P&W Uses “Big Data” to Improve Maintenance Service

Pratt & Whitney is making greater use of big data after developing a new modeling and predictive tool to boost its maintenance service offerings, the company announced during the Singapore Airshow this week.

Applying a broad range of operational, maintenance and environmental data, such as flight length and the environment in which the engine is operated, P&W hopes to reduce engine-removal events and optimize time-on-wing. The U.S. engine manufacturer said this would benefit customers, through improved operational availability, and also the company itself, through cost reductions across the lives of its fleet management agreements.

“Our goal is to help our customers get the most value from their engine throughout the entire lifecycle,” said Matthew Bromberg, president of Pratt & Whitney’s aftermarket business. “Predictive analytics, such as this new project, help us examine how different environments–altitude, climate and pollution–affect the performance of our engines. This allows us to better forecast shop visits, better manage our customers’ fleet maintenance and improve our engineering in the long term.”