Welcome to MRO Americas 2023

SkyThread for Parts

Data sharing for Aviation assets will see real progress this year. We’ve been building towards this vision over the past 20 years. We called it “Data for the Life of the Aircraft”. 

Keeping a plane flying (commercial) or mission ready (defense) requires the deep skills of engineers, technicians, repair facilities and supply chain experts at dozens of companies over the life of the aircraft. Parts move between tail #'s, between airlines and repair stations. Knowing the history of these parts as they move is mission critical and gaps in provenance and history are more common than not. 

At SkyThread, we’re assembling the “business ecosystems” of companies and actors to collaborate in a trusted, distributed manner to get the right part, to the right place, on the right plane, by the right person, at the right time.

Over many decades, we’ve all built industry safety nets to protect against these data and trust inadequacies, our aged information systems, and our process weaknesses. But we’re still dealing with significant inefficiency, waste, and delays.  We compensate for these issues through higher inventory levels, longer lead times, TAT cushion, longer block times, more headcount, and investments in predictive analysis. All the while, the complexity of our assets and the missions they fly increase. Net-net, we can do better.  

 “We’ve discovered the benefits of blockchain to solve these age-old problems, but it’s not about the technology. It’s about Digital Aviation and building ecosystems and sharing for the benefit of the aircraft, its engines, and its parts”.

 The Aviation Ecosystem -

Collectively we’ve informed this vision for transformational change over many years “piece by piece” and then holistically with the following experiences and insights:

• Airframe – The process and data models to deliver an aircraft to an airline for induction of the plane into their fleet can be better – key outputs from the PLM and ERP systems will support this. We create the 1st chapter of the Digital Twin of the aircraft as it moves from “as built” to “as flown” status. This visibility into the real time configuration of the aircraft as it’s maintained is not present or sharable today.
• Airline – Induction of the aircraft into the MRO system of the airline along with capturing the Digital Thread of the parts supply chain for spares provisioning and MRO planning should be stronger. Some of the MRO systems we use today were built almost 40 years ago. Recent mega-mergers in the US have unveiled the large data issues hiding in these old MRO systems.
• Tier 1 Parts – Unfortunately, many parts come back to Tier 1 for repair with large gaps in information about how and where that part was used and the cause of return. Some parts are returned that have never been flown. The ERP systems at the Tier 1 have been undergoing renovation for the past 20 years. We can leverage these improvements, along with better lifecycle part information to inform new analytics.
• MRO Providers – in the hangar, on the line and in component repair. The task cards contain high levels of “surprise” when the aircraft pulls into the slot for repairs and parts requirements are assessed. Key information about the plane, engine and parts is “lacking” as the work begins. The quality of data coming out of the hangar with the repairable parts is inconsistent.
• Rotable Pools - these are valuable structures within industry and are built using several contractual mechanisms. SkyThread for Parts becomes the distributed ledger for and about these parts and for all the actors that “touch” these assets as they come in and out of the pool.
• Parts Exchanges – these companies are right in the thick of the USM market where we’re forced to deal with unsecured documentation about the parts. There are over 40 million aircraft parts “on the ground” waiting for their 1st or next installation on your aircraft. The key is to find the right part, for your plane, at the right time, in the right place and at the right time.
• Information Systems – We’ve been involved in the re-implementation or conversion of dozens of ERP, MES, MRO, and contemporary digital systems. We will embed SkyThread in these systems to minimize change management issues and work within your “ways of working” to speed deployment and benefits.

Our experiences along the entire value chain of the aircraft and its parts led to the formulation of the vision we call “Data for the Life of the Aircraft”. SkyThread was formed to work within the industry to solve these data sharing blockages, inefficiencies, data visibility and data quality issues.  Here’s a visual we created when I ran PwC Aerospace & Defense - to talk with our clients about the value of Digital Aviation.

Industry Best Practices -

What’s missing today? 

• Aircraft Parts Providers - Parts are manufactured and are “lost” into the skies and in inventory storage and repair stations around the world.   We answer the question for Tier 1 OEM part providers – Where is my Part?
• Airlines & Operators - have built large staff to manage the inbound identification of parts to assure the airworthiness of the part and the life (hours and cycles) parameters of that part.  SkyThread will record the trusted, distributed, shareable, validated history of an aircraft part. We answer the question for airlines – “Where did my part come from”?
• MRO providers – These organizations bear the brunt of inefficiency, waste, and delay in the $70 billion MRO industry. Daily, they deal with incomplete or incorrect part listings on the MRO inbound aircraft, lack of information on the parts they remove from the aircraft, and huge gaps in information as they search for parts to install on the aircraft. SkyThread provides a collaboration environment for sharing relevant information to get the parts and planes back in service.
• Component Repair – as an extension of the MRO community, the repair stations must deal with “fixed” TAT” while dealing with incomplete histories on the incoming parts for repair and when dealing with downstream suppliers during the repair processes. SkyThread will work in collaboration with the existing parts repair solutions to share the ongoing “state” of the parts.
• Decommissioning Centers – The end of life for an aircraft / engine may unleash a new supply of USM parts into the market. And the actual “end of life” for BER parts. Decom centers are realizing the value of providing validated documentation about the parts coming off planes to reduce the fear, uncertainty, and doubt about those parts.
• Spares and Inventory Management – the impact of all the issues we see today extends the TAT on spares provisioning and significantly increases the amount of spare being held across the industry. No parts - No plane / No plane - No revenue. SkyThread enables the dramatic collapse of the time required to eliminate uncertainty about an authentic aircraft part, reducing the levels of inventories required to maintain desired aircraft “in service” levels.

 Key Outcomes Achieved

 Keeping it real ...

• Aircraft part birth – the authentication of the aircraft part
• Aircraft part status – where is the part today and what state is it in?
• Aircraft part provenance – where has the part traveled and are there “gaps”?
• Aircraft parts “stalled” – which parts are held on “long term" stored aircraft?
• Aircraft parts scrapped – record end of life to avoid “re-birth” in grey markets.
• Avoid NFF through better indication of how and where part performed.
• Avoid early removals by capturing consistent “bad actors.”
• Avoid data issues by capturing duplicate serial numbers flying today.
• Improve TAT on component repairs.
• Improve TAT in the hangar as configuration quality and part visibility increase.
• Improve TAT on AOG and other IROPS.

How to Engage

Every company in the industry is part of a linked chain ecosystem. Because of the firewalls that exist within our information systems, we can’t see what we need to see upstream and downstream from where we sit. We at SkyThread are in discussions with 8 ecosystems today that include 3 or more of the following - Airline, MRO, Tier 1 Parts Supplier, Airframe, Engine Company, Brokers / Distributors, or Decommissioning Centers. We approach these discussions through the lens of a “SIPOC” - Supplier – Input – Process – Output – Customer. 

No matter where you sit in the ecosystem, bring your SIPOC forward and we’ll discuss how our data sharing ecosystem system will improve your position in the market.

MRO Americas – Let’s Talk

You can reach any of us individually at the show:

• Charles Marx Jr. , Chief Strategy Officer – text me at 602.820.7801
• Jean-Marc Lemaitre , EVP of Customer Success – 818.935.2445
• Mark Roboff , Chief Executive Officer – 646.599.5317
• Alain CARCASSES , Chief Operating Officer - +33 6 84 92 09 94
• Simon Free - Global Business Development - +33 (0) 6 71 39 41 59

We have three big announcements this week!  I will circle back on this post as we make the announcements so that you can reach out to us for more information.

See you in Atlanta!