Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Company (HAECO) is one of the world’s leading independent aircraft engineering and maintenance companies. Automating tool control in aviation maintenance is a step towards the prevention of Foreign Object Detection (FOD) occurrences and other potential tool management related safety incidents
HAECO selected Xerafy for its track record in the aviation industry as well as the strong market experience and capabilities the company has demonstrated in RFID tool tracking solutions.
HAECO provides maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) services for more than 200 aircrafts each year. Since its inception in 1950, the company has continuously grown to become one of the largest players in the fast-growing global aircraft MRO market, valued in excess of USD 67 billion. Over the next ten years, the Asia Pacific and China markets will see the fastest and largest global MRO demand growth and spending.
Digitization MRO Operations
With MRO companies eager to increase efficiency and productivity, HAECO’s Patrick Wong, Executive General Manager, Line Services and his teams leveraged their operational experience and best practices to identify how combining data and technology can deliver significant improvements.
Each MRO company’s mechanics uses their own tools and toolboxes, and at the end of each shift, the mechanics have to conduct a full inventory to ensure that they didn’t leave any tools on the aircraft. This process is typically done manually, which is both inefficient and inaccurate. Manual tool control can also result in duplicate or lost data, as well as inaccuracies in the tool management database.
How To Automate Tool Control
The project team’s vision was to automate the control process using a tool crib software with a user-friendly system interface and technology that could incorporate existing tooling, toolboxes, and cabinets without additional investment in new equipment.
“We needed a solution that would deliver inventory checks with a single scan, quickly and with 100 percent accuracy” Wong said. “The interface had to be easy-to-use, while the wide variety of tools to track meant we wanted the flexibility to be able to tag tools and devices of any size.”
MRO Tool Control With RFID
The pilot project was completed in November 2017 at HAECO’s Hong Kong main operations site, with a full control solution involving a mobile app connected to the company’s back-office system, to track and trace 3,200 tools using handheld RFID readers.
In addition to making the mechanics more productive, the inventory checks are more accurate and automatically reconciled with the reports. By ensuring that tools aren’t left on the aircraft, HAECO is able to reduce the possibility of Foreign Object Damage (FOD) to its client’s aircraft.
The company can also better manage the maintenance and upkeep of expensive tools and can use real-time inventory data to create comprehensive reports and conduct data analysis and business forecasting.
Xerafy is a pioneer in RFID for Tool Control, bringing to market several innovations that enable advanced tool control identification and automation capabilities.
In addition to a complete range of field-proven RFID tags available off-the-shelf, Xerafy offers Custom RFID Tags services, covering everything from a personalization service bureau to custom-design engineering capabilities.
