Time is Everything
A key element of airline operations is punctuality. If timekeeping is poor, it can be expensive in terms of reputational damage, passenger compensation payments and the knock on effects of delays to other flights, exacerbating the problem. The answer is to be able to identify, predict, prevent and rectify problems as quickly as possible. However, this can be difficult to achieve without the use of data analysis. Ian Harbison reports
One such solution is the AVIATAR, part of Lufthansa Technik’s Digital Tech Ops Ecosystem , which was formed in early 2023 with the integration of AMOS MRO software from Swiss AviationSoftware (Swiss-AS) and digital records and asset management solutions from flydocs. Both companies are now 100% subsidiaries of Lufthansa Technik but with separate operations as well as collaboration between all three. In addition, Engineering Services complements the solutions offered by the Ecosystem. Data from these sources are incorporated into a number of AVIATAR modules that customers can assemble into a customised suite of applications closely tailored to their specific operations;
The latest development is the introduction, in April, of a new AVIATAR module called Reliability Solutions.
Dr. Jan Philipp Graesch, Product Lead Reliability Solutions, explains that, previously, it was not always possible to leverage all the available data assets, have a central data source (single-point-of-truth), easy collaboration between departments and to have the efficient, real-time creation of standard reports.
This is because a fault can be reported from a number of sources – technical logbook, pilot reports, messages from maintenance staff or directly from the aircraft, such as fault messages sent directly via the Aircraft Condition Monitoring System (ACMS). In addition, there are scheduled corrective actions and maintenance tasks. For pilot reports, these tend to have mistakes, especially the wrong ATA Chapter, while a mix of other languages and aviation English makes automatic analysis difficult.
Typically, the Technical Fleet Manager will oversee the resolution of problems with a Reliability Manager (RM) and a Systems Engineer (SE) but, he says, this can be a bit like a game of ping pong between the two. In addition, the troubleshooters in the Maintenance Control Centre (MCC) of an airline may have to be in the loop.
The RM will highlight the problem and make it a case, passing it to the SE for root-cause analysis. Having received the results from the SE, the RM reports it to the authorities and copies in the SE, who then makes a recommendation of how to solve the problem and passes it to engineering for action. However, the result comes back to the RM for effectiveness analysis. Not only inefficient but different data is held separately.
Part of the reason for this complexity is that two separate tools were being used – one for Reliability Managers called Fleet Performance, with six airlines using it, and one for troubleshooters and engineers called Event Analytics, with 15 airlines and 2,500 aircraft.
To overcome these problems, the latest AVIATAR module, Reliability Solutions, was launched in April and not only merges these two tools but adds much more functionality. It also takes advantage of It currently covers Airbus and Boeing aircraft, along with some Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of Embraer and Bombardier types.
The first available application within Reliability Solutions is the Engineering Analytics Suite. More applications will be available this year, including reporting and case management for investigations, and like the first, are being developed jointly with partners and customers.
With the Engineering Analytics Suite, customised dashboards increase collaboration between user groups like Technical Fleet Managers, Reliability Managers, System Engineers, Maintenance Control Centre experts and troubleshooters. These can be easily adapted by adding alert and target levels, comments and changing the chart size as well as appearance. This is designed to promote dialogue on performance indicators and to empower users to collaborate and dive deeply into the data when required.
Aircraft messages and maintenance and engineering data are now collected and analysed using AI technology for natural language programming, which makes it possible to extract the technical aspects of a report while, if it is a new case, establishing a record for future reference. This is important as the outcome of the case will be flagged up if a similar problem arises in the future, providing direction to technical staff. Much of this uses AMOS, as it is really the single-point-of-truth. When the problem is solved, that data entry is available to everyone immediately. However, there is access to much more data than before, that can be brought in to solve a problem. For instance, Electronic Logbook information from AMOS or AVIATAR contains more data such as fuel uplift or the use of deicing.
The system can produce customised Reliability and Engineering dashboards, as well as introducing rules and automatic alert levels created by algorithms developed through machine learning. This could be as simple as flagging up a missed Service Bulletin. If it produces a delay alert that is ignored, it is simple to see if the delay happened. Or, if the instruction is followed, perhaps for a temperature rise, then it is simple to see if the component change was effective and the temperature subsequently decreased. This can be done for a single aircraft or across the fleet. If there is a component exchange, there will also be workshop reports from Lufthansa Technik showing exactly what work was done.
Christian Haas, Lufthansa Group Process Architect Engineering, says the project started in 2018, with a request from the Technical Fleet Management to create a group overview of the most important KPIs. This led to the joint development of Reliability Management on AVIATAR. As there were still some limitations there was a desire to replace the Weekly Report with an AVIATAR Dashboard, the app was developed further under the name Fleet Performance.
The biggest changes came with the decision to combine Fleet Performance and Event Analytics in the Engineering Analytics Suite. With this step, multiple new features have been introduced and are still on the roadmap, allowing the Monthly Reliability Report (authority report) to be replaced by another AVIATAR dashboard. Later this year, we hope to roll out the engineering investigations as well to have everything in one place.
He adds that, in the Lufthansa Group, an important feature is the possibility to compare data between the different airlines – Lufthansa, SWISS, Austrian Airlines and Brussels Airlines.
Graesch points out that, while workshop reports are available and the workshops use predictive data to help them, Reliability Solutions is currently configured to monitor whole fleet. While bringing it down to component level could be possible, it will be a significant challenge due to the multiple layers of complexity that would be introduced – which defects, on what serial number, where was it worked on (airlines often use several repair shops), how is it acting? He says the research is ongoing.
Swiss-AS
As an example of collaboration between the Digital Ecosystem partners of Lufthansa Technik, late May saw Lufthansa Technik sign a five-year extension to its contract with Saudi Arabian low cost airline flyadeal for Aircraft Engineering Services. However, a new element was introduced with AMOS Airline Edition software that will be hosted on AMOScloud, both from Swiss-AS. This is part of the airline’s digital transformation to support a fleet of around 30 Airbus A320ceo/neo.
Aircraft Engineering Services will continue to deliver solutions such as maintenance programs and life-time status tracking but will also use AMOS for digital CAMO support. Meanwhile, flyadeal will use AMOS as a central hub for managing maintenance operations, including efficiency optimisation, ensuring regulatory compliance, an improving maintenance practices and in-depth reliability analysis of the entire fleet.
