Airbus extends Skywise to suppliers

Airbus is now extending the scope of cloud-based big-data analytics into the supply chain. The new offering will connect selected suppliers to the Skywise platform, to enable unprecedented improvements in their reliability, quality, and performance and, more generally, transform aviation through better performance. This is the first time that Airbus and suppliers are co-innovating with data sharing and analytics during an early adopter phase.

Marc Fontaine, Airbus’ Digital Transformation Officer said: “I’m very pleased to announce the next stage of uniting the aviation industry’s data, by connecting suppliers to the Skywise platform. The scope and power of data integration technology, which only became available recently, is now bringing productivity gains which benefit all stakeholders in the aviation ecosystem – from suppliers and airlines to OEMs. When our aircraft are reliable and flying passengers, we are all better off.”

Since late last year, Airbus has been working with selected suppliers during an early adopter phase to evaluate the features and functionalities. To date there are already 10 ‘early adopter’ suppliers working with Airbus to test and help mature the new supplier-related components of Skywise. These participants represent a very broad spectrum of commodities including cabin, propulsion, aerostructures, materials and equipment/systems. They were chosen not only for their strategic representation, but also for their overall willingness and ‘digital readiness’.

Nicolas Bonleux, Managing Director and Chief Sales Officer at Liebherr-Aerospace & Transportation said: “The projects demonstrated that bringing together a wide range of data and conducting holistic analyses enable us to realise a much deeper and better understanding of the in-service behaviour of on-board systems and components, developed, manufactured, certified and serviced by Liebherr.”

With this early adopter programme, Skywise is thus evolving into a true aviation platform by closing the loop between Airlines, Airbus, and Suppliers. The next phase of this partnerships will be to explore incorporating the OEM in the algorithm development to deliver improved predictive maintenance to airlines.