how aircraft operators can benefit from phm techniques big sky - montana 2012 ieee aerospace...

How Aircraft Operators Can Benefit from How Aircraft Operators Can Benefit from

PHM TechniquesPHM Techniques

Big Sky - Montana2012 IEEE Aerospace Conference

Leonardo Ramos RodriguesEMBRAER S.A., São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil

Takashi Yoneyama; Cairo Lúcio Nascimento JúniorITA, São José dos Campos , São Paulo, Brazil

HOW AIRCRAFT OPERATORS CAN BENEFIT FROM PHM TECHNIQUESHOW AIRCRAFT OPERATORS CAN BENEFIT FROM PHM TECHNIQUES

ContentsContents

Introduction

PHM Basic Concepts

Potential Benefits

Unscheduled Maintenance

Scheduled Maintenance

Troubleshooting

Inventory Management

Aircraft Allocation to Routes

Final Considerations

2


IntroductionIntroduction

The application of PHM (Prognostics and Health Management)

techniques can potentially provide a wide range of benefits to

aircraft operators.

PHM systems are often closely associated with the reduction in

the number of unscheduled maintenance tasks, but they

may potentially lead to considerable savings in other fields.

Scheduled maintenance, troubleshooting, inventory

management and aircraft allocation to routes are examples of

how operators can use PHM information in order to optimize their

processes.

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IntroductionIntroduction

The use of PHM information may lead to

important competitive advantages such as

reduction in operational cost and increase

in fleet reliability.

The purpose of this work is to enumerate and

explore qualitatively some of the PHM

benefits in terms of the mentioned competitive

advantages.

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PHM Basic ConceptsPHM Basic Concepts

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The main goal of the research in PHM is to estimate the

Remaining Useful Life (RUL) and health state of

equipments and systems.

It comprises a set of techniques which use analysis of

measurements to assess health and predict impending failure of a

monitored equipment.


Unscheduled Maintenance Unscheduled Maintenance

6

System failures are preceded by degradation

indicators such as wear, corrosion, surface damage,

vibration, noise, overheating, leakage, cracking, etc.

PHM algorithms correlate these degradation indicators to

failure modes and quantify the resulting damage to the

monitored equipment. A degradation index is generated.

RUL estimation can are used by maintenance planners to

anticipate maintenance actions and fix the degraded

monitored system before a failure occurs.


Unscheduled Maintenance Unscheduled Maintenance

7

Increase in Fleet Availability:Increase in Fleet Availability:

Unscheduled maintenance actions are replaced by scheduled

tasks, planned and performed with minimum impact on the

operation (avoid AOG = Aircraft On Ground).

Reduction in the number of delays and cancellation events.

Reduction in Operational Cost:Reduction in Operational Cost:

A failed equipment tends to require a more expensive repair than a

degraded but still functional one.

Failed equipments may cause damages to other equipments,

increasing the cost required to repair the whole system.

Reduction in cost of compensations offered to the delayed or

cancelled flight passengers (meals, hotel rooms, phone calls, etc.).

Preservation of intanglible assets such as client satisfaction, client

loyalty, company reputation.


Scheduled Maintenance Scheduled Maintenance

8

A PHM system is a powerful support tool

to support the implementation of a CBM

program.

Maintenance planners may use RUL

estimation to schedule maintenance

interventions.

Full implementation of a CBM program

must be supported by a certification

process and must follow certifying

authority recommendations.


Scheduled Maintenance Scheduled Maintenance

9


Using Condition Based Maintenance strategy, the number

of maintenance interventions is the minimum

necessary to maintain the system. The aircraft

availability is optimized.


Reduction in the number of maintenance interventions

reduces the labor cost required to maintain the aircraft

during its whole operating life.


TroubleshootingTroubleshooting

Maintenance teams may use PHM information to perform a

faster and more accurate troubleshooting process during

the turnaround time (time between two consecutive flights).

Degradation level associated to each system component

can be used as a rank to establish a priority for functional

tests.

A potential benefit that a PHM system can provide to this

procedure is the automation or even the elimination of

the some of the routine checks and inspections.10


TroubleshootingTroubleshooting


If troubleshooting process uses PHM information, failure

root-cause can be identified faster, and the aircraft will

be ready for the next flight in a shorter period of time.


PHM systems allow maintenance teams to accurately

identify a faulty component without running a series of

functional tests in order to isolate the fault.

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Inventory OptimizationInventory Optimization

Inventory owners must establish an

inventory policy that balance the

requirements of high levels of service

for unscheduled maintenance events

and the budget constraints of keeping

a high level of inventory at the

warehouses.

The number of spare parts to be

acquired and the best moment to

place a new order can be determined

based on the estimated probability of

failure of each monitored component.

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Inventory OptimizationInventory Optimization


Aircraft operators are able to strategically distribute spare parts

among maintenance centers and guarantee that a spare part

will be available in the right place.

Reduction in parts transport time.


The ideal number of spare parts to be acquired and the best

moment to place new orders can be determined based on the

estimated probability of failure given by a PHM system.

Reduction in inventory level keeping the required service level.

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Aircraft Allocation to RoutesAircraft Allocation to Routes

Operators can allocate aircraft presenting lower RUL – and

consequently higher probabilities of failure – to routes

that pass through or are closer to the maintenance

centers location.

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Aircraft Allocation to RoutesAircraft Allocation to Routes


Probability of a failure event to happen in a location far

from the spare parts can be reduced by using PHM

information. It reduces the mean time to repair,

increasing fleet availability.


Intelligent aircraft allocation to routes potentially

reduces the distance between the spare parts and faulty

aircraft locations. It represents a reduction in

logistic costs.15


Final ConsiderationsFinal Considerations

This paper presented an overview of some of the benefit opportunities and competitive advantages that a PHM system may provide considering different aircraft operators activities.

It can be noticed that the information generated by a PHM system is valuable itself, but aircraft operators can considerably increase the potential benefits provided by a PHM system when its information is combined with other information sources such as maintenance centers location, equipments lead time and FMECA (Failure Mode, Effects, and Criticality Analysis) data.

16


Thank You!

17

Leonardo Ramos Rodrigues ([email protected])Takashi Yoneyama ([email protected])Cairo Lúcio Nascimento Júnior ([email protected])

how aircraft operators can benefit from phm techniques big sky - montana 2012 ieee aerospace...

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