march2021 - 18

TECH SPOTL IGHT

Putting the Data to Use
While predictive maintenance technology is
one piece of the future maintenance puzzle, the
other is how does a technician sift through and
utilize the generated data? Enter Aerogility, whom
aims to solve just that issue.
" Predictive maintenance is a key tool for MRO
teams and airline operators. Modern aircraft are
generating vast amounts of sensor data and
predictive maintenance is getting better all the
time, but sometimes this data can be overwhelm- Phil Cole
ing. If big data analytics and machine learning can AEROGILITY
be used to create actionable 'health indicators,'
Aerogility can help leverage this by optimizing the MRO operation's
response to an emerging issue, " said Phil Cole, civil aviation business
manager at Aerogility.

reality. Preventative maintenance is founded on the
same basic principle - preventing possible and
likely problems - but as John Peterson, vice president and general manager of software and services
at Honeywell described, preventative maintenance
is the evolution of that principle.
" What we're doing is we're saying, 'Hey look, in
terms of this particular area of the aircraft, we want
to anticipate a problem is going to happen before
it happens. And, it's not because of the number
of hours or the number of cycles, which was the
traditional way of monitoring and maintaining,' "
Peterson said. " What we do in predictive maintenance is a much more sophisticated way of looking
at and anticipating a problem. And really, this has to
do with the maturity of the technology over time. "
" The aviation industry is many decades beyond
the 'run to failure' ethos, and successful predictive
maintenance is, by definition, preventative maintenance - analyzing and predicting failure and
when to pre-emptively intervene in time to prevent

In 2019, IFS was selected to support the
innovative Rolls-Royce Blue Data Thread
program, accelerating predictive maintenance
by facilitating data exchange from airline
customers operating the Trent Engine family.
IFS

Aerogility's
softeware
works to crunch
the data.
AEROGILITY

At Aerogility, we think this concept of predicting when a part or system might be degrading and needs replacement is a huge advantage for
the MRO team further - turning those crucial insights into usable plans.
Aerogility focuses on how to predict, optimize and schedule an MRO
operation to handle the dynamic workload generated by the new data
being received from the aircraft.
" Thanks to predictive maintenance, we get useable insights into the
work that needs to be done next, but unfortunately, we don't have infinite
MRO capacity and the work must be scheduled. Aerogility uses modelbased AI to simulate fleet operations and forecast the engineering and
maintenance activities that are needed to keep the fleet flying while
optimizing costs. Predictive maintenance data does an excellent job in
predicting the tasks that are coming up, and in turn, Aerogility enhances
this process by optimizing and scheduling what the MRO operation
needs to do to get those jobs done, " Cole said.

MARCH 2021

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE TECHNOLOGY

march2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of march2021