|
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Safety, regulatory compliance, competitive advantage and operational efficiency are the top priorities
for the commercial aviation industry at large. Ensuring safety and compliance requires routine inspections, data
collection and record keeping.
In order to address this, aviation companies need the ability to locate, track and monitor the status – in real-time
– of various mobile assets that are critical to aviation related operations. Today, tracking assets is a tedious and time
consuming process resulting in untimely and inaccurate data.
RFID technology can not only automate data collection; it can also help eliminate potentially fatal errors while
speeding up the overall inspection process. With the formal approval in May 2005 by the FAA for the use of RFID
tags on commercial aircraft parts, the commercial aviation sector is now moving rapidly to implement RFID-based
solutions to address common industry problems.
|
|
|
In order to properly service aircrafts, the airlines need information about individual parts such as the flight hours,
maintenance history and inspection data. Collecting and logging this data for each part can be manually intensive, error
prone and paper-based.
Proper maintenance and calibration of aircraft tools is critical to airline safety. To this end, airlines may be
required to maintain records that indicate maintenance and calibration history, when, where and by whom they were
last checked out and checked in. Airlines need all this information to ultimately ensure that only certified tools
are used for specific operations and to make sure that all tools are accounted for at the end of production.
Air freight cargo containers also known as Unit Load Devices (ULDs), come in a variety of shapes and sizes depending
on the aircraft type, the cargo they contain and where they will be stowed on the plane (top deck versus belly).
Managing the inventory of ULDs is particularly difficult with the varieties required for operations. Imbalances
frequently occur at airports – such as an over-abundance of one type of ULD and a scarcity of another. This leads to
frequent borrowing between airlines, lost ULDs and unnecessary procurement.
With heightened security concerns in today's world, another problem is ensuring the integrity of ULD cargo. In particular,
airlines want the ability to quickly identify and track individual pieces of cargo contained within a ULD.
Airlines rely on the timely availability of mobile assets such as tugs, trailers and forklifts to move containers
during the loading and unloading process. Knowing how many of these assets are available in the staging area, and
where they are located is critical to airline operations. However, airports are dynamic and chaotic environments
where assets are constantly being shifted around. This makes it especially hard to keep accurate track of assets. |
|
|
| |
|
