✈️ Blockchain-powered eBay for airplane parts

GM, GM!

You know how we break down the Web3 use cases every week in 4.3 minutes:

• 😰 The challenge

• 💡 The solution

• 👀 Take away for other industries

Nice and tight for you Slim-Fast drinking Tamagotchi parent.

Speaking about the Nineties: the aircraft industry listened too often to M.C. Hammer, so they did not change their sales processes until today.

When purchasing spare parts for an airplane, you feel exactly like 3 decades ago: arguing back and forth over the telephone and closing the deal with a fax.

There is one company who stands out from the crowd and adapted the retail for aircraft parts to the 2020s: Honeywell.

😰 The challenge

When you are sitting in an airplane, would it be ok for you if one of the engines just got picked up from a random backyard repair shop and put in the plane right before the take-off?

No?

Well, for me neither.

In this situation we rely on processes and protocols that go into the manufacture and maintenance of aircrafts.

These proofs and documentations are usually handled in paper form, even today. Making the process from stripping an old aircraft to selling repaired spare parts very lengthy.

Don't even start thinking about e-commerce as a possible solution - THE standard for almost every industry, but completely broken in aviation.

IF there is an online shop, you typically get a grainy photo and the name of the part, but no further description, additional infos, pricing or certificates.

By the way, we are speaking about a global industry of $6bn - YES, that’s a lot of zeros..

One of the main reasons for not being able to buy aviation parts online is a lack of trust.

Until now…

💡 The solution

Honeywell, one of the largest manufacturers of aircraft parts, was aware of this problem and built a new e-commerce platform for the aviation industry: GoDirect Trade

They started with the biggest obstacle: Eliminating non-trust is what the blockchain is designed for, isn't it?

So Honeywell went ahead and set up a Blockchain with Hyperledger Fabric for the transparency of the parts.

In order to track the whole lifecycle of a spare part, you have to start at manufacturing date and write every event to the blockchain, like:

• OEM birth event

• Repair and overhaul event

• Dismantlement event

• Listing event on a marketplace

• Bill of sale event on a marketplace

Source: hyperledger.org

As you can see, the entire lifecycle of a part is in one place. As a buyer, you have full transparency and can make quick decisions at the touch of a button. Just like any other online store.

But here with the documents needed for a regulated industry like aviation.

As said, they are using Hyperledger Fabric as the Blockchain Foundation, after experimenting with Ethereum and ditching it. GoDirect Trade could switch to another blockchain framework, if this happens to do a better job.

For connectability Honeywell developed a middleware layer on top of the foundation and the marketplace apps are designed to work with major other blockchains such as Ethereum or R3’s Corda.

👀 Take away for other industries

If you have an issue with trust in your supply chain, end-to-end-process or lifecycle, using Blockchain is probably the right move for you.

As you can see in this example, you can create a digital twin of some (or all) data of your products on the blockchain - transparent for everyone to see.

But regarding transparency: be aware of the “feature” and don’t write business secrets (like IP or pricing calculations) to the freely readable database.

The second point, which Honeywell executed well:

Although they use the Hyperledger Fabric platform, they are open to other blockchains such as Ethereum.

➡️ Multiple standards and open protocols must be supported to be successful in the future.

If you liked this weeks web3 use case, why not 📩 forward it to a friend who maybe finds this interesting as well?

Do you have additional thoughts, other superb use cases or feedback? Just hit reply and send me a message!

I am looking forward to it!

Now I go hiking - fresh air is needed. 😃 See you next week!