This Part is on the Chain
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This Part is on the Chain

What does that mean?

SkyThread developed a blockchain enabled, trusted data network to improve the data flow on commercial aviation aircraft parts. To ensure safe and efficient operations, airlines, their suppliers, and MRO providers go to extreme lengths to validate that components, engines, and aircraft have been maintained at the desired and required levels. The chain will store and share this part history and validation and will collaborate with other industry chains to create a holistic view of the parts.

How does it work? The journey that aircraft, engines, complex 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 and delivers validation and trust on that data, so part buyers and operators need not worry about a part or its lineage.

Why is this important? Inefficient data documentation and validation efforts delay part acceptance, create excessive safety stocks, and require significant forensics labor to document part status. This is resolved by employing a curated, blockchain data network for parts, components, and complex assemblies up to and including the aircraft itself. The full provenance of an aircraft part is captured and validated by SkyThread.

Who loads the data? The solution is built around all the actors that have a designated role in this parts life. This is a “permissioned” network, meaning that to load and see information about a part, you must have an approved role on that part – Tier 1 part OEM (manufacturer), Airframer / Engine (assembly), Airline (operator) and Primary MRO (line / hangars) and decommissioning center. If you are a permissioned member of the part ecosystem, you can load and view details about the part. Component repairs have unique needs which we’ll discuss later.

What data is loaded? We’re recording the life events of the aircraft part across the ecosystem as the various actors’ “touch” the parts. There will be gaps in the life history that can be highlighted in the chain as the part moves on and closed, with documentation, when research is completed. Part provenance will always be known.

  • Part Birth – original manufacture and CoC
  • 1st Use – assembly on aircraft by tail number
  • Delivery of aircraft to operator
  • On wing hours and cycles
  • Delivery to and holding in spares
  • On wing inspections
  • Part removal
  • Part repair
  • Part installation
  • Part scrap (avoids part re-entry)

Each part is one of 100 million serialized aircraft parts that we’ll be tracking over their lives. About 60 million parts are flying on planes today and over 40 million parts are moving through the supply chain on the ground. No confidential data about the transactions are recorded, such as pricing.

How is the data validated? The system uses data triangulation to support part research. The system looks for gaps and overlaps in the life of the part and flags those as "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 numbers flying on aircraft to avoid part quarantine. 

How does the system respect confidentiality? The system will know the life events of the part. The four primary actors will be able to see the part through its life. The aftermarket contractual 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, but the primary actors will have access to assure continued air worthiness of the part. USM will have unique needs.

How secure is the data? Blockchain is the most secure cloud architecture. The distribution of the nodes prevents successful intrusion and deletion of the data. The data, when loaded is immutable. It can’t be changed. When data about a part is loaded, it’s permanent. 

How is the solution funded? First, the companies that load the data receive data credits from SkyThread, which are monetized when the data on this part is viewed by permissioned actors down the road. Views are likely to occur in support of inbound parts planning, parts repair analysis, the sale of an aircraft part, and in conjunction with aircraft events such as an aircraft / engine sale or return on lease.

What is the Solution 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 and EDI systems of the industry actors for maximum value and aligns with airframe and engine lifecycle solutions. We plan to engage all serialized aircraft parts, planes, and engines over the next aircraft event cycles.

What is the Business Value to the Industry?   SkyThread provides the friction free data platform and solutions that:

  • Registers aircraft parts at birth and follow them through their life journey. Part authentication and visibility.
  • Registers the 1st use of that part into an aircraft assembly or provisioning into the aftermarket
  • Validates the movement and condition of aircraft parts on and off aircraft and through maintenance events.
  • Lowers aircraft part risk (UAP) and inventory levels through validation of part life events, provenance, and scrap.
  • Increases part residual value and availability, reduce maintenance costs, lower inventories, and TAT.
  • Validates the “as flown” configuration of the aircraft - facilitating part management on lease return, aircraft sale, and heavy maintenance events.

How do I view history on this part? Your company may have a license. You will be authenticated to view the part history by your company.   For more information on loading your parts, your part history or how to engage with SkyThread, you can reach us at info@skythread.aero

SkyThread for Parts

For more information on what we’re doing, see my complete 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 data sharing technology 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 Decommissioning

Improving Aviation Sustainability

Aircraft on Ground

U.S. Air Force Leads the Way with Blockchain

Global Parts Registry - It's Time

Clear Skies Ahead?  

Keeping Planes Flying

Aircraft Parts Lifecycles

SkyThread - 2023 Blog

Kiran Prakash

Senior Manager - SCM Sales Lead @ Cognizant

1y

Excellent article @Chuck!

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