Where Can I Learn About RFID’s Use at MRO Facilities?

I am the innovation and continuous improvement director for the maintenance division of a South American airline. I am interested in understanding the benefits of implementing RFID technology within our facilities for tracking assets, and wondered if you have any documentation of similar projects implemented before. Anything implemented about maintenance, repair and operations facilities would help.

—Name withheld

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RFID is being used by airlines in a variety of areas. Below are some articles and videos of presentations that should be of interest.

TAP Saves More Than €2.5 Million on MRO With RFID
TAP Portugal is the country's leading airline, and its TAP Maintenance and Engineering (TAP M&E) division has incorporated RFID technology into its daily engine maintenance operations. This is the first time that a maintenance and repair organization has integrated RFID technology into its production process in order to track aircraft engine components undergoing maintenance. Learn how the solution, known as Mobile Enabled Engine Repair Application (MEERA), has resulted in increased efficiencies in labor-intensive operations within a complex series of processes requiring hundreds of engine components to be removed, cleaned, repaired and reassembled.
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Lufthansa Expands RFID Use
The airline's various divisions are using Mojix RFID hardware to track aircraft-part maintenance and hazardous cargo, while testing the use of handheld readers and its own tags to track safety devices on planes.
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Rolls-Royce Tests RFID's Potential to Drive Its Supply Chain
The U.K. engines manufacturer is exploring ways RFID might be used to improve its internal processes.
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Best Practices for Tool Control: Reducing FOD Risk and Improving the MRO Process and Supply Chain
Aerospace companies and maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities must consider tool control a high priority. Government contracts now require that tool-control methods be put in place when building or maintaining an aircraft. There are many methods for tool control available, but in this session, the speaker will focus on the best-practices method of automated tool control at the point of use, to ensure 100 percent positive tool-control methods. Hear how to monitor tool movement, determine location and, in the worst case, use existing technology to find a lost tool. Learn why it is important to establish proper tool control, and why managing all supplies necessary to complete a task is critical. Have you ever completed walk studies to determine the real cost of inventory? Is there a surefire method to ensure you have supplies on hand at all times? Learn how to uniquely handle these types of inventory issues in a cohesive system.
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Airbus Expands RFID Part Marking Across All of Its Aircraft Families
Building on its A350 XWB deployment, the airplane manufacturer is now expanding its RFID part-marking activities to all seats and life vests for its A320, A330 and A380 aircraft.
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Lufthansa Technik Uses RFID to Expedite Aircraft Repair
At its German facilities, the aircraft-maintenance service provider is attaching EPC UHF tags to documents that accompany airplane parts, reducing the need for manual data entry.
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MRO Is Major RFID Opportunity for Aerospace and Defense
ABI Research predicts that the market for RFID from the aerospace and defense industries will reach $2 billion in 2011. Drilling down into this figure, one of the key opportunities for RFID that ABI Research identifies is that of MRO, or maintenance, repair, and overhaul.
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—Mark Roberti, Founder and Editor, RFID Journal