharing standard and the costs associated with it.
Judging by his comments, the IDCA’s Rajamani is aware of this distinction, which is why his focus is on the rules being developed to enable safe data sharing, rather than focusing on blockchain or any other specific solution towards this end. But it remains to be seen if the aviation industry as a whole understands this distinction, or if their time will remain consumed with debating the pros and cons of blockchain instead.
In today’s commercial aviation market, the efficient management of airspace is crucial for the smooth operations of airlines. Unfortunately, current airspace management regimes hampered by limited connectivity pose challenges to on-time operations. This is why modernizing these regimes through enhanced connectivity and digitalization is a top priority for regulators and businesses involved in airspace.
Coping With Multiple Challenges
Managing space is a difficult task at the best of times — and these are not the best of times. A case in point: “Over the past three years, European aviation has faced events moving faster than the overall ability to control them, such as the pandemic, war in Ukraine, economic crisis, and climate change,” said Razvan Bucuroiu, head of airspace and capacity at EUROCONTROL, a civil-military body which coordinates air traffic management for 43 states across Europe. Meanwhile, “traffic has been recovering well across the EUROCONTROL network,” he said. “We are expecting [traffic] well over 2022 figures and a recovery rate of up to 95% when compared to 2019.” This rebound is occurring at a time when overflight restrictions caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have reduced the amount of available airspace.
Razvan Bucuroiu, EUROCONTROL
The overall state of European airspace management has been in decline for a decade, due to the system’s inability to cope with air traffic increases. Since 2013, “the European network has seen a decrease in operational performance as capacity has lagged behind demand,” he said.
According to Bucuriou, there are several reasons for this decrease. For instance, “European airspace still remains fragmented in terms of airspace organization and supporting service provision and infrastructure,” he said. As well, air traffic control (ATC) sectors remain defined by national boundaries. “This leads to lower overall capacity and several flight-path inefficiencies — as the alignment of operational boundaries does not follow traffic flows, this increases the need for handovers and coordination between sectors in different countries,” said Bosman. “A number of measures are regularly taken at network and local level to address capacity enhancements in various areas of the European air traffic management, but they are not sufficient as cross-border aspects are still difficult to address.”
Paul Bosman, EUROCONTROL
“Fragmentation also arises through smaller than optimal operational units within national Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs),” said Paul Bosman, EUROCONTROL’s head of infrastructure. “These units may have become sub-optimal, for example, as changes in the technology of service provision have increased the optimum size of a center. There is also a duplication of Communications, Navigation and Surveillance Systems for Air Traffic Management (CNS/ATM) systems and of associated support services.”
It doesn’t help that the majority of communications with pilots are still conducted vocally through VHF radio, he said, rather than by direct data connections such as EUROCONTROL’s Datalink. “Communication via radio does consume a significant part of air traffic controllers’ (ATCs) working time,” Bosman said. “If more messages could be communicated via Datalink, it would help.”
EUROCONTROL’s assessment is endorsed by air traffic management companies such as Collins Aerospace and Thales Airspace Mobility Solutions.
“The challenges that get in the way of on-time operations are lack of data-sharing in real time across multiple platforms, legacy/analog communications systems, outdated traffic flow management systems, and the ability to quickly recover when an irregular operation does happen,” said Gene Hayman, Collins Aerospace’s director of CAS government services. “Because ANSPs have traditionally procured ATM capability as large and complex, build-to-design, on-premises systems, they tend to have limited capability in sharing with other systems. Yes, these systems can be enhanced and upgraded — but only to a certain extent. In the end, just like any computer, there are inherent technical limitations of these ATM systems that eventually render them obsolete.”
Benjamin Binet, Thales
“There has been limited sharing of real-time trajectory information between both airborne and ground systems,” added Benjamin Binet, Thales’ vice president of strategy and public affairs for airspace mobility solutions. “Using a single trajectory model for each flight as the single source of truth would provide the best operational efficiency, safety, and needs.”
The takeaway: When it comes to the various elements restricting airspace availability — not just in Europe but worldwide — “all of these factors result in a limitation of the available capacity, a lacking of overall 4D trajectory optimization, high saturation of radio frequencies, limited automation support/high proportion of manual work (leading to heavy processes and high ATC workload), limited sharing of data and lack of interoperability between ANSPs, airspace users and airports, as well as high buffers across the planning and execution chain due to limited predictability reducing actual usage of existing capacity,” Bucuroiu said.
EUROCONTROL is modernizing European airspace management through Common Project 1 (CP1) effort, the international effort to create an integrated, connected and efficient ATC system across the European continent. Shown here, an Emirates A380 landing at the airport in Nice, France.
Improving Airspace Management Through Technology
Digitally driven aircraft/ground and aircraft/aircraft connectivity is seen as the most practical and promising solution to the limitations affecting airspace capacity. The goal is to get everyone and everything talking to each other digitally in real time, resulting in significantly enhanced situational awareness, closer aircraft spacing without sacrificing safety, and more responsive ATC management.
This is why AIR Lab — a joint venture between Thales and the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore — is working on Trajectory Based Operations (TBO), which enables aircraft continuous descents into major airports for greater operational efficiency and reduced carbon emissions/fuel burn. As well, AIR Lab is working on integrating uncrewed aircraft into ATC operations, to ensure the safety of commercial airliners. “They are providing customers with the option to integrate best-in-breed systems and components within their ATM system via OpenSky Platform for the best possible operational outcomes suited to their specific environment and operational needs,” Binet said.
Meanwhile, Collins Aerospace is focused on developing products and services that enable a fully connected aviation ecosystem. To make this happen, “we work closely with ANSPs, airlines and airports to leverage our ecosystem of aviation-related data, network connectivity, and ATM systems,” said Hayman. “By integrating real-time data across all stakeholders and operators, we build more predictability into the ATM ecosystem — improving collaboration and stakeholder situational awareness, which leads to more efficient airspace operations.”
In this new connected world of airspace management, ATM vendors such as Collins and Thales are making life easier for EUROCONTROL and other ATM operators by provisioning cutting-edge ATC solutions directly, rather than selling them as products to be implemented by their clients. “The service-based approach puts the responsibility of deploying and enhancing ATM system platforms on service providers, relieving ANSPs of the headaches in procuring, maintaining, and eventually running life-support on critical system architecture,” Hayman said. “Service providers are inherently experts at managing the entire life cycle of a solution, to include critical backend infrastructure, so that customers can simply utilize capability as a service.”
EUROCONTROL is spearheading the modernization of European airspace management through the implementation of Common Project 1 (CP1), the international effort to create an integrated, connected and efficient ATC system across the continent. “EUROCONTROL, as Network Manager, is one of the key players in the implementation of the CP1 Implementing Rule requirements,” said Bucuroiu. “A new Network Concept of Operations has been developed with all the operational stakeholders and it was adopted in 2022. New concepts of operations are developed at network level for the 4D Trajectory Management, Air Traffic Flow and Capacity Management, Airspace Management and Data Management.”
In addition, EUROCONTROL has launched ‘Network Strategic Projects’ to foster Cooperative Traffic Management (covering air traffic flow and capacity management evolutions), Flight Plan and Flight Data Evolutions (covering the implementation of FF-ICE and future trajectory based operations), and advanced flexibility of airspace to further civil/military cooperation. Further such projects include Free Route Airspace (covering the implementation of new concepts for airspace design and utilization), Integration of New Entrants (covering the network introduction of commercial space operations, high altitude operations and drones) and Flight Efficiency Implementation (on sustainable evolutions of the airspace utilization).
“A major Airspace Restructuring Program aimed at implementing major airspace changes at the European level until 2030 has been also implemented and is progressing well,” said Bosman. “On the infrastructure side, initiatives have been taken on the implementation of Datalink, on CNS infrastructure resilience and sustainable evolutions, on the implementation of SWIM (system–wide information management) and on cyber security.”
The current edition of EUROCONTROL’s Network Operations Plan covering the period 2023-2027 also includes major ATM system upgrades intended to be implemented for 41 out of the continent’s 68 Area Control Centers. “This represents a vast modernization program at local level that will be synchronized as part of the cooperative work put together between EUROCONTROL as Network Manager and the Air Navigation Service providers,” Bucuroiu said. “These new ATM systems will provide for enhanced ATC support tools, enhanced decision-making tools, enhanced trajectory calculation, and better utilization of Datalink.”
Enhanced Communications is Central
When it comes to modernizing air traffic control, the driver behind enhanced connectivity is improved communications between aircraft and the ground, and each other. The more detailed, accurate and responsive that these communications are, the more that can be done to increase airspace capacity safely. This, above everything else, is what airspace management needs to accomplish — fitting more and more aircraft into the same limited space.
At EUROCONTROL, “the big push on the communications side concerns Datalink, which complements traditional voice messaging and improves the chances of instructions and acknowledgements being correctly transmitted and received,” said Bosman. “It can be thought of as a type of SMS between Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCOs) and pilots, specifically tailored to ATC needs with a limited word set. Datalink reduces workload, boosting safety, capacity, and efficiency.”
The inclusion of Datalink equipment on board aircraft operating in Europe’s airspace was mandated under a 2009 European Union law. “However, Datalink services have already evolved beyond that law’s scope, driven by more sensors becoming available on board aircraft,” he said. “Today, there is a concerted drive to automate European ATC — the Digital European Sky — to cope with significant increases in air-ground communications demands. Airlines’ operational communications (AOC) requirements are also growing relentlessly, as more aircraft data are streamed to airline operations centers and into ‘digital twins’. As both ATC and AOC services use the same Datalink technology, it is being pushed to its limits. At some point in the near future it will not cope, which is why the SESAR (Single European Sky ATM Research 3 Joint Undertaking) FCI (Future Communications Infrastructure) project is now of vital importance.”
Airspace Mobility Solutions also sees “enhanced communications and connectivity as a key driver of digitalization in ATM,” said Binet. “They support sharing more data in real-time between the aircraft and ground systems in a safe and secure manner.” So does Collins Aerospace: “As we move to an info-centric airspace design, having a hyperconnected ATM ecosystem is critical,” Hayman said. “This requires having ubiquitous communications in place so that real time data sharing can happen with each stakeholder or operator in the airspace.”
A Big Payoff
EUROCONTROL and the European Union’s efforts to modernize ATC on that continent will be poised to deliver a big payoff in improved airspace capacity and safe management, “Timely implementation of all the initiatives described above, by 2030, the European ATM network should benefit from an increase of up to 50% of average sector throughput,” said Bosman. “This will have an immediate positive influence on the on-time performance of airspace users. In addition, from an environmental sustainability point of view compared to the start of this decade, the cumulative benefits of airspace improvements would represent savings of 1,000 million nautical miles flown, i.e., the equivalent of six million tons of fuel saved, or reduced emissions of 20 million tons.”
And there’s more. In a hyperconnected ATM environment, “ANSPs can expect to have greater control and predictability of traffic inbound, outbound and within their airspace, including for terminal areas and airports,” Binet said. “This means improved capacity of major airports, supporting increased air traffic movements with existing airports; greater sharing of real-time data between airlines, aircraft and ground systems for improved management of the flight from beginning to end; and improved safety with the inclusion of new conflict detection capabilities based on the increased sharing of aircraft data with ground systems.”
Right now, “it’s estimated that a lack of ATC Datalink capacity costs €1-1.3 billion ($1.09-1.41 billion) annually” in European airspace flight delays and related issues,” said Bosman. “The new technologies being considered under FCI would provide extra data capacity that would allow ATC to boost airspace capacity by 11%, enabling the introduction of four-dimensional trajectory management, further improving flight efficiency, and reducing fuel burn and greenhouse gas emissions per flight.”
To achieve this capacity increase, over 8,500 aircraft would have to have FCI equipment installed by 2029, if 2019-type traffic levels are reached in 2024. “This subset of the overall fleet represents the aircraft operating 85% of the flights above 28,500 feet — which is the threshold for benefits to kick in,” Bucuroiu said. “Retrofitting existing aircraft for FCI would accelerate the accrual of benefits and expand the overall benefit pool.”
EUROCONTROL is focused on improving communications with Datalink. It complements voice messaging and improve accuracy of instructions and acknowledgements. Datalink reduces workload, boosting safety, capacity and efficiency, EUROCONTROL says.
Where We Stand Now
In a world short of good news, there is good news aplenty when it comes to airspace modernization.
“To date, a significant part of the benefits expected from the Airspace Restructuring Program has been already achieved, mainly through the implementation of the cross-border Free Route Airspace initiatives,” said Bosman. “The implementation of Datalink is also progressing very well with almost all ANSPs having implemented the required improvements and a gradual increased use in operations of Datalink, plus full implementation of SWIM requirements in the EUROCONTROL Network Manager systems. More and more aircraft are also being equipped with Datalink technologies, with over 80% of the aircraft already being Datalink-capable, and over 80% of them logged onto Datalink services.”
In a given four-week period, EUROCONTROL has been seeing almost three million Datalink transactions involving over 300 aircraft operators and 100 aircraft types. Such activity saves over 600,000 minutes of communications time, while also identifying over 100 ‘stuck microphone’ events, which is a very tangible safety benefit. Binet said that European airspace management is also seeing progress in “SESAR projects including Conflict Detection and Resolution, trials with Extended Projected Profile (EPP), and the TBO research in AIR Lab.”
This being said, obstacles remain in the path of European airspace management modernization. These include implementing true cross-border airspace structures and services; addressing current staff shortages; harmonizing operational procedures; ATM systems and ATCO licensing; and accelerating the overall digitalization of ATM overall.”
“ATM is, understandably, a rather conservative industry,” said Bosman. “Change happens rather slowly. It may take over 20 years for a fleet of aircraft to be renewed, with perhaps longer roll-over periods for ATC infrastructure. So, modernization is gradual and requires careful planning.”
Collins Aerospace believes that “culture and funding” are the biggest obstacles. “Sometimes decision makers are concerned about losing control,” Hayman observed. “But using a service-based business model simply means not owning the infrastructure or assets, you still have the capability or data to perform the ATM functions necessary for the mission.”
Nevertheless, airspace modernization coupled with improved communications connectivity offers immense value to commercial airlines and ATC operators in ensuring on-time operations while maintaining safety standards. By leveraging advanced technologies and data exchange capabilities, the limitations imposed by current airspace management regimes can be overcome — leading to a more efficient and connected aviation industry capable of supporting growth.
June 1982: That is when Honeywell Aerospace’s 757-200 test bed aircraft (now registered as N757HW) rolled off the line at Boeing’s plant in Renton, Washington. It was the fifth 757 ever produced, entering service with Eastern Airlines from February 1983 to January 1991. This ‘Flying Pencil’ (as 757s were nicknamed) then flew with Airtours International Airways starting in March 1995, according to planespotters.net, followed by MyTravel Airways starting in May 2002.
Honeywell acquired this 757 in 2005 to serve as its engine and instrument test bed, which explains the engine pylon jutting out of this aircraft’s upper forward starboard side. The company spent three years modifying it as a flying test bed with 25 seats, lots of onboard power, and room for all kinds of swappable equipment test stations inside. N757HW started flying test missions in 2008, and has been flying them ever since.
Although B757HW’s age is technically 40 years and counting, “we’ve made so many modifications and changes to this 757 over time that the only thing actually this old is its airframe,” said Captain Joe Duval, Honeywell Aerospace’s director of flight test operations. “It is configured to serve as a ‘generic flying test bed’. This means we can modify this 757 to test basically any aerospace product that we may be developing and have interest in, whether for pure research or certification.” According to Honeywell, their 757 is likely the only one in existence that has flown to more than 30 countries across five continents, conducted more than 800 flight tests, and logged more than 3,000 flight test hours.
Perfect for Testing Engines
The main reason Honeywell wanted this 757 was to have an aircraft large enough to mount and test its engines on. “This has traditionally meant turbojet and turbofan engines, but now it includes electric engines as well,” said Captain Duval. “The safest way to do this, when we’re making engines for business jets and general aviation, is to put them on an airplane that doesn’t require the propulsion from the engine under test. A 757 has two much larger engines for propulsion, which allows us to do whatever we need to do with the test engine mounted on the pylon without affecting the flying qualities or the performance of this aircraft.”
To date, N757HW has been used to test Honeywell’s HTF7000 jet engine series, which are used on business aircraft such as the Embraer Legacy 450/500. It has also been used to test the company’s TFE731 and TPE 331 turboprop engines, which are used on corporate and military aircraft.
Also Good for Aircraft Systems Testing
“Airborne weather radar, satellite communications, Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC), equipment, flight management systems, navigation and other communication systems might be something you might think of as being simple as voice radio,” Captain Duval said. “But these things do need to be taken airborne to make sure they’re robust and safe for operation before we put them out there for the flying public. Fortunately, the uncluttered interior of the 757 makes it ideal for testing these systems, even though it’s not what people generally think of when they see that pylon sticking out of its fuselage.”
To date, the systems tested on N757NW include Honeywell’s IntuVue RDR-4000 and IntuVue RDR-7000 3D Weather Radar, next-generation flight management systems, JetWave and JetWave MCX in-flight Wi-Fi systems, and Aspire 350/400 satellite communication suites. More will be put through their paces in this test bed in the years to come.
The reason this 757 is able to test these and other systems so thoroughly has to do with its highly sophisticated data acquisition system. “It’s modular and generic, so that we’re always able to record Airplane State Data,” said Captain Duval. “This includes the air speed, altitude, bank and pitch angles, all synchronized with time of day. We can combine this information with data from any of the units/systems that we’re testing, whether that be an airborne weather radar, communication system, an engine, or what have you. We have a very capable data acquisition infrastructure system that is adaptable to whatever kind of unit/system we have on board, plus the real estate to house all of the computers and test stations we need inside this 757.”
The Honeywell Boeing 757 is equipped with a robust data acquisition infrastructure system that is adaptable to whatever kind of unit/system being tested as well as the space to house all of the computers and test stations needed.
A Beefed Up Aircraft
The stock version of the 757-200 was never intended to have a third engine attached to its fuselage adding weight and stress when activated in flight, let alone a cargo door inserted into it as well.
To cope with these challenges, “the aircraft’s metal is a little thicker because of the cargo door,” Captain Duval said. “Honeywell also added a pretty extensive crescent frame inside that strengthens the fuselage from above that cargo door up through that where the pylon sits. There are some really big, heavy attachment points for the test engine mounting that the pylon covers aerodynamically to make it look a little nicer. Those big attachment points are where the load is carried from the thrust and the weight of the engine and then distributed through the fuselage, so it’s not a problem.”
In order to minimize the third engine’s impact on the 757’s flight stability, Honeywell placed the third engine mounts as close to the center of the airplane. This keeps it from affecting the aircraft’s yaw axis and reducing its flyability.
“We had a goal of making sure that we didn’t reduce the operating envelope of the airplane, meaning we could still go as fast or as slow or as high as this 757 was originally designed to do,” said Captain Duval. “We needed and wanted to have that kind of performance envelope and we achieved that with all the design and effort that went into the installation. As well, there’s some pass-throughs that are built into the fuselage, just holes that we cap and we can use just depending on what we might be testing. And there’s lots of cabinets inside the aircraft that take all the instrumentation that might be going out to the engine, along with scanners and other things that are part of that data acquisition system.”
In order for this data acquisition system to work properly, N757HW needs to move massive amounts of data around; both on board and from the aircraft to the ground. “So we’ve made a lot of efforts in the last seven or eight years to enable high-speed bandwidth connectivity to the aircraft, using a few different SATCOM systems,” Captain Duval said. “After all, we make the terminal, the antenna, and the other SATCOM components that go into the airplane. We’re not making the satellites that we connect to, but we provide all the equipment such that if you have a wireless device inside the plane, you’re connected by Wi-Fi to the systems that we provide.
In a commercial airliner, this high-speed bandwidth would be used to support passenger internet access and in-flight entertainment. On N757HW, the purpose is to collect testing data and get it from the aircraft to the ground.
Not only is this connectivity useful for Honeywell’s testing procedures, but it could be something that enhances commercial aircraft availability going forward. “If you have a system that can describe the type of braking that was just used on a landing, and continually gather that data with the airplane being connected, then you could have a better way of doing predictive or preventive maintenance by changing a brake assembly when it needs it,” said Captain Duval. “This capability could also be connected to engines and other kinds of components on the airplane.”
Tough Test Conditions
Even though Honeywell’s 757 test bed is going on 41 years old, the company baby it. That’s because a flying test bed has to put the equipment being tested through extreme flying conditions to spot problems and remedy them back on the ground.
A case in point: “One important and exotic thing that we do with the airplane is wind shear testing,” Captain Duval said. “Our airborne weather radar has a predictive wind shear capability, which is important for safety when there are thunderstorms and things in the area that cause this wind shear phenomenon. So when we put this in an airplane, we need to certify it. We need to make sure that what the system is predicting is actual and true, so we have to go fly through wind shear events to develop a system that helps pilots avoid that.”
Because wind shear is dangerous to fly through, Honeywell does what it can to minimize the risks to its 757 crew and aircraft however it can. “We try to de-risk the activity as much as we can,” said Captain Duval. “We plan for a flight test area that’s not mountainous and doesn’t have other features or problems. This is vital for safety, because we have to go down to about a thousand feet above the ground and fly near or maybe even sometimes underneath heavy thunderstorms that are producing this wind shear phenomena to test the equipment. And so we’ll do that: We’ll fly through and see that the system’s predicting wind shear in a certain area and then, using that data acquisition system, gather all the data being generated as the aircraft flies through that wind shear event.”
“Again, this is something that pilots would normally be absolutely avoiding,” he noted. “But we are able to do that using a lower risk method because we’ve done all the work ahead of time to make sure we’re doing it safely.”
N757NW has also played a role in proving the viability of ad hoc wide area communications support for troops by taking part in Exercise Northern Edge. It was a multinational training exercise that brought together the United States Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, the United Kingdom Royal Air Force (RAF), and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).
In this exercise, the aircraft connected military forces with each other and the outside world through its multiple onboard SATCOM systems.
The Challenges of Age
The fact that Honeywell has done extensive modifications and constant servicing of its 757 test bed does not change the reality that this is a four-decades-old airframe. This makes finding parts a challenge, given that Boeing stopped manufacturing the 757 in 2004 after building 1,050 of them.
“I would say this: As long as there’s plenty of 757s flying around in other forms with other airlines and such, it’s less of a challenge right now,” said Captain Duval. “But as they get older and there’s less of them and there’s less parts available, people just don’t have the interest to keep these aircraft in service. When this happens, that will be even more of a challenge from its age.”
This being said, Honeywell’s 757 has proven itself to be a very, very reliable aircraft with lots of availability time. “We have a great group of mechanics and staff here that keep it up to date and keep the airplane operating,” Captain Duval said. “There’s also the fact that we only put a couple of hundred hours a year on it, when the 757 was built to fly in an airline and get many more hours flown on it in a year. We’re not inducing that same wear and tear on the aircraft, and updating it is — at least from the avionics perspective — actually easy for us because we’re using Honeywell equipment for the flight management system, the weather radar, Datalink, and anything else that might be a new kind of communication or navigation tool.”
As for the day when Honeywell needs to replace its 757 test bed? Given how well maintained this airframe is, plus the fact that B52 bombers made in the 1960s remain in service — as do some DC-3s built three decades earlier — it seems reasonable to assume that N757HW has lots of life left in it yet.
“We’re not looking for a replacement,” said Captain Duval. “We don’t feel like this is necessary yet. It will take us a few years to get through the analysis and figure out what we would want to replace it with, but we haven’t done that yet because we feel like we’ll be able to operate this airplane for quite a long time.”
Meanwhile, Captain Duval and his team are looking ahead to N757HW’s future missions. “In the foreseeable future, I expect to be testing Honeywell’s electrical propulsion systems using fuel cells, batteries, or other power generation capabilities that Honeywell is involved in creating,” he said. “So, we’re adapting the plane to support those activities. As well, there’s continued work with all the satellite communications systems being launched, and the terminals that access them.”
The bottom line: Honeywell’s 757 test bed has proven itself to be a reliable, flexible, and robust testing platform for the last 15 years, and its future looks just as promising.
There is no doubt that Maintenance & Engineering (M&E)/MRO software platforms are improving the quality, speed, and compliance of airline maintenance programs worldwide. The evidence can be found in the five following MRO IT (information technology) case studies below. All provide indisputable proof that the integration, monitoring, and management of an airline’s MRO functions using end-to-end software solutions is the right move for any carrier to make, no matter how large or small they may be.
Aerogility Making Life Easier for easyJet
When easyJet wanted to update its MRO IT platform, the company turned to Aerogility (www.aerogility.com). In fact, easyJet was the first airline to implement the Aerogility platform. “It employs a model-based artificial intelligence (AI) to create a digital twin of an airline’s fleet and sustainment operations,” said Phil Cole, Aerogility’s airline business manager. “Over the past five years, easyJet has been utilizing Aerogility daily across its entire maintenance operation. Feedback from this extensive use has enabled us to create new and improved interactive planning tools and capabilities.”
For the record, model-based AI “is a predictive tool that enables the user to interrogate the data and the output conclusions,” said www.aerogility.com. “It operates according to a behavioral model, where each key element in a business or organizational system — such as an asset, a facility or a decision-maker — can be represented as an agent and configured to act in a particular way. The model is the result of these individual agents operating and interacting with each other to create accurate simulations.”
When it comes to MRO IT support, “Aerogility uses model-based AI to create a digital twin of an airline’s fleet and sustainment operations,” Cole said. A ‘digital twin’ is a real-time virtual replica of the airline’s aircraft and other physical assets, constantly modified by collected onboard performance and diagnostic to keep it in line with its ‘physical twin’.
The real power of a digital twin for aircraft maintenance is its ability to be used by an AI-enabled platform to project maintenance trends and possible responses into the future. “With its agent-based nature, Aerogility allows users to quickly alter planning parameters and create what-if scenarios for instant side-by-side comparison,” said Cole. “You can use this virtual representation to conduct forecast planning while considering constraints such as peak period shutdowns and limited MRO capacity/capabilities. This allows our customers to make more informed decisions and optimize operations, to improve efficiency and reduce costs.”
Back to easyJet. According to Phil Cole, the airline layered Aerogility on top of its existing MRO management and transactional systems, using these connections and its model-based AI engine to help them interpret their MRO data to make better and more useful maintenance decisions, in a faster and more timely manner.
“Implementing Aerogility involves seeding the model with a simple CSV export from any management information system (MIS) into the Aerogility model, replacing the current plan with Aerogility’s solution,” he explained. “A key aspect of Aerogility is its ease of integration with surrounding systems. For example, if modifications are required to an airline’s MIS, this will have no impact on Aerogility’s implementation.”
With Aerogility in place, easyJet has been able to make better, more informed MRO decisions for its fleet. This is true for day-to-day operations, as well as for scheduled heavy base, mid-term, landing gear and powerplant maintenance procedures. “Using Aerogility in our engine shop visit program has significantly helped to simplify the process of producing our engine shop visit plan,” said Alejandro Lopez Ruesca, easyJet’s head of powerplant. “It is a great piece of software; very user-friendly, incredibly fast, with support provided by an always helpful group of people.”
“easyJet’s improved visibility into its maintenance operations is common to Aerogility users,” Cole noted. The reason: “Most of our customers convert to Aerogility from manual and labor-intensive solutions, such as spreadsheets or project management tools, which prove limiting when scaling their fleet,” he said. “These solutions often result in a lack of understanding and collaborative planning among groups, teams and departments, with a heavy reliance on individual employees.”
This airline is certainly happy with its decision to implement Aerogility to manage its fleet.
“Aerogility has provided us with an essential tool to help deliver our business strategy — to drive down costs and maximize the number of aircraft available to our customers,” said Swaran Sidhu, easyJet’s head of fleet technical management. “We are really excited by the enhanced maintenance forecasting and planning capabilities this gives our team.”
EmpowerMX Empowers EAMS and Others
When Embraer Aircraft Maintenance Services (EAMS) of Nashville, Tenn., wanted to upgrade their MRO IT system, they selected EmpowerMX (empowermx.com). “EAMS was looking for a solution to improve technician efficiencies and reduce late deliveries,” said Levi Schmidt, EmpowerMX’s managing director of customer excellence. “EmpowerMX specializes in planning and execution of aircraft maintenance during line visits and heavy checks. To optimize these processes, we also offer full material solutions, integrations, and 100% paperless options.”
Moving EAMS to this MRO software required some investigative work on the part of EmpowerMX. To make it happen, “we needed to understand their current processes and application needs,” Schmidt said. “Part of the migration process included data mapping so things like skill codes, task types, crew structures, and department workflows were all familiar to the teams working the projects.”
“Where EAMS was instrumental was in realizing that all tools require proper use,” he added. “Their implementation specialist, who would ultimately become EAMS’ internal subject matter expert (SME), had a background in aviation maintenance from several perspectives, including project management, lead technician, and technician. As well, they were a part of that company’s Continuous Improvement team. This elevated their ability to implement EmpowerMX at EAMS and deliver the desired results.
Like EAMS, many customers have seen positive outcomes after successfully implementing EmpowerMX solutions. To learn more about these successes, case studies are available on the EmpowerMX website (www.empowermx.com/resources). These case studies illustrate how the four pillars of business success—safety, quality, delivery, and cost — have been improved in each.
EmpowerMX has been proven to be effective in improving safety and quality, with one group demonstrating a 50% reduction in injuries, two groups showing a 42% and 55% reduction in paperwork and dock errors, and the last group showing a 25% reduction in quality escapes.
In all case studies, delivery was an important metric as customers expect to receive their aircraft or component back in a timely manner. The first case study saw a dramatic decrease in delayed deliveries, from 67% to just 10%. The second case study also saw a significant decrease in delayed deliveries, from 62% to less than 5%. One case study even reported 100% of aircraft delivered on time for six out of seven months, demonstrating the effectiveness of the strategies implemented.
Within the first two years of implementation, customers reported at least 10% efficiency gains, contributing to a reduction in delayed aircraft. This allowed one case study to add an additional heavy check line without hiring additional resources, while another case study used their efficiency gains of 16% to increase throughput and generate additional revenue without adding any resources.
EXSYN Aviation Solutions and Malaysia Airlines Collaborate for Enhanced Success
Embracing the philosophy of perseverance, Malaysia Airlines recognized the need for a more effective Maintenance & Engineering (M&E) software solution after initial implementation fell short of their expectations. Determined to achieve optimal results, the airline sought the expertise of EXSYN Aviation Solutions (www.exsyn.com) for their comprehensive support in ensuring the seamless operation of Malaysia Airlines’ M&E/AMOS (Aircraft Maintenance & Engineering System) platform. Together, these two entities joined forces to propel the airline towards greater success.
EXSYN has to find and fix a number of problems to get to this point. “For instance, the airline’s component configurations and statuses were being tracked over multiple programs, making it challenging to provide a holistic overview of these components’ airworthiness status,” said Rob Vermeij, head of operations at EXSYN Aviation Solutions. “This situation resulted in potential human errors and discrepancies in airworthiness data despite their best efforts, which is not uncommon in the industry.” As well, Malaysia Airlines faced difficulties with inter-departmental communications, which led to ineffective project decisions, outputs and results.
To address these and other problems, EXSYN began by assessing the current state of data migration onto the new M&E/AMOS platform at Malaysia Airlines. “The data was analyzed through an automated validation process to flag any major potential gaps and issues that would need to be solved during the project,” Vermeij said. “The final result paved a concrete way forward to achieve the project’s ambitious timelines. Malaysia Airlines appreciated this analysis and contracted EXSYN to implement this new data migration approach to accelerate the project while guaranteeing the quality of airworthiness data.”
To make this happen, EXSYN joined up with a local team of Malaysian Airlines employees and trained them on its data migration methodologies and NEXUS tooling (which manages data related to aircraft airworthiness critical processes). “We established direct connections to all source systems (databases) and/or created standardized inputs based on reports, which fed into the library of pre-built components that EXSYN made based on our long experience with different M&E systems,” said Vermeij. “This approach enabled Malaysian Airlines to catch up quickly with NEXUS and empowered them to tackle different heavy engineering topics, such as modifications data, autonomously. EXSYN also coordinated the data migration process, providing expert support on both project management and deep technical levels while taking on some of the data migration tasks directly to ensure timely completion.”
EXSYN used a phased approach to ensure that the Malaysia Airlines’ M&E/AMOS project went smoothly as possible. For example, “we first created an early baseline data load to make the initial plan and expectations from data mapping tangible and provide a reference point for progression,” Vermeij said. “After that, we focused on getting all the static data in good shape, which defined all maintenance and airworthiness requirements of the fleet and supporting services. This phase typically required a few iterations. Then, we shifted focus to the dynamic data of the fleet, such as last done/next due date, aircraft configurations, and stock levels. From there onwards, the aim in terms of data validation moved towards getting an accurate maintenance forecast and fleet status.”
Eight months after EXSYN had signed onto the project, Malaysia Airlines achieved the M&E/AMOS goals that they were seeking. Better yet, “we were able to accelerate the project while ensuring the quality of airworthiness data, enabling the airline to achieve significant efficiency gains in their engineering and maintenance operations,” said Vermeij.
“To get a project like this through the gate successfully, full commitment on all levels in the organization is required,” he added. “Then you must staff the project with motivated people who are also empowered to make individual decisions for their expertise. Only with such a team and mindset are meeting timelines like these remotely possible.”
Ramco Brings Iraqi Airways into the Digital Age
Iraqi Airways is the national carrier of Iraq, headquartered on the grounds of Baghdad International Airport. It is the second oldest airline in the Middle East, having commenced service on January 29, 1946, using five De Havilland Dragon Rapides 6-8 passenger biplanes. “Currently Iraqi Airways holds 31 aircraft with 11 different fleet types,” said Peer Mohideen, associate director of Ramco Aviation Software (www.ramco.com).
Mohideen knows the specifics of Iraqi Airways’ fleet because of the role Ramco has played in deploying its MRO ERP system at this airline. Before Ramco came in to help, Iraqi Airways was using printed paper reports and Excel spreadsheets to manage their asset tracking, component and compliance, maintenance, and planning programs. As well, “all regulatory reports were prepared manually,” he said.
The operational and safety problems associated with this antiquated approach were so serious, that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) banned Iraqi Airways from operating in European airspace in 2015. This is why this airline turned to Ramco for an M&E ERP solution to help reverse the ban. “The key reason for Iraqi Airways to adopt a maintenance application like ours was to eliminate the hazard of releasing an unairworthy aircraft into service, due to inaccurate data and to get regulatory approvals,” said Mohideen. “Along with the customer, we did micro-level planning, identifying the risks in its existing approach to the maintenance program and developing a mitigation plan. This really helped prepare the way for a smooth and successful implementation.”
Peer Mohideen, Ramco Aviation Software
Now that Ramco’s MRO ERP solution is in place, Iraqi Airways’ productivity has been increased in their Stores and Procurement Department, where all parts movements are now being tracked and maintained in the system. The airline’s maintenance planners can also plan ahead for scheduled tasks and stock/assign these tasks accordingly.
In fact, Iraqi Airways’s end-to-end aircraft maintenance process has been completely digitized, Mohideen said, improving its accuracy and levels of compliance while reducing workloads and task completion times. The Ramco solution also provides the airline’s management with the accurate data they need to make better and more timely decisions.
Although Iraqi Airways has yet to win EASA approval to resume flights over Europe, its implementation of Ramco’s MRO ERP solution is a major step towards this goal. And the airline is happy with the results.
“Ramco is one of the respectable and approved companies of many international airlines, and it has brought about a great and good change in the Iraqi Airways company,” said a quote from Iraqi Airways provided by Ramco for this article. “As for their system, it is a good, understandable and very useful system, especially for maintenance activities in our company. As for the work team, they are qualified, experienced and very cooperative people. They are a very good team.”
Swiss Aviation Software Integrating Air Algérie’s MRO Data
Air Algérie is another national flag carrier; as its name suggests, for the north African nation of Algeria. While this article was being written, the airline’s MRO database was being migrated from a legacy IT management system and associated software programs, to the single AMOS platform made by Swiss Aviation Software (Swiss-AS).
“AMOS offers a wide variety of data import solutions to make the replacement of legacy software safe and easy,” said Remo Suter, who leads Swiss-AS’ data integration solutions team. He performed this interview together with Alexander Belykh, who is responsible for the hands-on data migration into AMOS. “These options integrate seamlessly with state-of-the-art ETL (extract transform load) software, which allows smooth data processing.”
According to Suter, Air Algérie has four main reasons for moving to AMOS. First, “their previous product does not have a very large customer base anymore and development seems to have come to a standstill,” he said. “A second reason is the higher level of integration offered by AMOS: it covers more business processes than the legacy solution did. This means that AMOS can replace the legacy MRO system plus many additional solutions. Third, the legacy solution was mainly dependent on a complex mainframe IT architecture that was difficult to maintain. Finally, integration options with third party solutions and ERP systems were not as easy to execute as they are with AMOS.”
Iraqi Airways
In migrating Air Algérie’s MRO data to AMOS, Swiss-AS were careful to spot and remedy erroneous, redundant, and obsolete information from the airline’s database. “Very often data quality in legacy systems is affected by a high amount of pollution, which has accumulated over the years,” he said. “Therefore, every data migration project is also a good opportunity for data cleansing!”
Swiss-AS also made an effort to coordinate the migration with the airline throughout the process. “Mapping the data properly requires input from the business’ end users, in order to prepare the target system to function as they expected,” said Suter. “It is important to involve all departments in the data mapping workshops,” he added. “Sometimes gaps in legacy systems are filled with additional stand-alone solutions. If customers don’t mention them in the beginning, it can cause some extra work during the project.”
Today, Swiss-AS is in the final stage of the Air Algérie switchover to AMOS. It’s going well: “Data quality in AMOS was high in the last migration iteration we performed and we are confident that the rehearsal and cut-over will be smooth,” Suter said. “However, the last two months in every project are always quite hectic; everyone is preparing for changed processes and a different view on the company’s data.”
Remo Suter closes this article with useful advice for any airline planning to move to a new MRO IT solution. “The higher the data quality is at source, the easier it is to migrate into a new system,” he said. “Make sure you use the opportunity to clean data during the migration process; the user experience on the new system will be a lot better!”
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