COVER STORY


pay us when the engine is working in what we call engine fl ying hours.” Fast forward to today, and the


company’s service business now generates more revenue than its manufacturing business. However, as the company covers the cost of MRO for its engines, it had to look at how it could make this a profi table part of its business and ensure that its MRO operations were as eff icient as possible. Part of this was reducing the amount of maintenance events entirely; by keeping the engines operational as much as possible, TOW is increased and therefore revenue, too. “We looked at TOW as a combination


of time between our maintenance events, and the time between maintenance events is our revenue earning opportunity,” Wilkinson explained. “The fewer maintenance events in a contract, the more profi table that contract can be. This business case drove the creation of digital twins: how can we better understand the condition of the engine? How can we make sure that we can keep the engine going for as long as possible within the safety and eff iciency tolerances?”


DATA IS KING The company realised that in order to extend TOW, it needed to collect as much data from its engines as possible. Previously, the engines were generating huge swathes of data content, but this was too much for Rolls-Royce’s processing systems to cope with. The fi rm embarked upon improving its data transmission capacity, prompting the creation of a new big data and Internet of Things (IoT) platform called the Intelligent Engine. Using a combination of cloud technology, artifi cial intelligence (AI) and self-learning analytics, the Intelligent Engine allows the company to monitor the data transmitted by its engines in real-time during fl ights. “The fi rst digital twin we created,


the Intelligent Engine was something that looked at the whole engine system,” said Wilkinson. “Within this, we could create an ecosystem of digital twins, one of which looked at engine level failure modes. This was our fi rst approach to being able to know whether something was wrong with an


The ALECSys (Advanced Low Emissions Combustion System) demonstrator engine


engine, and led to a whole new service we now off er called engine health monitoring. By understanding the condition of the parts within an engine, we’re able to minimise the amount of maintenance that we do. If you don’t know much about the data coming from the engines, then you have to be pessimistic. However, with digital twins we can create models that accurately refl ect the actual condition of parts and make a case backed up by data- led evidence about extending the TOW. This has been a massive step change – in certain cases we have been able to extend the TOW for critical parts by over 70%.” The fi rm has also used digital


twins to predict how its engines will be operated by diff erent airlines in various parts of the world – factors that can have a signifi cant impact on the amount of MRO an engine may need over the course of its lifetime. “Using this as a predictive model, we


can simulate how those engines will be operated in the future, allowing us to optimise our maintenance,” Wilkinson


explained. “By knowing everything about the engine, you can predict the future and create a ‘crystal ball’ digital twin that tells you when the engine is going to fail and allows you to plan for maintenance.” In addition to optimising its


service off ering, the company is also using digital twins to improve its manufacturing operations, he added. “Some of the metrics we’re looking at are around reducing rework, reducing scrap, and improving the sustainability of our operations. You can see the pattern here: Look at a particular area, generate a digital platform based on certain value stream business cases, and then develop digital twins on top of it. We are creating a digital thread throughout the organisation all the way from the source systems into a unifi ed 360-degree data platform that brings data from manufacturing, engineering design and the aftermarket all together for unifi ed optimisation.”


For more information visit www.rolls-royce.com


www.engineerlive.com 7


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