Turkish Technic uses RFID, ZigBee and other automatic identification technologies to improve work efficiency
chrispeng [ad_1]
Turkish Airlines’ maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) service provider Turkish Technic uses a complex network of automatic identification technologies including passive EPC Gen2 UHF tags to increase staff and tool efficiency and reduce inventory. When the company started looking for a technology solution to improve on-site management, the company found that a hybrid approach would meet their needs for better traceability of tools, inventory, employees, and work-in-progress.
Turkish Technic spent three years developing and deploying the solution, which uses EPC Gen 2 RFIDTags, sensors based on the ZigBee protocol, Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) and Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) technology are used to transmit position and status information of moving objects. The company uses a single software platform to manage the data collected by sensors, tags, readers and navigation technology to enable tracking of people, assets, WIP and MRO facilities. The company says the system improves employee productivity, resource utilization and reduces inventory storage costs. The program was officially installed in April 2012.
Turkish Technic has an MRO facility at Istanbul Airport and provides maintenance services to its parent company Turkish Airlines. At the same time, the company also provides maintenance services for airlines in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. These services include maintenance and repair of components such as engines, auxiliary power units, and landing gear. The company has 2,500 employees and 4 hangars (accommodating 22 aircraft).
The company has been developing a solution called Network Maintenance Repair to better manage its repair resources. Company maintenance resources include technicians, tools, parts, inventory, small vehicles, other ground service equipment, personal hangars and the aircraft themselves. Orkun Hasekioglu, project manager at Turkish Technic, said: “The overall performance of an MRO business depends on the efficiency of resource utilization. Without effective tracking, measurement and control of resource location and status, efficient resource management is impossible.”
Improving efficiency is the main purpose of the system. Before implementing the solution, the company found that technicians spent most of their time searching for parts and files and locating and retrieving ground service equipment. In addition, the company has an inventory backlog of $2.5 million.
The company understands that there is currently no single technology that enables the monitoring of all assets, inventory and people, so the company developed an IoT solution that uses other technologies such as sensors. The company has built a network to manage the location and status of every tool, component, person, vehicle and aircraft.
At the beginning of the project, the company set up a development team consisting of software developers, network engineers, embedded system developers, and business analysts. The team found that low-cost passive UHF RFID tags and handheld readers could be used for tool location tracking and inventory management. On the other hand, the management of the real-time location of moving people and vehicles requires active technologies. Therefore, the company chose a battery-powered sensor that complies with the ZigBee protocol. “The company has also custom developed routing, network layer protocols, positioning algorithms,” Hasekioglu said.
The company also has ACARS and ADS-B radios built into each aircraft to identify the aircraft’s location. In this way, the company can better manage its space and develop service plans, the company explained.
Companies also need to locate personnel in locations such as outdoors, parking lots, indoors, maintenance hangars, and more.
Using RFID technology, companies can obtain location data for tools and items needed for maintenance. At the same time, the company will also obtain the location and maintenance history of each component. To achieve this, Turkish Technic uses RFID tags from various suppliers and attaches them to tools, emergency equipment assets in the aircraft cabin. In addition, the company uses Maintag’s Flytag to track aircraft parts.
Hasekioglu said the company has attached passive UHF tags to 5,000 items of tools and test equipment. When not in use, these tools are stored in the company’s tool room. RFID tags are also used on the shelves where tools are stored. When a worker intends to remove tools or perform any service, he needs to use ATID RFIDReaderRead tool labels and shelf labels. “Handheld devices are used to update inventory,” he said. “When inventory is being counted, the worker just walks through the shelves with a handheld reader and updates inventory data based on location.”
In the aircraft cabin, emergency equipment such as life jackets and oxygen generators also use RFID tags. Technicians can also use an ATID reader to see where these tagged items are placed.
The company tracks the location of ground service equipment and personnel through 350 active ZigBee sensors. Some sensors are attached to mobile devices, others are worn by personnel in the form of badges.
Each sensor sends its unique ID number at set intervals, receives and transmits data through the company-deployed mesh network. These data will be forwarded to the company’s back-end network, so that managers can view the real unknown data of people and equipment. When outdoors, location data is confirmed by in-sensor GPS technology. For indoor asset and personnel positioning, the system uses RSSI and TOA values for confirmation. Turkish Technic uses mobile networks and fixed sensors to achieve localization. In total, the company installed 50 stationary ZigBee sensors on the wall.
The company also needs to know the location of each aircraft, the health of the systems, and the availability of the hangar. Currently, almost all Turkish Airlines aircraft are equipped with ACARS and ADS-B transponders, so Turkish Technic can use these technologies to integrate location and system health data into the system. The company used cameras to confirm whether the hangar was occupied.
Hasekioglu said the company plans to expand the use of the program to every aircraft component repair depot.
Thanks to the system, Hasekioglu said, the company’s ground service equipment has tripled in availability. At the same time, the company also reduced excess inventory.
The company notes that the system reduces the time spent searching for equipment or tools, and technicians spend 20 percent more time on repairs. More importantly, the company can also better provide real-time management, monitoring and scheduling of maintenance resources.
The Turkish Science and Technology Foundation also provided financial support for the project.
[ad_2]
