Best Practices in Establishing Business Case for Implementing Blockchain Solution in Aerospace 2022-01-0002

The aircraft asset life cycle processes are rapidly being digitalized. Many novel technologies enabled processes of recording these electronic transactions are being emerged. One such technology for recording electronic transactions securely is Blockchain, defined as distributed ledger technologies which includes enterprise blockchain. Blockchain is not widely used in the aerospace industry due to lack of technical understanding and questions about its benefits. Assessment and establishment of business case for implementing blockchain based solution is needed. The aerospace industry is very conservative when it comes to technology adoption and hence it is difficult to change legacy processes. Additionally, the industry is very fragmented. The technology is advancing at a faster rate and applies across geographies under various regulatory oversight which makes blockchain based solution implementation challenging.

G-31 electronic transactions for aerospace standards committee of SAE International has conducted a study on determination of cost benefits from implementing a blockchain solution. This study resulted in development of Aerospace Recommended Practice (ARP) 6984 and was published recently. This recommended practice lays out a methodology for qualifying and quantifying the benefits of replacing or augmenting a legacy process with a blockchain solution. This paper presents summary and overview of this study and provides a teaser for ARP 6984.