Challenge
Adoption of circular economy practices in the aviation industry, which represents 3% of global emissions,50 is one of the most important steps to reaching net-zero targets for aerospace manufacturers. However, documentation analysis and inspection processes for aeroplane parts are often complex and time-consuming. This is a clear hurdle for optimizing the life cycle of aircraft and enabling better reuse, resale and recycling services for parts.
Solution
To meet this challenge, Capgemini and Amazon Web Services (AWS) partnered to develop LifeCycle Optimization for Aerospace with the support of the ADEME (French Agence de l’environnement et de la maîtrise de l’energie). The solution allows the processing of aircraft maintenance documentation to be automated using optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning technologies. The tool digitizes all documents, even handwritten and non-structured ones. It then creates a database of parts’ maintenance history and analyses it with AI engines. The data is automatically checked and structured (by serial and part number) for use. This was tested with real-life data provided by Safran Landing Systems and Air France.
Using this data enables operators to assess the repairability of a component, estimate its remaining lifetime in use and improve the part’s reuse.
Upgrades of the platform will include materials identification and CO2 trade-off, enabling decision-makers to take strategic action on the circularity of parts. The programme envisions integration with airlines and OEMs’ information systems for decision support, emphasizing sustainability and efficiency. It could also be replicated in other sectors facing the same challenges.
Impact
The platform accelerates technical inspections at the end of an aircraft’s life or leasing, reducing analysis time by between 30% and 50% compared to expert operators’ manual analysis. A recent use of the platform enabled an airline to retrieve full traceability for 113 additional parts and increased the number of reusable parts by 15%.
Reducing inspection time and increasing parts traceability simplifies the implementation of circularity measures, important in handling the 20% of worldwide fleets soon to be retired.
Featured in our paper "The “No-Excuse” Opportunities to Tackle Scope 3 Emissions in Manufacturing and Value Chains"