Why blockchain can improve aircraft parts traceability

A blockchain is a cryptographically linked chain of immutable data recorded digitally on a ledger (‘blocks’). The blockchain includes all the relevant information pertaining to an item (an engine part, for example) or materials – such as their origins, usage history, maintenance logs etc. – which provides a highly efficient way to keep track of them throughout their life cycle.

Accessible via a digital, globally accessible platform shared among ecosystem partners, all that is needed is the item’s hash or block number to check its blockchain. Blockchains are secure – huge efforts are made to ensure the data cannot be falsified, and this is undoubtedly one of blockchain’s biggest selling points.

Blockchain offers huge benefits to the aviation supply chain, as it provides total transparency for critical parts used in planes, along with other tangible and intangible assets. It has been identified as a technology that will significantly impact both the aviation supply chain industry and aviation in general. The hype has been akin to the way many major aviation players viewed the arrival of the internet.

Cuts cost, errors, paperwork, fake parts

Up until a decade ago, it wasn't uncommon for aviation companies to be in possession of spare parts missing accurate and comprehensive master data – the most critical factor in ensuring the efficient and reliable documentation and traceability of aircraft parts.

In many cases, the files containing the vital master data were uploaded to a server, making it inefficient to find years later. Parts without this documentation are worthless, and it has only been since many aviation companies started integrating blockchain into the way they keep records of parts and materials that this industry-wide problem has been addressed.

Furthermore, only essential data was stored – all other information, even though it might be valuable further along the supply chain, was lost.

Using blockchain for USM parts traceability enables supply chain operators to:

reduce maintenance costs – paperwork is a huge drain on resources and severely slows down the supply chain
increase availability
minimise errors in tracking aircraft parts
ensure data is accurate

In a 2018 note, Accenture highlighted the huge potential it saw in blockchain technology for the aviation supply chain industry:

“Blockchain is well-suited to improve the performance of one of the world’s most complex, globally interconnected and security-dependent supply chains. This elegant and paradigm-shifting technology has the potential to deliver profound benefits for the hundreds of suppliers typically involved in the manufacturing of a single aircraft.”

Already in 2018, 70 percent of respondents to an Accenture survey said they were hopeful blockchain could help the industry detect the increasing amounts of falsified data entering their systems. The latest edition of the same survey in 2022 underlined their optimism about how the Metaverse could further improve blockchain's capabilities.

A number of other industry supply chains are also increasingly using blockchain technology, including fashion, food and groceries, gold, textiles and farming. Used in the food industry, for example, it can establish the origin of an item suspected of being the source of an outbreak of listeria or salmonella.

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