Blockchain Technology Assignment: Chain Management of AJD

Question

Task:
1 Background
You are the newly appointed Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) for Airways Jet Design (AJD) based in London. You report directly to the Chief Information Officer (CIO). AJD designs, manufactures and supplies/leases jet engines for civilian aircraft to British, American, French, Malaysian and Chinese aircraft manufacturers. AJD directly manufactures or sources its own parts and components for use in the jet engines. AJD is coming under increasing pressure to impove the efficacy of the process by which to demonstrate the provenance of their parts and components.

The aerospace industry has one of the most complex supply chains in the world. There are serious concerns regarding the use of unapproved parts getting into this supply chain. Unapproved parts can take a variety of form which includes counterfeit parts, and the use of life- limited parts beyond their specified life-span. Unapproved parts have contributed to numerous aircraft incidents leading to an investigation into the use of unapproved parts in the US aviation industry 1 .

There is an overwhelming need to track, trace and authenticate (TTA) parts in the aircraft industry. A number of regulations relating to back-to-birth traceability of aircraft parts apply to the aircraft industry, these include the EC 2042/2003 (M.A.305 (e) and (h)) Continuing Airworthiness Requirements which outlines the requirement to use authenticated parts, and the Defence Safety Authority 4000 series regulatory articles which state that the “[f]ailure to correctly identify, classify and trace the history of components could lead to unsuitable items being accepted by maintenance organizations, potentially compromising Airworthiness and increasing risk to life. RA 4809 requires a Maintenance organization to only accept components if they have been correctly identified and classified” (RA4809).

Blockchain technology provides promising solutions to the TTA problem and has been used in other industries to establish single sources of truth and make counterfeiting difficult. The members of the AJD board have heard that blockchain technology could provide considerable benefits to the process of tracking, tracing and authenticating aircraft parts. The CIO has asked you to provide a technical report outlining how this technology is being used in other industries and how it can be used by AJD. The report must comprise of two parts.

1.1 Part A: Review (30%)
Blockchain technology is used to establish a single source of truth in a number of industrial scenarios such as: agricultural food supplies, the coffee supply chain and generally across a number of logistics industries. The technology is also used in the aircraft industry to streamline the management of airmiles, the management of the air cargo supply chain, and anti-spoofing GPS systems.

By referring to a single scenario, summarise the critical features that enable blockchain technology to be used to establish a single source of truth and thus protect against counterfeiting in the supply chain of your chosen scenario.

1.2 Part B: Technical Report (70%)
1 Suspected ‘Unapproved Parts’ Program Plan (1995), FAA suspected ‘Unapproved Parts’Task Force, available from:
https://www.faa.gov/aircraft/safety/programs/sups/media/supfnl11.pdf

Write a technical report which:
1. Describes the aircraft parts lifecycle for both new and recycled parts and identifies the parts of the lifecycle where industrial espionage and counterfeiting might pose a risk.

2. Evaluates how blockchain technology might support the process of, tracking, tracing and authenticating aircraft engine parts 2 .

3. Despite what might appear to be speculative claims concerning the propensity for blockchain technology to become compromised and used in espionage 3 , the overall consensus is that “blockchains distributed consensus mechanism prevents hacking” 4 , and therefore the technology can present safeguards against espionage. Provide a critique of these opposing views.

When writing this report, be mindful that:
4. The jet engines manufactured by AJD are supplied to companies in multiple international jurisdictions.

5. The report is intended for the consumption of the board members of AJD.

Answer

Part A
1. Introduction to the theme of blockchain technology assignment
One of the world’s leading aircraft spare parts manufacturing company is AJD. In recent times, technology is developing with time across the entire earth. One essential role of technology is to secure the Blockchain infrastructure nowadays hence, development is mandatory. The passenger growth is increasing with time in the airline companies across the globe and the demands for spare parts are increasing along with that. It is an essential task of the aviation industry of preventing counterfeiting of the spare parts of the aircraft. The current research paper on blockchain technology assignment aims to deal with a few things which are:

Providing with the explanation of what is Blockchain technology and what are the critical features within this.
Briefing the role of the Blockchain Technology mitigating counterfeiting within the chain management of AJD along with the summaries and other researches are illustrated within this blockchain technology assignment.

The study developed within this blockchain technology assignment also aims to provide with the explanation related to database along with gathered evidences of the Blockchain technology of people, boundary and places.

1.1 Discussion of the Blockchain technology in the particular scenario of blockchain technology assignment

Most of the industries use a database which is centralized and server-based. This system is vulnerable for the intruders and the hackers. The Blockchain technology itself is server-based. It does not require a single controlling point. There is a beneficial ground of this technology which allows storing the data in the multiple computers(Badzar, 2016). If one or more than one machine starts to collapsing, the centralized system will help recovering all the missing data and the same copy of them within the technology. It will take help from the other computers across the network. In this case of blockchain technology assignment, it is quite difficult for the hacker to corrupt or destroy the data from all the computers connected to the network. This entire action is critical and there are possibilities of getting caught.

1.2 Discussing the critical features of Blockchain
Blockchain contains data and information within the chain of blocks. Particular transactions are performed by each of the blocks within the chain. The transactions are recorded in “Hash” forms(Busse, et al., 2017). If any block is modified, the Hash within the block will be impacted too. The block involves 3 essential parts which are:

a. Data or information part:It contains the entire information and data of the performed transaction within all the related networks.

b. Hash part:It is the identity factor of each of the blocks. Modifying the blocks will immediately impact the Hash within.

c. “Previous Hash”:In this part the identity of the “previous Hash” is restored. This part of the Blockchain ensures the highest security factor of the network(Choi, et al., 2019). This changing of the Hash along with the block is a very interesting factor and prevents the hacker from intruding or misusing the data. When the Hash is changed, it is needed to change the previous Hash to identify the next blocks. In that case of blockchain technology assignment, the one aiming to hack the network requires to change all the Hashes of each block. It is not a very easy job to get into the Blockchain technology for the intruders or hackers.

Changing the stored data within the Blockchain needs approval from the users accessing the respective networks, so, it is not that easy to penetrate the Blockchain. This facility ensures that the transactions are enough secured within the technology. The Blockchain technology is often termed as an “Open Ledger”. It is because the technology allows the public visibility. The same copy of the leger is provided by the decentralized system of the particular technology. This ensures the network safety and prevention of the intruders(Cong & He, 2019). Transactions involved in the Blockchain Technology do not allow a “Third Party” to get along with the networks. The sender and receiver involved in the system can only get hold of the data and information regarding the respective transactions. For the higher security purpose, the technology is still being developed with time.

1.3 Explaining Blockchain as a single source of truth
It is evident hereinblockchain technology assignmentthat identical information is found within the Blockchain Technology. It is applicable for the users as well and is defined as a truth with a single source. The chances of cheating or modifying the details of the information are less in this technology(Cui, et al., 2019). The transaction details are all kept within the Blockchain Technology across the networks. There are several suppliers and carriers within this technology. They are constantly working on producing, storing, shipping and delivering the spare parts of the aircrafts through virtual medium. This entire process outlined in the blockchain technology assignment is difficult and requires integrated parties involved in it. This whole distribution method helps to solving the issues and challenges.

1.4 Role of Blockchain for protection against counterfeiting in the supply chain
In the Blockchain, each of the blocks contains a particular code which is executed only after the given conditions are fulfilled. This is often termed as “Smart Contract.” In the ADJ organizations, the “Smart Contract” plays an important role by helping to protect the counterfeiting within the chains of supply(Daniel, et al., 2017). In this case of blockchain technology assignment, a further block gets involved within the chain after the aircraft parts are delivered to their respective destinations. It also helps to figure out the conditions of the delivered spare parts. After checking the condition of the spare parts, the suppliers get the payments.

Herein blockchain technology assignment, by this process, the supply chain management becomes easier and more effective with its “Information technology infrastructure. The AJD supply chain management is quite complex as it deals with manufacturers and suppliers. It provides with utmost transparency of the shared technology that helps enhancing the visibility of the activities by the participants.

1.5 Researches and summaries about the Blockchain Technology There are two factors noted in the context of blockchain technology assignment in the Blockchain technology and they are covered by the supply chain management system(Di Vaio & Varriale, 2020). Activity control is the foremost factor. It contains the initial and primary activities of the supply chain management that includes implementing and controlling the activities that help creating the value of the deliverables. The Blockchain Technology provides with quite a few key factors that embraces the chain management. The factors are as follows,

a. “Supply Chain Visibility”:the “real-time” information regarding the products are supplied by the Blockchain Technology(Egberts, 2017). The exact location where the product is to be delivered is ensured in this system. This helps curtailing the risk factors of the organization and its management.

b. “Supply chain Integration”:The current research paper on blockchain technology assignment has mentioned earlier that this technology is often termed as the “Open Ledger”. This feature of the technology helps detecting and preventing the counterfeiting of the deliverables, erroneous activities and other misusage of the information and data stored across the network.

c. “Supply chain Orchestration”:the very technology is able to execute the rules having prior specifications(Gelsomino, et al., 2016). Hence, through this technology the quality of the spare part products that are delivered could be detected and observed.

d. “Supply chain Virtualization”:This approach of the technology presented in the blockchain technology assignment helps building a “logical representation.” The supply chain assets help increasing the flexibility of the supply chain. The virtualization allows to proceed with this system.

e. “Supply chain Finance”:A decentralized system is involved in the Blockchain Technology. The system is transparent which makes the transaction visible to all the users involved across the network(Hassan, et al., 2019). This system specified herein blockchain technology assignment helps reducing the financial risk of the company.

Part B
1. Description of various aircraft parts lifecycle
1.1 Lifecycle of new aircraft parts
Observing and monitoring the lifecycle of the several spare parts of the aircraft is often called a “purposeful check.” The technical components of the aircrafts are included within the lifecycle. Manufacturing of the spare parts, operating the spare parts and repairing the spare parts are included in the particular process(Korpela, et al., 2017). The monitoring of the lifecycle helps in improving the decision-making process. It also improves the efficiency of the field operations. The implementation of Product Lifecycle Management or PLM has become necessary to ensuring the betterment of the performance of the maintenance process. It manages the information and data regarding the spare parts through the technology of data exchange(Korpela, et al., 2017). The detailed background of the maintenance is obtained in the context of blockchain technology assignment through the “closed loop” system within the technology of Blockchain. After the background checking is done, the data is sent to the engineers of “service technicians” to examine the performance ability of the spare parts of aircraft. To improve the tracking facility, the Blockchain technology uses a combination of “Radio Frequency Identification or RFID and “Unique Item Identification” or UID. It also helps to measure the lifecycles of the aircraft parts.

1.2 Lifecycle of recycled aircraft parts basis the case scenario of blockchain technology assignment
The aircrafts are composed with several components. Some of the parts of the aircrafts are even reused after cleaning or repairing it. The other components or the raw materials like aluminum, glass or steel are often recycled in the making of the spare parts.

The “Scheduled Removal Component” or SRC cards are used in this recycling process. The process emphasizes upon the errors within the information of the spare part lifecycles of aircraft. It is required to implement the appropriate type of tracking. This will help to saving both time and money of the organizations(Mohan, 2018). The organizations need to manage the recycled components serially to have the proper tracking of the products. It is essential to record all the details of those recycled components within the SRC card.

1.3 Procurement procedures
The organizations hold a strategic area within the procurement of the spare parts of aircraft. The management of procurement is required to be appropriate during the decision-making procedures as the profitability is dependent upon the procurement management system. Scheduling the time-table of the procurement is time-taking(Popovic, et al., 2020). The concept, process, design, authorization and testing of the aircraft spare parts are included in the very process.

The suppliers are required to meet all the technical standard assigned for each of the spare parts as they are involved in the procurement processes. The technical standards are to be approved from the vendor’s list. As discussed in this case of blockchain technology assignment, the authority is required to provide with all the details and specification of the spare parts and the manufacturing technology to the procurement management body to meet the requirements. The technical specification is essential for the international standard.

Then comes the “Technical selection” where the analysis of the technical specification of the aircraft part is done. In the “technical analysis” the commercial factors like price and cost of the spare parts along with the delivery expenses are involved.

It is observed that the suppliers are not always approved in the common vendor policies within the aircraft industries. The rating system related to the price of the spare parts isn’t always approved as well(Shackelford & Myers, 2017). The procurement managements have a preference towards the well-established and experience suppliers. There is certain chain of suppliers who have higher experiences in the spare part industry and the big aircraft companies are always ready to make deals with them. This helps reducing the chances of manufacturing risk which also prevents financial loss or unimaginable consequences. This “preferential relationship” mentioned in the blockchain technology assignmenttakes time to grow between the supplier and the procurement management body. This procedure is invalid when cost efficiency is given more priority over the opportunities.

2. Evaluation of Blockchain Technology
2.1 Identification of aircraft parts with assets
AJD or “Airways Jet Design” is one of the leading companies providing jet engines and other companies to the renowned and established manufacturers. The company has expanded its business to America, China, Britain, Malaysia and France. The construction of the aircrafts is performed on the in-house manufacturer basis. In recent times the growth of aerospace industry has been rapid. Hence, the manufacturing process has become yet more stressful and difficult for the company(Stark, 2020). In this case of blockchain technology assignment, the unapproved parts create more difficulties and they could be used as the counterfeit parts. In the different aircraft scenarios within the “aviation industry” these unapproved parts do help at times.

The aircraft manufacturing and management process have some complexities within. These complexities do not let the entire “aviation industry” to provide with transparent and eco-friendly options. Instead of that, it leads the companies to engage into the most expensive communication processes. During the recent era the manufacturers are using the blockchain technology in order have the tracking facility of the aircraft parts. It helps to negotiate and resolve the maintenance, repair process and overhaul related difficulties. The mentioned company ADJ within this blockchain technology assignmentoften faces difficulties caused by the tracing, traceability and authenticity of the aircraft parts(Stenman & Mårtensson, 2018). The blockchain technology helps to maintain the background as well as all the information regarding the birth of the parts. It also helps to understand the quality, performing ability and service requirements of the spare parts.

The “non-compliance” cost and restricted traceability could be caused by the lack of asset management in the aircraft manufacturers and the maintenance group. The assets of the mentioned company are their information process, system mechanisms, employees and applications. This includes the resources as well as the manufacturing raw materials. This process is quite difficult for the manufacturing companies as they have to supply millions of aircraft parts to different organizations within the industry.

This is why the implementation of the blockchain technology is very much required within the manufacturing companies. It helps tracing the history of the aircraft asset as well as the lifecycle of them. Improving the data standard is another important and beneficial feature of blockchain technology.

2.2 Explanation of database associated with the purchaser, time and date.
The implementation of “blockchain technology” can improve the maintenance process of the buyer with exact time and date in the aircraft manufacturing companies. Usage of the blockchain technology helps maintaining the sustainable development by recording the documents and makes a secure change through cryptology(Tairova, et al., 2019). This process will be validated by all the participants within the system.The data-base system used traditionally is unable to provide with transparent documentation of the information regarding the user profiles. Hence, the study prepared in this section of blockchain technology assignment signifies that the usage of Blockchain technology is recommended to be implemented to maintain and provide with the purchase records containing accurate date and time.

a. “Decentralization”: There are individual channels within the blockchain techniques which allows the buyer to be connected to the manufacturers during their order processes. The engagement of two parties is allowed in this process. Hence, it is stated in this blockchain technology assignment that the accurate time and date could be provided by this technology.

b. “Durability”: The database system within each of the blocks is similar to each other. Although the blocks have similarity between each other, they share different networks of the blockchain technology(Van Rijmenam, 2019). It is impossible for a particular company or an individual to get control over the mechanism of this technology.

c. Encryption: the cryptography is the main reason behind the security function of the blockchain technology. The aircraft manufacturing company ADJ has implemented this technology to secure the transaction processes. It provides with a set of codes which secure the valuable information of the users. Cryptography helps the company to preventing the hackers from intruding the mechanism.

2.3 Providing pieces of evidence about the role of Blockchain with researches
The transaction processes within the aviation industry is quite complicated and complex. The current research paper has had a discussion on this earlier. It has also stated that blockchain technology implementation is highly necessary in the recent era to prevent hacking and access the facility of tracking and tracing the deliverables(Verdouw, et al., 2016). The mentioned company ADJ in the present context of blockchain technology assignment has implemented the technology which helped in making ‘consensus-based’ data recording procedure among all the parties involved in the industry. The parties are the buyers and the distributers. The transparency and the quality of the data are maintained through this technology. It is required to certify the aircraft parts. The certificate ensures the utmost safety and security of the airline companies as well as the manufacturing companies. Implementing the blockchain technology within the aircraft manufacturing company will help to understand the tracing and tracking facilities of the deliverables.

2.4 Can you identify the place, people and boundary related to AJD within this blockchain technology assignment?

Flow diagram of the usage of Blockchain-related activities, vents, sequences, commodity and example associated with AJD

3. Conclusion
The current research paper on blockchain technology assignment contains a discussion regarding blockchain technology and its implementation within the company ADJ. The research paper has divided its work into two parts, namely part A and part B. In the initial phase of the current research, the critical features about blockchain technology have been discussed. Then it discusses the “single source of truth” which is also a technical term for the same technology. The research paper on blockchain technology assignment observed that the supply chain management is beneficial for the aerospace industry as it provides with authentic delivery and manufacturing information. The risk factors of using traditional data-base system have been further discussed in the current assignment.

The next part of the research paper on blockchain technology assignment aims to discuss the identification of the aircraft spare parts. It discusses the different factors and business process of the mentioned company ADJ. The advantages and beneficial factors of blockchain have also been discussed in this part of the assignment. ?

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