Aerospace is an industry where competition is high and the need to ensure
safety and security while managing costs is foremost. Stakeholders, who gain
the most by working together, do not necessarily trust each other. Changing
backbone technologies that drive enterprise systems and secure historical
records does not happen quickly (if at all). At best, businesses adapt
incrementally, building customized applications on top of legacy systems.
The complexity of these legacy systems leads to duplication of efforts and
data storage, making them very inefficient. Technology that augments, rather
than replaces, is needed to transform these complex systems into efficient,
digital processes.
Blockchain technology offers collaborative opportunities for solving some of
the data problems that have long challenged the aerospace industry. The
industry has been slow to adopt the technology even though experts agree
that it has real potential to revolutionize the global supply
chain—including maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO)—driving tremendous
cost, excess inventory, and inefficiencies out of the system. This chapter
discusses how the adoption of blockchain technology could have a significant
impact on the aerospace industry and addresses some of the unsettled
concerns surrounding the implementation of the technology.