Cranfield University’s Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC) is using WorkfloPlus to demonstrate how aircraft inspections, maintenance procedures and other defined tasks can be delivered digitally at the point of work.
By guiding engineers through each step while creating a clear record as the task progresses, DARTeC provides a real-world example of how digital work instructions and hands-free technology can support the wider aviation MRO industry.
About DARTeC
Cranfield University’s Digital Aviation Research and Technology Centre (DARTeC) is a specialist research environment exploring the technologies shaping the future of aviation.
Based at Cranfield’s Global Research Airport, DARTeC brings together aviation research, aircraft operations and maintenance facilities, creating an environment where new approaches can be tested against real aviation processes.
See WorkfloPlus in action at DARTeC
See how DARTeC uses WorkfloPlus and RealWear to deliver digital aircraft maintenance procedures, inspections and hands-free work instructions at the point of work.
At a glance
The challenge: moving aircraft maintenance procedures beyond paper
Aircraft maintenance depends on procedures being followed correctly and the work being properly documented.
When the procedure, the physical task and the resulting record are managed separately, it becomes harder to maintain a clear connection between what should have been done and what actually happened.
For DARTeC, the challenge was to explore how these processes could be brought together digitally while maintaining the consistency and traceability required in an aviation environment.
The aim was not simply to replace a paper form. It was to connect the procedure, the task and the resulting record.
Turning aircraft maintenance procedures into digital work instructions
DARTeC uses WorkfloPlus to turn aviation procedures into step-by-step digital work instructions.
Applications include:
- pre-flight aircraft checks
- maintenance tasks such as valve replacement
- inspections and work recording
Users are guided through the required steps while information can be captured as the task progresses.
This creates a direct connection between the procedure being followed, the work being carried out and the record created from it.
Supporting hands-free aircraft maintenance
For practical inspection and maintenance tasks, DARTeC can deliver WorkfloPlus instructions through RealWear industrial smart glasses.
Instructions remain available while the engineer keeps both hands free for the task.
This allows guidance to stay with the user as the work is carried out, rather than requiring them to move between the aircraft and separate documentation.
For aircraft maintenance, it shows how digital work instructions can become part of the task itself rather than simply digitising the paperwork around it.
Creating a clear record as maintenance work happens
WorkfloPlus also allows inspection information and maintenance records to be captured as part of the procedure.
Instead of completing the physical task and documenting it separately afterwards, the record can be created as the work progresses.
This helps maintain a clear link between what should have been done, the steps that were followed and the information captured during the task.
For aviation MRO, this provides a model for bringing task execution and maintenance records closer together, helping maintain traceability from the procedure through to the completed work.
What DARTeC demonstrates for the wider aviation MRO industry
DARTeC’s use of WorkfloPlus shows how structured aircraft maintenance procedures can be delivered digitally while maintaining a clear record of the work carried out.
Pre-flight checks, maintenance procedures and inspections can be guided step by step, with the resulting information captured as part of the task itself.
This provides a practical route away from relying on separate paper documentation while retaining the consistency and traceability aircraft maintenance depends on.
For MRO providers, maintenance organisations and airlines, the same approach can be applied wherever work needs to follow a defined procedure and there needs to be a reliable record of how it was carried out.
A practical view of the future of aircraft maintenance
DARTeC’s work is focused on understanding how digital technology can support the future of aviation.
As Dr Ip-Shing Fan, Senior Lecturer in Enterprise Systems at Cranfield University, explains:
“Finding efficiencies while maintaining and improving quality and sustainability across all areas of aviation is at the heart of what we do at DARTeC, and the WorkfloPlus technology enables us to achieve this.
WorkfloPlus gives DARTeC a way to apply that thinking directly to aircraft maintenance and inspection tasks, bringing digital guidance and work records together at the point of work.
Rather than simply replacing a paper procedure with a digital version, it shows how the procedure, the task and the resulting record can form part of one connected process.
For the wider MRO industry, that offers a clear example of how aircraft maintenance can become more connected without losing the consistency and traceability the work depends on.