Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 26 | Page 65

INDUSTRY WATCH IN 2019, BOTH OPERATORS AND MROS WILL DOUBLE DOWN ON THEIR EFFORTS TO MAKE DATA COUNT TOWARDS PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES – AND THESE CAPABILITIES WILL STRETCH FURTHER THAN EVER BEFORE. PREDICTION 1: RELIABILITY ANALYSIS BECOMES THE ENGINE FOR GROWTH OF PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES Reliability data buys operators decision-making time A recent IFS study into the top commercial aviation pain points found operational availability to be the greatest challenge, cited by 60% of respondents. No matter how quickly operators can turn around a plane between flights, the disruption of having an aircraft on the ground (AOG) has drastic ramifications – with parts and time potentially costing millions of dollars. Improving operational availability and avoiding costly schedule delays must begin in the maintenance planning process. The solution lies in analysing reliability data, which can enable operators to accurately predict when a component will fail and give them more time and freedom to decide on the next step. If operators know when a part is likely to malfunction or break, they can get as much as two to three weeks to review options and source a replacement from the most cost-effective vendor. This removes the pressure to find a part at short notice, which often leads to cascading maintenance schedule changes and expensive emergency parts sourcing. www.intelligentcio.com MROs can also capture valuable reliability data Last year, IFS predicted digital twins would play a bigger role in commercial aviation and we have seen this materialise and continue to dominate the agenda across the industry. In 2019, we will see MROs take advantage of digital twin information gained from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to capture much of this valuable reliability data. The key for MROs is to identify the areas where reliability data can have the most disruptive effect. Any improvement that will allow an MRO to enhance or gain predictive capabilities is going to be a major service differentiator. In 2019, both operators and MROs will double down on their efforts to make data count towards predictive capabilities – and these capabilities will stretch further than ever before. PREDICTION 2: QUICKER DEPLOYMENT OF IN-AIR AND IN- HANGAR INNOVATION For operators, the only way is cloud Operators face unprecedented demand to innovate faster, which usually manifests in pressure to adopt new technologies that improve the passenger experience – from in-flight entertainment INTELLIGENTCIO 65