Airport asset management and predictive maintenance

The airport ecosystem is a complex collection of disparate systems that perform critical functions for the airport. Airports require high-level asset management as much of the working world depends on them to move on smoothly to reach their destinations and complete their work as well. The goal of any airport is to reduce the number of disruptions in the asset management sector while maximizing its efficiency and generating revenue. Airport asset management includes handling the facility, the staff, communication, operational assets, passengers, and others. The airport management department could find these tasks daunting, time-consuming, and costly.

With air traffic increasing sharply and set to double during the next two decades, the aviation asset management market faces a new set of challenges. A single slip in the ladder can bring down the entire airport asset management operations. Cutting-edge technologies and powerful airport asset management software, along with AI-powered predictive analytics smoothen operations, offering airports much-needed relief.

Challenges faced during airport operations

Passenger experience on the downhill

The aviation industry is service-driven, depending heavily on the satisfaction of the passengers. As no two passengers are alike in their likes and dislikes, handling customer satisfaction is a difficult challenge for airport staff. A customer might be dissatisfied at any point in their experience. However, this is what pushes an airport management team to create a seamless experience by upping their air travel processes for better passenger security, a more convenient baggage claim, shorter lines, and more such improvements.

With customer expectations increasing, airport asset management is not an easy affair. However, airport authorities around the world strive to offer the best experiences. The battle to provide the best customer experience at the airport still continues across the globe.

Rising operational costs

The pressing global economic crises pose an intimidating challenge to airports all across the globe. For example, the recession of 2008 and the recent COVID-19 pandemic had a disastrous impact on the aviation industry. With the collapse of the global travel economy, fuel prices have been on the rise, hence causing an increase in travel costs. Airports now face the challenge of managing rising operational costs.

With the aviation industry trying to spread its wings farther, airport asset management gets commensurately harder. Sound airport property management software and failure-proof handling is the need of the hour. A rigid airport asset management policy helps the aviation industry tackle the challenges of ever-increasing operational costs.

Non-optimal use of airport assets

The aging assets and unplanned machinery failure in several airports pose a colossal threat to the aviation industry. An asset that stops working abruptly means that the airport must undergo more costly machinery replacements or unplanned repairs. These unexpected delays result in increased costs and inconvenience to the passengers as well. By integrating predictive analysis with airport property management software, the aviation industry can handle the challenge of these unexpected occurrences.

Tracking assets in an airport

Predictive analytics solutions for airports have three vital components. The first is the assets that need tracking, which usually belongs to two major categories – airside and landside. The next component is the brigade of sensors and gateways in play, collecting data from the assets and transmitting them for analytics. The next is the enterprise asset management (EAM) platform, which acts as a central repository for the data and runs all the analytics.

What type of assets must be tracked

We can broadly classify airport assets into two – airside assets and landside assets. These assets are the primary component of the airport’s predictive analytics system.

Sensors and gateways

Sensors and gateways do the essential task of collecting information from assets and sending it over to the data warehouse for analytics. The IT infrastructure streams the data through an edge gateway periodically to a cloud-enabled server.  Devices that do not have sensors or the hardware for the same require re-engineering or the addition of the needed sensors.

Enterprise asset management platform

An enterprise asset management (EAM) platform acts as a central repository of data collection by accumulating asset performance data and other information from the airport network. The airport property management software runs data analytics and machine learning algorithms on the data, offering critical insight to airport managers on real-time asset health, and the risk of failures, and helping them schedule maintenance requirements to avoid abrupt failures and outages. The interconnected system gives out notifications and alerts to the concerned technicians or managers, alerting them of automated work orders for proactive maintenance tasks and managing the entire workflow.

Benefits of an interconnected and predictive asset management solution

An asset management system offers various benefits to airports and the aviation industry. We can broadly categorize the advantages into two – effective airport management and the powers of predictive analytics.

Effective management of airport assets

Aviation asset tracking software provides an integrated approach to managing all complex or discrete assets in the list. With aging infrastructure or the insufficiency of human assets being a daunting challenge, an airport with asset tracking tools can overcome it and unify its existing disconnected system. An asset tracking system helps the airport manage its critical assets from a single system, giving the staff much-needed visibility and a transparency boost. With higher asset management capabilities and operational efficiencies, airports can enjoy improved ROI. The asset management software cuts down the number of disruptions while providing an improved customer experience. The operation of airports now becomes smoother.

Smoother performance of the airport

Asset management software elevates the performance of an airport tremendously. With effective asset management, the airport can eliminate all ground service delays, ensure timely gate assignments and improve the asset infrastructure. The airport will find it easier to handle baggage and create a more pleasant passenger environment.

A pleasant passenger experience

The comfort of a passenger is the ultimate priority of an airport. With predictive analytics in play, airports can reduce the chances of failure for escalators and walkways, making for an unimpeded passenger transit experience within the airport. The airport also can cut down the queues and handle the baggage transport system better.

Added security

Asset management software gives an airport a real-time bird’s eye view of the premises, helping the security team to cover all areas. Along with passenger safety, coordinating security can also prevent theft and vandalism of airport assets. The security staff can identify irregularities immediately and act promptly.

Reports and documents

With the aid of an aviation asset management solution, airports can generate real-time reports with vital data about inventory status, damages, failures, security details, and more. The interconnected solution simplifies inventory auditing while ensuring maximum accountability for critical asset information and status. The airport can also ensure that the equipment stays in line with compliance regulations and current standards of asset performance.

Predictive analytics to transform airport operations

With modern IoT devices, cloud computing, and AI and ML algorithms, predictive analytics is enjoying a resurgence in popularity. Predictive analytics helps airport operations to move from corrective measures (fixing an issue after it happens) to predictive maintenance (identifying issues before they happen and preventing them). This method reduces unplanned downtime, extends the life of assets, and improves the decision-making capabilities of the airport. By collecting historical and organizational data, airport asset management software runs analytic algorithms to generate reports and dashboards. As for an aviation business, the information generated by analytics allows them to make faster and more informed decisions regarding asset availability and reliability while finding methods to cut down on the costs required for maintenance activities.

Providing optimal airport productivity

The ultimate goal of airport asset management tools is to maximize productivity. With detailed asset information, airport staff can ensure a rapid response to issues, thus maximizing the effectiveness of maintenance efforts. With predictive maintenance in the play, the crew can fix issues before they happen, thus reducing asset failures and their high replacement costs. With centralized management, maintenance teams can operate or resolve problems remotely as well.

Optimize the use, cost, and life of an asset

Predictive analytics powers airport management to detect issues with assets before they become catastrophic, hence reducing the cost of replacing them and extending their lifetime. Timely repairs cut down the chances of asset failure during busy hours. Asset tracking software helps airports manage their inventory and their costs, optimizing overall expenditure on asset maintenance and repairs.

Conclusion

An airport asset management system is the need of the hour for the aviation industry. With the real-time assessment of the asset performance and security thanks to the latest technological tools, these solutions enhance the passenger experience while boosting the equipment’s longevity and reducing failures and disruptions. Want to know more about how asset management software can boost your airport’s productivity? Say hi to go a step further with us.