Boeing opens Vancouver lab to help airlines save money
Data analytics facility will help firm’s clients with smart planning
Aerospace giant Boeing officially opened the doors at its new data analytics laboratory in Vancouver’s Yaletown neighbourhood on Thursday, while rebranding both the lab and Boeing’s Richmond facility — previously known as AeroInfo — as Boeing Vancouver.
The lab, which will house 50 data analysts and other staff, will study how Boeing clients can save money through smart planning — such as planning flight routes so that planes needing certain replacement parts will be landing at or near airports where those parts are in-stock, dramatically reducing repair costs.
The following are five items to take away from the announcement.
1) Boeing Vancouver becomes the largest data science group in two key categories.
“I believe we are certainly the largest data science group in Vancouver, but also in the global Boeing organization,” said Bob Canwell, president of Boeing Vancouver. “And really, that’s all because of the talent — the talent that exists here in Vancouver.”
Canwell said the concept for the lab came five years ago, when Boeing realized data analysis could yield potential gains in “disruption management” and maintenance and fuel optimization: “For many of us who came from the airline industry — and lived and breathed these problems every day — we understood the power that was going to be unleashed by this new talent and this technology that we’re seeing amongst us here.”
2) The lab provides Boeing with a significant advantage when selling its aircraft.
Kevin Crowley, vice-president of Boeing Digital Aviation, said the plane maker is facing increasing competition from European giant Airbus, and the company needs something more than aircraft engineering to attract clients.
“We’re still very competitive, but we have to have a competitive edge that’s based on something more than the aerodynamics of our airplanes, our knowledge of materials … those type of things,” Crowley said. “We have to have more of an edge when you come right down to it … mining the data and being a better partner for our customers.”
3) The data analysis applies most- ly to civil aerospace, but can be applied to military uses.
“Some of the tools that our commercial airline customers have enjoyed for quite awhile are actually being applied on Royal Canadian Air Force programs,” said Roberto Valla, vice-president of global sales for Canada. He noted the RCAF’s Chinook helicopters and some transport planes already use software tools developed in Richmond by AeroInfo.
“I think hopefully the one thing all of you will take away from this … is that fact that the Boeing company has been, is, and will remain committed to Canada.”
4) Seemingly minuscule fuel savings in percentage terms are huge in reality.
Dawen Nozdryn-Plotnicki, Boeing Vancouver’s director of advanced analytics, said even a one per cent cut in fuel use by all Boeing aircraft worldwide would mean savings worth $1 billion and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 6.6 million tonnes.
“That’s the equivalent, per year, to 1.4 million cars we can take off the road. … That’s why this team right here (in Vancouver) has worked on solutions that will allow us to be able to realize that kind of savings.”
5) B.C. may get more aerospace operations like Boeing Vancouver in the coming years.
Amrik Virk, the B.C. technology minister, said B.C. will announce in the coming weeks that a technology fund that will provide close to $500 million in venture capital for small companies to expand. Virk said he hopes that will spur an increase in startup activity in the tech industry that, along with the Boeing decision, could create an aerospace technology hub here.