The 3 steps to successful Aircraft Data Management
The data in an airline's system is the lifeblood of any operation, but it can also be a challenge to manage. The need to store and manage this information is only growing. Here are the three steps to successful aircraft data management:
Collect and Validate
Manage and Keep Trust
Empower and Drive Value
Step 1: Collect and Validate:
In the world of data management, airlines store data in multiple systems. Collecting and identifying the data itself and having it stored in different systems doesn’t provide any value—an airline needs to process it and have only one single source of truth. The problem with this process is that it can take a lot of time and effort for airlines to get the data they need into a usable format, centralise it, and validate it. An airline needs a way to quickly and easily transform data from its original format into the shape, format, or model they need it to be, to validate all the data, and to have a data standard to be able to drive value.
Step 2: Manage and Keep Trust
Large amounts of data are available, but the quality is lacking, and the output is flawed. Everyone knows the world-famous waste in is waste out. Keeping your aircraft data healthy and maintaining a single source of truth is a continuous job. It is necessary to be on top of things to prevent flawed data. Human error is natural after all, and more data is added to the systems daily, resulting in constant changes. Plus, tonnes of rows of new data are created by the aircraft every day and added to the systems, so it’s quite challenging to keep an overview and identify issues. This means an airline needs a quick and trustworthy way to check all data to address any issues as soon as they appear and are still manageable, to prevent things from spiralling out of control, and to maintain trust and confidence in the aircraft data at all times.
Step 3: Empower and Drive Value
The ultimate step is to derive value from data. This is only possible with the right people or partners who have the skills and knowledge to create this value. Making a pie chart in Excel is not difficult, but managing a data warehouse, presenting information in a logical and cognitive manner, and making use of new data technologies such as natural language processing (NLP) or machine learning (ML) is a field of its own.
Benefits Of Good Data Management
A well-executed data management strategy can help airlines gain potential competitive advantages over their business rivals, both by improving operational effectiveness and enabling better decision-making. It can help to avoid data breaches and regulatory compliance problems that could damage an airline’s reputation, add unexpected costs, and put the organisation in legal jeopardy. As mentioned in our previous blog post, issues related to airworthiness and maintenance data can result in audit findings, grounding of aircraft, or hindering the implementation of digitization initiatives. Ultimately, the biggest benefit that a solid approach to data management can provide is better business performance.
What To Do Next?
1. Set up a data management strategy and clearly identify your business goals
As always, the first step is identifying the airline’s goals. Setting goals will help determine the process for collecting, storing, managing, cleaning, and analysing data. Clearly defined business objectives ensure that we only keep and organise data that is relevant.
2. Analyse what kind of data is stored and where is stored
Next, you need to identify what kind of data you need to achieve your goals and where to find it. But it does not stop here. As mentioned above, it is important to have reliable data, so it is necessary to put a process in place to improve the quality of that data. So also think of:
We lack any data, or is it still available in paper-based form?
What is the quality and integrity of the data?
How can we improve the quality of the data and uphold it?
3. Identify if all the tools and people are in place to roll out the strategy
Sometimes the biggest challenge to using data effectively is that the organization’s data owners are not data experts. A critical part will be providing the knowledge and skills the airline needs to analyse and understand the data. This could mean putting data analysis tools in the hands of departments outside of IT or getting buy-in from the airline’s leadership to support data initiatives.
Do you need help with your aircraft data? Starting with identifying where all the necessary data is stored, collecting and validating it, and getting it into the right format. gaining trust back in all the data residing in your MRO/M&E system?
Contact us for more information and to discuss your airline’s situation by clicking the below button or sending an email to hello@exsyn.com
