7 minute read
Industry news in brief
The latest company and industry related developments from around the world
All Nippon Airways launches Boeing’s new Insight Accelerator
Boeing announced in September that All Nippon Airways (ANA) will be the launch customer for Insight Accelerator (IA), a new cloud-based digital solution employing artificial intelligence to improve operational efficiency and avoid high impact service disruptions.
While the latest generation of commercial airplanes like the 787 generate a large amount of flight data, many operators lack the infrastructure to manage and leverage the information. IA uses out-of-the-box algorithms to sort and detect anomalies and create alerts to enable airlines to take proactive maintenance and repair action and prevent unscheduled delays.
“There are many products on the market for flight data analytics, but Insight Accelerator is the most effective tool for our aircraft operation,” explained Manubu Tono, All Nippon Airways manager of Planning & Administration, Engineering. “It’s very innovative and meets our primary goal of leveraging features in flight data that indicate a system failure before it happens.”
Based in Tokyo, ANA was the global launch operator of the 787 Dreamliner and is a launch customer for the 777X family. The carrier became the first airline in Japan to order the 737 MAX with firm orders for 20 737-8s, and currently operates more than 170 Boeing jets. ANA operates the world's largest 787 fleet with 77 Dreamliners, including all three sub-models.
Boeing developed the IA platform based on decades of experience supporting the global fleet and developing rigorous methods while assisting ‘Airplane-on-Ground’ situations.
“IA’s built-in artificial intelligence, guided exploration and powerful visualisations allow airlines to investigate flight and maintenance data, identify trends and discover insights - all without specialized coding or programming skills,” said Duane Wehking, vice president of Digital Aviation Solutions at Boeing Global Services. “This is an easy-to-use solution that will provide value to airlines from day one.”
As a leading global aerospace company, Boeing develops, manufactures and services commercial airplanes, defense products and space systems for customers in more than 150 countries. As a top U.S. exporter, the company leverages the talents of a global supplier base to advance economic opportunity, sustainability and community impact. Boeing's diverse team is committed to innovating for the future, leading with sustainability, and cultivating a culture based on the company's core values of safety, quality and integrity.
Volta Trucks, the leading and disruptive fully electric commercial vehicle manufacturer and services provider, has confirmed that in September the first Volta Zero vehicle was completed at the company’s contract manufacturing facility in Steyr, Austria.
The landmark vehicle, the first of a series of second-generation ‘Production Verification’ prototypes, will form part of a Pilot Fleet of trucks. These will be loaned to customers for extended periods in late 2022 and early 2023 to allow fleet operators to understand how the first purpose-built, fully electric, medium duty commercial vehicle will integrate into their operations. The start of series production of customer specification vehicles is on track to start in early 2023.
Volta Trucks’ contract manufacturing facility is run by Steyr Automotive, formerly MAN Truck and Bus Austria. Steyr Automotive was appointed in August 2021 following an extensive tender and based on their long experience of commercial vehicle manufacturing, existing infrastructure, and consequent speed to market. Steyr Automotive offers Volta Trucks more than 100 years of manufacturing experience building large commercial vehicles.
Steyr Automotive has reserved a capacity of 14,000 vehicles per year for Volta Trucks from their total available production. Over time, manufacturing the Volta Zero will create 510 jobs, plus 180 jobs in the building of the cargo boxes, in addition to an estimated 2,000 positions within the supply chain. The manufacturing contract has a value of up to €1 billion over its lifetime.
Watching the first fully electric Volta Zero drive off the production line in Steyr, co-Founder and Chief Manufacturing & Logistics Officer of Volta Trucks, Kjell Walöen, said; “This first vehicle rolling off the line at our manufacturing plant in Steyr is the latest significant milestone on the Volta Trucks journey towards the start of production of customers’ vehicles. To have achieved this significant landmark in just 12 months is a testament to the pace that we are working at to deliver the safest and most sustainable trucks to urban streets, and to the excellent collaboration we have with our partners at Steyr Automotive. Their team has used generations of premium truck-building experience to deliver the first Volta Zero off the production line on time, and to the highest quality standards.”
The latest company and industry related developments from around the world
MSA Safety introduces innovative fall protection with time-saving temporary horizontal lifeline
Falls continue to be a leading cause of preventable injury and death in the workplace, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). To help keep workers safe, MSA Safety, Inc, (the global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of sophisticated safety solutions that help to protect people and facility infrastructures), is now offering a first-of-its-kind temporary horizontal lifeline that can help save time on the jobsite through its intuitive and toolless installation features.
MSA’s new Temporary Horizontal Lifeline allows for a 75% faster installation compared to traditional cable systems. The system’s integrated locking and tensioning mechanism eliminates the need for nuts, bolts and wrenches, a key feature that makes the system significantly easier and faster to install because there is no need for tools.
“Our new Temporary Horizontal Lifeline was designed to address how long it took workers to install a traditional lifeline system by making this easier to use, but without sacrificing the level of safety for workers at height,” said Gustavo Lopez, MSA Safety’s General Manager of Industrial Products & Vice President of Connected Services. “This new system is lighter and easier to manoeuvre, and can be easily set up by one person, allowing the worker to spend more time on the job rather than setting up their systems.”
With locking and tensioning mechanisms on the same side, workers no longer need to travel back and forth during set up. The new device also incorporates clear visual indicators to show when the system is properly installed. Designed to be adaptable to an ever-changing jobsite, the flexible, lightweight cable makes installation easier, plus MSA’s patented bypass shuttles allow two users to maintain 100 percent tie-off while passing one another on the same line.
“Most horizontal lifelines on the market today are heavy, time consuming to install, and require several tools,” Lopez said. “MSA’s new Temporary Horizontal Lifeline, however, is designed to be simple, intuitive and faster, to save companies time and money while helping to keep their workers safe.”
Scania to decarbonise its supply chain by 2030
Scania announces far-reaching measures to decarbonise its supply chain by 2030. Together with its suppliers, Scania has outlined an ambitious industry-leading strategy to eliminate the largest carbon emissions sources from the most common production materials and batteries.
“Once again Scania leads the way in ambitious climate action,” said Andreas Follér, Head of Sustainability at Scania. “We were the first in our industry to adopt science-based carbon reduction targets and we are now showing the way by decarbonising our supply chain.”
Through life-cycle analyses, Scania has identified four emission “hotspots” – batteries, steel, aluminium and cast iron – that together constitute approximately 80% of carbon emissions arising from production materials. The supply chain decarbonisation strategy and targets initially comprise Scania’s production in Europe but will gradually be extended to its production in China and Latin America.
In electric vehicles, for example, batteries can account for half of sourcing emissions whereas in combustion engine vehicles, steel has the greatest carbon footprint. These four hotspots are therefore the focus of Scania’s supply chain decarbonisation strategy.’
The 2030 target is 100 percent green batteries, 100 percent green steel, 100 percent green aluminium and 100 percent green cast iron in its production. Scania’s definition of ‘green’ requires eliminating the main sources of emissions by utilising new technologies, green electricity and /or recycled material. In batteries, for example, access to green energy in production is decisive. In the production of flat steel, replacing coal with green hydrogen is key.
“Scania has ambitious decarbonisation targets for all its activities, including our supply chain sourcing,” said John van Rossum, Head of Purchasing at Scania. “We’re pleased to note that several of our current and future suppliers are frontrunners in decarbonisation and will collaborate with us to reach the targets.”
