A Report on Global Logistics & Supply Chain Management in International Aviation Industry
Submitted To: Dr. A. N. Sarkar
Prepared By: Sweety E. Das (2k81/IB/24) Abhinav (2k81/IB/25) Debashish (2k81/IB/26) Dr. Himani Singh (2k81/IB/27) Mohd. Ameed (2k81/IB/28) Prashant Rampuria (2k81/IB/29) Sonal (2k81/IB/30) Vidisha Singh (2k81/IB/31)
September 05, 2009 0|Page
Table of Contents
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE AVIATION INDUSTRY ............................................................................... 2 WHAT IS SUPPLY SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT MANAGEMENT .......................................... ................................................................. ............................................. ...................... 3 SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS ................................................................................... 3 SUPPLY CHAIN BUSINESS PROCESS INTEGRATION ......................................................................... 4 COMPONENTS OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION ................................................... 5 GLOBAL SUPPLY SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMEN MANAGEMENT T ........................................... .................................................................. ............................................. ...................... 6 REPORTING REPORTING STRUCTURE STRUCTURE & SYSTEMS SYSTEMS ................................. ....................................................... ............................................. ...................................... ............... 6 CHANGING SCENARIO IN CROSS-BORDER TRADE .......................................................................... 7 FIVE BASIC BASIC TRANSPORTA TRANSPORTATION TION MODE ............................................................. .................................................................................... .............................. ....... 7 COST STRUCTURE FOR THE AIR TRANSPORTATION MODE ............................................................. 8 AIRLINE INDUSTRY VALUE VALUE CHAIN ............................................. .................................................................... ............................................. ............................. ....... 8 IMPACTS OF A WEAKENED AIRLINE INDUSTRY .............................................................................. 9 ROLE OF IT ............................................................ .................................................................................. ............................................ ............................................ ......................... ... 10 INSTALLATIO INSTALLATION N OF RFID IN AIRCRAFT AIRCRAFT ........................................... .................................................................. ............................................. ........................ .. 10 RFID: HOW IT WORKS? WORKS? ...................................... ............................................................ ............................................. .............................................. ............................ ..... 11 RFID SAVINGS SAVINGS FOR MROS.......................................... ................................................................ ............................................ ........................................... ..................... 12 AIRBUS: AIRBUS: KEEPING KEEPING TRACKS OF TOOLS ........................................... .................................................................. ............................................. ........................ .. 13 BOEING AND FEDEX EXPRESS: TESTING RFID IN SERVICE ............................................................. 14 WHAT S NEXT ............................................ .................................................................. ............................................ ............................................. .................................... ............. 15 ’
GOEBBELS GOEBBELS ON SAP'S SAP'S RFID STRATEGY STRATEGY ........................................... .................................................................. ............................................. ........................ .. 16 Bibliogra Bibliography phy .......................................... ................................................................. ............................................. ............................................. ....................................... ................ 18
1|Page
INTRODUCTION TO THE AVIATION INDUSTRY
The 1884 La France, the first fully controllable airship Although many people think of human flight as beginning with the aircraft in the early 1900s, in fact people had been flying repeatedly for more than 100 years.
Wright brothers’ first successful flight in Kitty Hawk in 1903.
American Airlines in 1928 and United Airlines in 1931.
Development of the mail system by the U.S. Postal Service helped create the airline industry.
Increased R&D of aircraft after World War II: World War II saw a drastic increase in the pace of aircraft development and production. All countries involved in the war stepped up development and production of aircraft and flight based weapon delivery systems. After World War II commercial aviation grew rapidly, used mostly ex-military aircraft to transport people and cargo. This growth was accelerated by the glut of heavy and super-heavy bomber airframes like the B-29 and Lancaster that could be converted into commercial aircraft. The DC-3 also made for easier and longer commercial flights. The first North American commercial jet airliner to fly was the Avro C102 Jetliner in September 1949, shortly after the British Comet. By 1952, the British state airline BOAC had introduced the De Havilland Comet into scheduled service.
Deregulation in 1978: Deregulation – Entry and exit of routes and the pricing of fares were deregulated.Benefits: 1. The creation of new jobs and lower fares. 2. More Americans were flying so airplane load factors were up. 3. There was increased competition and a wider choice for passengers.
2|Page
WHAT IS SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT? Supply chain management (SCM) is the management of a network of interconnected
businesses involved in the ultimate provision of product and service packages required by end customers (Harland, 1996). Supply Chain Management spans all movement and storage of raw materials, work-in-process inventory, and finished goods from point of origin to point of consumption (supply chain). The definition put forward by a U.S. professional association is that supply chain management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics management. It also includes the crucial components of coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers. In essence, supply chain management integrates supply and demand management within and across companies. More recently, the loosely coupled, self-organizing network of businesses that cooperate to provide product and service offerings has been called the Extended Enterprise. Supply chain management can also refer to supply chain management software which includes tools or modules used to execute supply chain transactions, manage supplier relationships and control associated business processes. Supply chain event management (abbreviated as SCEM) is a consideration of all possible events and factors that can disrupt a supply chain. With SCEM possible scenarios can be created and solutions devised. SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT PROBLEMS
Supply chain management must address the following problems:
Distribution Network Configuration: number, location and network missions of
suppliers, production facilities, distribution centers, warehouses, cross-docks and customers.
Distribution Strategy: questions of operating control (centralized, decentralized or
shared); delivery scheme, e.g., direct shipment, pool point shipping, cross docking, 3|Page
DSD (direct store delivery), closed loop shipping; mode of transportation, e.g., motor carrier, including truckload, LTL, parcel; railroad; intermodal transport, including TOFC (trailer on flatcar) and COFC (container on flatcar); ocean freight; airfreight; replenishment strategy (e.g., pull, push or hybrid); and transportation control (e.g., owner-operated, private carrier, common carrier, contract carrier, or 3PL). 3PL).
Trade-Offs in Logistical Activities: The above activities must be well coordinated in
order to achieve the lowest total logistics cost. Trade-offs may increase the total cost if only one of the activities is optimized. For example, full truckload (FTL) rates are more economical on a cost per pallet basis than less than truckload (LTL) shipments. If, however, a full truckload of a product is ordered to reduce transportation costs, there will be an increase in inventory holding costs which may increase total logistics costs. It is therefore imperative to take a systems approach when planning logistical activities. These trade-offs are key to developing the most efficient and effective Logistics and SCM strategy.
Information: Integration of processes through the supply chain to share valuable
information, including demand signals, forecasts, inventory, transportation, potential collaboration, etc.
Inventory Management: Quantity and location of inventory, including raw
materials, work-in-progress (WIP) and finished goods.
Cash-Flow: Arranging the payment terms and methodologies for exchanging funds
across entities within the supply chain. The way the supply chain is designed has significant implications on companies' working capital, and can have important consequences especially for leveraged and distressed companies. Supply chain execution means managing and coordinating the movement of materials, information and funds across the supply chain. The flow is bi-directional. SUPPLY CHAIN BUSINESS PROCESS INTEGRATION
Successful SCM requires a change from managing individual functions to integrating activities into key supply chain processes. An example scenario: the purchasing department places orders as requirements become known. The marketing department, responding to customer demand, communicates with several distributors and retailers as it attempts to
4|Page
determine ways to satisfy this demand. Information shared between supply chain partners can only be fully leveraged through process integration. Supply chain business process integration involves collaborative work between buyers and suppliers, joint product development, common systems and shared information. According to Lambert and Cooper (2000), operating an integrated supply chain requires a continuous information flow. However, in many companies, management has reached the conclusion that optimizing the product flows cannot be accomplished without implementing a process approach to the business. The key supply chain processes stated by Lambert (2004) [5] are:
Customer relationship management
Customer service management
Demand management
Order fulfillment
Manufacturing flow management
Supplier relationship management
Product development and commercialization
Returns management
COMPONENTS OF SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT INTEGRATION The management components of SCM
The SCM components are the third element of the four-square circulation framework. The level of integration and management of a business process link is a function of the number and level, ranging from low to high, of components added to the link (Ellram and Cooper, 1990; Houlihan, 1985). Consequently, adding more management components or increasing the level of each component can increase the level of integration of the business process link. The literature on business process re-engineering buyer-supplier relationships,and SCM suggests various possible components that must receive managerial attention when managing supply relationships. Lambert and Cooper (2000) identified the following components:
5|Page
Planning and control
Work structure
Organization structure
Product flow facility structure
Information flow facility structure
Management methods
Power and leadership structure
Risk and reward structure
Culture and attitude
GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT Corporate controlling for global value chain
Suppliers Sub-Assembly Final Assembly Distribution Centers Customers
As manufacturing becomes more efficient (or is outsourced), companies look for ways to reduce costs As we can recognize from the developing of supply chain management theory, it is more and more involved in globalization and multi-country supply chains. This poses challenges not only on the supply chain level (quantity oriented) but also on the value chain level (value oriented.) Supply and value chain trends are as following:
6|Page
Globalization
Increased cross border sourcing
Collaboration for parts of value chain with low-cost providers
Shared service centers for logistical and administrative functions
Increasingly global operations, whidch require increasingly global coordination and planning to achieve global optimums
Complex problems involve also midsized companies to an increasing degree
CHANGING SCENARIO IN CROSS-BORDER TRADE
The aerospace industry is undergoing a fundamental transformation in its development, manufacture, and distribution of leading-edge commercial and military systems. Discussing ways to control costs, improve quality, accelerate time to market, and transform operations into a high-velocity enterprise is at the core if i2’s services and solutions for the aerospace industry. FIVE BASIC TRANSPORTATION MODES
1. Pipeline 2. Water 3. Air 4. Rail 5. Highway 7|Page
COST STRUCTURE FOR THE AIR TRANSPORTATION MODE
As compared to other modes of transportation air as mode of transportation has many advantages•
Low fixed costs (aircraft and freight handling equipment)
•
Highest variable costs (e.g., labor, fuel, maintenance)
•
Very fast; used for transporting high value and/or high perishability product over short to medium distances.
Traditional supply chains in the aerospace and defense industry are evolving at an accelerated pace. Variability is becoming a critical business driver across all of its market segments. In addition, due to the push for increased cost effectiveness, industry players are globalizing 8|Page
their supply chains and working with partners from all over the world. Today’s A&D supply chains are characterized by the need to manufacture increasingly complex equipment and systems, ongoing pressure to reduce costs, extended product life cycles, requirements for optimized asset utilization, turn-key support services, and ongoing requirements from regulatory and safety agencies. To meet the many challenges that emerged as a result of these new industry dynamics, aerospace and defense companies have increasingly relied on automation and technology enhancements - designed to work on removing business “silos,” improving collaboration and fueling gains in productivity. In addition, companies have embarked on initiatives focused on reducing costs through improving procurement processes. While the technology advances of the past 10 years have enabled aerospace and defense companies to overcome some of its challenges, the industry is ready for the next major leap in productivity. This major leap in productivity will come from improvements in crossfunctional processes that leverage a common set of services and data standards wherever possible. IMPACTS OF A WEAKENED AIRLINE INDUSTRY
The weakened airline industry impacts following: 1. Suppliers: like- Aircraft, Engines, Electronics, Computers, Chemicals It results in lower sales 2. Services: like- Insurance, Financing, Distribution, Telecom, Maintenance, Fuel It results in lower sales 3. Passengers: like- Business Travelers, Leisure Travelers It results in decreased productivity and weaker relationships. 4. Travel & Tourism: like- Travel Agents, Tourist Attractions, Conferences and Conventions, Hotels, Restaurants, Retailers It results in low revenues.
9|Page
THE ROLE OF IT
IT creates applications that provide strategic advantages to companies
IT is a competitive weapon
IT supports strategic change , e.g, re-engineering
IT networks with business partners
IT provides cost reduction
IT provides competitive business intelligence
INSTALLATION OF RFID IN AIRCRAFT
The Future of MRO Supply Chain Management In the not-too-distant future, radio frequency identification technology may bring radical changes to the way maintenance, parts, and even tools are tracked. Imagine an MRO world where components carry their individual cradle-to-grave histories with them. To read these histories, you would simply scan these components with RF (radio frequency) readers. As soon as the radio waves hit their antennas, these parts would automatically transmit back their vital statistics: date of manufacture, part number, hours in service, repairs and modifications, and anything else you needed to know. In addition, not only could this information be automatically logged in your company's own database, but any new data could be written back to these components, for access by the next MRO technician. In such a world, it would be much harder for parts to go missing or be stolen. The records associated with such parts would also be highly accurate, because the number of people inputting them during the MRO cycle would be vastly reduced. On the corporate side, such parts would be easy to track, invoice against, and replace; a welcome change that would cut paperwork, human hours, and parts inventories. Meanwhile, government entities such as the FAA and NTSB would be happy, because these parts would be easy to trace in the event of accidents: no more guessing who did what after the fact. Sound too good to be true? Well, it isn't: in fact, this is the future of MRO supply chain management thanks to a technology called RFID. Short for radio frequency identification, RFID is the same technology used by retailers for theft prevention. If someone tries to steal a 10 | P a g e
shirt with an uncleared RFID tag, a reader at the door triggers an alarm as the RFID tag passes by. Obviously, retail-sized RFID tags would be too big and cumbersome for installation inside aircraft. However, advances in RFID technology--spearheaded by the unlikely partnership of Airbus and Boeing--have resulted in practical RFID labels that have already been tested by FedEx Express. Granted, these tests have yet to include the engine area and other parts of the aircraft exposed to extreme conditions. However, the progress made to date, including a successful 90-day flying trial by FedEx Express, indicates that the future deployment of RFID tags throughout the entire aircraft is not a matter of if, but rather when.
RFID: HOW IT WORKS
To understand the basics of RFID technology, consider a credit card. It contains a magnetic strip upon which data is written and read using an appropriate scanning device. An RFID storage chip, which can contain up to 10 kilobits of information, works in the same way. The difference is that the data is transferred by radio waves from the RFID tag to the scanner, rather than by passing the magnetic storage medium directly against a scanning device. There are two kinds of RFID recording devices: active and passive. An active RFID chip has access to a power source--either through an onboard battery or a connection to an external supply--and actively transmits its data. A passive RFID silicon chip doesn't have a power source; instead, it uses RF energy received from a nearby scanner to generate a transmission signal. This is why the antenna on a passive RFID is so important: it captures the RF energy that triggers the transmission and ensures that the RFID's data signal gets into the airwaves. To date, the aviation industry has put its efforts into passive RFIDs, all built to meet the SPEC 2000 automated identification and data capture guidelines published by the Air Transport Association. It's easy to understand why passive RFIDs are the industry's preferred choice: the last thing any pilot wants is to fly an aircraft full of RF-emitting devices, all of which could interfere with the aircraft's avionics. Beyond this, the advantage of passive RFIDs is that their electronics can be squeezed into thin, label-sized wafers. Based on Electronic Product Code (EPC) protocols developed by EPCglobal (www.epcglobalinc.com), these RFIDs can either be incorporated into standard bar code labels, as is being done by 11 | P a g e
Boeing. They can also be embedded directly into the metal skin of a component, an approach that is being tested by Airbus. At present, the RFID tags being tested by Airbus and Boeing operate in the 13.56 MHz range. The advantage is that this high frequency doesn't cause interference problems with other RF users. The reason 13.56 MHz doesn't cause problems is because such RFID signals only travel 25 centimeters/one foot at best, which is also a disadvantage when you come to think about it. To read such signals, it is necessary to pass a handheld scanner directly over the RFID tag. This is why future RFID trials will be conducted at 915 MHz, said Ken Porad, program leader for Boeing Commercial Airplanes and one of the industry's top RFID experts. "Using 915 MHz in the UHF band, passive RFID signals can be received up to 25 to 30 feet away," he explained. "For airlines and MROs checking on the condition of RFID-tagged parts, this would allow their technicians to just walk past the aircraft with handheld scanners to collect the data they need."
RFID SAVINGS FOR MROS
At the outset of this article, we alluded to the money RFIDs could save in MRO supply chain management. Now it's time to look at the details. According to Boeing's Porad (and verified by Airbus's Steffen) the number to take note of is $45 billion. "This is the value of the inventory sitting on MRO shelves today, as airlines and aftermarket providers try to ensure that they have the parts needed to keep their planes flying," he explained. "If we knew the life cycle and service history of the components currently in service on an ongoing basis, we could better predict when they'd need replacing. We could then stock our warehouses on a leaner just-in-time basis, which could reduce our inventory overhead by billions of dollars." One area where RFID could save the airlines "$100 million a year" is in "rogue part,", Porad added. "These are parts that fail in service, yet whose faults can't be detected when put on the test bench," he explained. "`Rogue parts also refer to those that are counterfeit, unapproved, or carrying bogus certification. With each component carrying its own RFID history, it would be easy to detect and deal with such money-wasters. It would also make it much harder for people to pass off counterfeits, and for stolen parts to make their way into the system." 12 | P a g e
Other savings include faster troubleshooting and repair, said Airbus vice president Pierre Steffen. "With an RFID-tagged component, the manuals needed by the technician are stored right on the chip," he said. "The data can even tell them what tests to run and what parts to reorder should partial replacements be necessary. No longer will time be lost by scanning through paper manuals. No longer will the wrong parts be ordered, delivered, and then replaced with the right order, which also wastes time and mon Finally, all of this data can be entered directly into an MRO's Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) management software. In fact, SAP has already modified its Aerospace and Defense (A&D) ERP module to incorporate this data, as read through EPCglobal-compatible scanners. "We have created a little piece of software called Auto-ID, which enables two-way communication between RFID-tagged components and SAP's supply chain management software," said Martin Elsner, field service director for SAP's A&D business unit. "With this link, SAP users can monitor and manage their supply chains down to the level of individual components, on an end-to-end, real-time basis." Such is the power of RFID that Airbus and Boeing have teamed up to adopt and promote this technology based on the ATA's SPEC 2000 standards. In fact, the two have jointly presented "Global Aviation RFID Forums" (www.globalaviationrfidforum.com) in Atlanta and Hong Kong to educate the aviation industry about RFID and have a third forum planned for October 19-20/2004 in Munich, Germany. "When a technology as important as RFID is being developed, the big players in the market must play together," said Airbus's Steffen. "RFID's ultimate objectives are improved safety and operational efficiency," said Boeing's Porad. "This is so important, that we all must work together for the common good."
AIRBUS: KEEPING TRACK OF TOOLS ... AND MORE
As futuristic as RFID sounds, Airbus has actually been using it for the past three years. However, the company's embedded RFID tags are not found inside its aircraft, but rather the very expensive servicing tools--and the shipping cases in which they travel--that Airbus leases to its MRO partners. "Having the tool's history recorded on an RFID makes it easy for 13 | P a g e
us to track who has it and what condition they receive it in," said Pierre Steffen. "When the tool has been returned and is being recalibrated, the specifications recorded on the RFID can be easily compared with those being measured on the test bench, and the appropriate changes made." All told, the efficiencies made possible by RFID have already allowed Airbus to improve the refurbishment of returned tools by up to 27 percent, said SAP's Elsner. "It used to take them typically from 19 to 25 days to prepare such tools for future leases," he said. "With RFID's help, this timeline has been cut to 16 to 19 days, on average." Besides proving the value of RFID through its tool leasing business, Airbus has installed RFID-tagged components on 12 Airbus A320s "being flown by a major German charter airline," said Pierre Steffen. "To date, these components have collectively logged 200,000 flight hours. For all chips on all planes in all cycles, we have experienced 100% data reading accuracy. There hasn't been a single instance of RFID tag failure." Airbus is also testing RFID-equipped components in flight on the company's own A319 corporate aircraft.
BOEING AND FEDEX EXPRESS: TESTING RFID IN SERVICE
With Boeing's help, FedEx Express has been flying RFID technology for more than a year. "The experiment grew out of interest in barcodes and direct part marking," explained Butch Ford, manager of FedEx Express's aircraft engineering support section. "In the first half of 2003 we were modifying a DC-10 [specifically N370FE, built in 1972 and flown by United from that year to 1994] to an MD-10. We thought it would be an excellent opportunity to test RFID technology, so we installed 40 13.56 MHz RFID-tagged components in six areas. For example, we tagged the onboard maintenance power displays on the flight deck, the first aid kits and the oxygen bottles in the cabin, and the air data inertial reference unit in the avionics bay. We also put RFID tags in the cargo compartment and wheel wells: the only areas we did not do were the engines because these tags aren't yet ready to deal with that kind of heat." For the record, the RFID tags used by FedEx Express were Zebra Technologies (www.zebra.com) z-Ultimate labels fitted with Infineon Technologies' (www.infineon.com) 10 kB RFID inlays (combined memory chips and antennae).
14 | P a g e
After being equipped with RFID tags--and completing its conversion to an MD-10 freighter-FedEx Express N370FE returned to normal service on November 13, 2003. Over the next 90 days, the RFID tags on the aircraft were put through six different read/write tests using handheld scanners. "We wanted to see that the tags were retaining their data integrity, weren't being affected by RF fields generated by the aircraft, and that the stickers remained properly adhered to the components," Ford said. "After 90 days of flight time, we couldn't find a single problem in any of these areas. The RFID tags still worked fine." With this success under its belt, the next goal of FedEx Express is to test 915 MHz RFIDtagged components in service. As with the 13.56 MHz tests, the RFID tags will be located on an in-service aircraft. The advantage is that this aircraft will readable "using a scanner up to 25 to 30 feet away," said Butch Ford. "Imagine it: we'll be able to check the status of these parts without even seeing them, by just walking through the aircraft with a UHF scanner."
WHAT'S NEXT
The FedEx Express RFID tests are due to be mirrored by Delta Air Lines, said the RFID Journal (www.rfidjournal.com). It wrote that Boeing and Delta will be installing and testing both 13.56 MHz and 915 MHz RFID tags on eight Delta twin engine jets on the company's Atlanta-Jacksonville route. For each airplane, 30 RFID tags will be tested on noncore rotating engine components in one of its two Pratt and Whitney 2037 engines. "FedEx Express has proven there are no interference issues," Delta general manager of material services Marty Kangiser is quoted as saying in a June 14, 2004 RFID Journal report. "We'd like to do the same thing for engine parts." Does this mean that RFID technology is about to break into the MRO supply chain? Not quite yet, cautions Airbus' Pierre Steffen. "It's too early to say when RFID parts will become standard to the industry," he said. Still, the very real progress made in RFID inflight testing, and the joint cooperation between Airbus and Boeing to promote this new technology, bodes extremely well for the entire aviation industry. In fact, RFID technology looks so promising--and so necessary--that one can imagine MRO managers ten years from now looking back to 2004, wondering how the aviation industry ever survived without it. 15 | P a g e
GOEBBELS ON SAP'S RFID STRATEGY
SAP vice president aerospace and defense offered these insights on SAP's view of RFID technology applied to the aviation aerospace industry. 1. Is RFID a key strategic direction for SAP? Back in 1998 SAP first initiated RFID research in SAP's corporate research center and in 2001, SAP joined the Auto-ID Center as a founder-member and as one of the first enterprise application software vendors. RFID processes will enable SAP to drive further advantage from the benefits our customers are already receiving from their existing IT investments. One major piece of the RFID puzzle for Aerospace and Defense (A&D) companies is the automization and capitalization of the efficient supply chain management processes. When it comes to the domain of MRO, we also believe that RFID will become a key tool/enabler for compliance. 2. Do SAP A&D customers want RFID info? Absolutely. We have several prominent customers--both in A&D manufacturing and in A&D MRO--who are prototyping/installing RFID solutions with SAP. We are currently also in discussions with airline MRO organizations to launch their first RFID projects. 3. What about RFID speed of adoption? For RFID solutions to succeed in this industry, it is of vital importance that the technology is driven by all the key players in the A&D ecosystem. A success factor for the entire industry is the gathering of as much information as possible. This will translate into maximum technological advantage. As the U.S. defense organizations will make RFID mandatory, we believe that RFID compliance will naturally catch on quicker than other technologies. The A&D industry is all about very expensive products and assets. In the A&D arena, the price for the RFID tags is comparatively negligible. Another pro-RFID factor is the fact that the A&D industry is one of the most regulated. Considering all these factors, I am confident that this technology will be adopted sooner rather than later.
16 | P a g e
As far as the obstacles for fast adoption go, in my opinion they comprise: a) the fact that the standardization process must lead the way and b) the physical complexity of using tags and readers in the A&D setting comprising lots of metals, etc. and c) frequency regulations that are controlled on a country-by-country level. 4. Are there greater opportunities for aerospace RFID in manufacturing or maintenance? The technology will obviously assume its greatest potential if the entire community supports it. Relevant to both segments, with regards to the material supply process, one can provide inventory visibility, tracking parts/kits from goods receipt up/down to the goods-issue area. Monitoring sensitive components, tracking materials through the assembly process, tracking parts by serial number is driving visibility of the whole end-to-end business process. Two other important processes relevant to both OEMs and MRO-type organizations are those of order fulfilment and the asset lifecycle management. The inventory process is just a part of the entire end-to-end process, like order fulfilment Another considerable area of opportunity is that of using RFID tags for the tool-tracking process. Many businesses hire out equipment and tools to other companies. When receiving them back, it is extremely useful to be able to ascertain who rented the tool, the duration of the loan, the duration of utilization etc. This can end up in triggering vital maintenance follow-up activities such as sending the tool back to the warehouse or directly to calibration.
17 | P a g e
Bibliography
Reference Site
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/1999/news_release_990922b.html as retrieved on 1st September, 2009 http://www.touchbriefings.com/ -- Pdf: New Developments in Purchasing and Supply Chain http://www.touchbriefings.com/ Strategies for the Aviation Industry - A report by D r Jorg Rissiek & Joachim Kresse las retrieved on 1st September, 2009 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply_chain_management as retrieved on 1st September, 2009
18 | P a g e
