RFID Takes Wing in Aviation

Boeing and Airbus will likely present more detailed information about how they plan to use the technology within a year. “We intend to implement RFID as a commercial standard practice,” says Porad. “We’re now in the process of defining our requirements as an enterprise. Within a year from now, we’ll have a fully defined set of requirements, and we’ll impose those on new procurements. We won’t go back to people who’ve been delivering parts for 15 years and force them to retrofit parts. But we think they will do that anyway.”

Leading by example
Boeing and Airbus have deployed RFID internally for a variety of applications. Boeing has tested RFID tags for tracking parts as they move through its facility in Wichita, Kan., where the company designs, fabricates and assembles fuselage structures, struts and engine parts for nearly all its commercial jetliners.

The passive UHF system enables parts to be tracked automatically as they’re received and as they move from shop to shop within the facility to the assembly line. In the past, workers manually scanned bar codes on parts (or on the paperwork that has to accompany all parts). The system was labor intensive, and it left Boeing with limited visibility of a part if someone forgot to scan it. The new system allows a dozen or more parts to be identified as they’re driven past a reader and gives managers greater visibility into the parts pipeline.

Three years ago, Boeing started using a 125 kHz RFID system in its Frederickson, Wash., plant, which manufactures structural parts for commercial aircraft. Tags are placed on parts so they can be tracked as they go through acid baths, painting and other processes before being placed on a plane. The tags are hermetically sealed to withstand the acid and paint. The tags are used for ID purposes only and are removed once the part leaves the plant.

Airbus began testing RFID four years ago, when it launched a system to identify and track the location of tools it lends to airline maintenance centers. The technology has also helped reduce the time it takes to check out tools by 25 percent because it enables Airbus to automatically calibrate tools, a process that must be conducted each time the tools are used, says Jens Heitmann, senior manager for system-and-equipment standardization processes and methods. In the past, tools had to be sent back and forth between physical locations, but now the calibration can be done remotely using data stored on tags.

These internal projects are relatively simple compared with tagging airplane parts from the time they are manufactured until they are taken out of commission. The heat from engines or the cold of the external environment when planes are in flight could destroy the tags or the data on the tags. And it’s not clear whether RFID systems could interfere with the equipment on the plane. Boeing has been conducting tests related to each issue with its customers, in conjunction with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.