From Paper to Pixels: How Digitization Drives Environmental Sustainability in Aviation

Written by: Jim Boccarossa

Environmental sustainability has rightly become a key consideration for both investors and consumers across the globe and in every industry. In the aviation sector, particularly, scrutiny is growing regarding its environmental impact and slow adoption of more sustainable practices. In response, airlines are exploring new ways to conduct their operations more responsibly. The advancement of technology makes this transition increasingly easy, and there are numerous additional benefits, such as improved operations and significant cost savings.

The aviation industry has traditionally relied on paper-based records for aircraft maintenance and airworthiness proof. The shift toward digitization is no longer a nice-to-have but a necessity.

Considering the many advantages of digitization, why is the aviation sector hesitant to embrace this transformation? Here, we explore the current state of digital records in aviation and the challenges faced in digitizing aviation records. We also offer strategies and tips to successfully transition to digital document management for maximum environmental and business benefits.

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The Advantages of Digital Records for Environmental Sustainability

Research shows that the majority of millennials (who will represent 75% of the workforce by 2025) are more loyal to brands that align with environmental sustainability practices. They are also willing to switch brands—even paying more to do so. If this alone is not enough to spur more sustainable practices, consider the following pros of reducing paper records.

Reduce Ink, Paper Use, Waste, and Energy Consumption

Moving to an electronic document management system reduces the need for printing, which translates to a decline in paper and ink usage too. Reports show that over 375 million empty ink and toner cartridges are discarded annually—most ending up in landfills.

A printer cartridge takes between 500 and 1,000 years to decompose. Considering that the first laser printer was invented in 1969, every single cartridge ever produced still exists. In addition, the manufacture of paper and cartridges depletes the earth’s natural resources while producing substantial sums of pollution during the manufacturing process. And that’s before it’s been used and discarded as waste.

Reduce Costs

Further to a reduction in paper and ink expenses, digitization decreases the need for print services tech support. And because you’ll store documents electronically, you no longer need physical storage space. From cutting costs for office consumables to downsizing physical office space, your bottom-line benefits long term.

Improve Productivity and Efficiency for Environmental Sustainability

Instead of searching through paper records manually, you can retrieve information within seconds via a digital database search. That means documents are shared instantly, then assessed, corrected, electronically signed, and returned. As a result, manual workloads and delays are minimized.

An added advantage is that digital systems can automate alerts for missing, incorrect, or questionable information. This improves accuracy, reduces errors, and streamlines operations.

The Shift to Digital Records in Aviation

Over the past four decades, aircraft maintenance documentation has remained largely unchanged in terms of how it is created, used, managed, and stored.

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The price tag of using paper maintenance records is estimated at over $125 million annually or $5,000 per aircraft. This is due to lost or missing information, document shipping, and storage fees, administration of paper records, and costs for aviation personnel to review the records. In fact, this form of documentation in the modern business aircraft industry requires more than 1,100 full-time employees each year to manage the extra workload.

The aviation sector must change what has become an expensive, inefficient, and dysfunctional modus operandi.

Overcoming Challenges and Moving Forward with Digitization

While digitizing aviation records has numerous payoffs in addition to driving environmental sustainability, the transition also has challenges. The good news is that once the new framework’s in place, it will be far more efficient, accurate, cost-effective, and environmentally friendly. Let’s look at the possible issues you could face when transitioning your system and how to mitigate them effectively.

Challenges

Cost

Although you can save significantly in the long run, there is a cost to get your new setup running. Purchasing new hardware, software, and digital storage will require an initial investment. This can be burdensome for smaller aviation companies that don’t have immediate resources to invest in new technology.

Regulatory Compliance

The rigid and complex nature of aviation sector compliance standards quickly complicates record keeping. While the manual process is time-consuming and prone to error, transitioning to a new system risks overlooking smaller details. In addition, the FAA has specific requirements for digital record keeping. Aviation companies must also ensure their chosen solution complies with all regulations and remains updated in this regard.

Resistance to Change

Not everyone on your team may be in favor of the change. This can hinder the speed and efficiency with which your new setup is implemented.

Technical and Data Management Challenges

Regulatory and maintenance paperwork flows through multiple aviation operations stakeholders, including original equipment manufacturers, lessors, maintenance and inspection entities, suppliers, and airlines. Each unit is responsible for managing those processes and data under its registration authority’s regulations. Harmonizing this mass of information across different stakeholders and technological solutions can prove challenging. Fragmented data needs to be effectively and uniformly consolidated.

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Overcoming Challenges

Plan Ahead

The success of your switch hinges on thorough and detailed planning. Before implementing a digital record-keeping system, formulate a comprehensive plan that outlines the goals, budget, and resources required—including a step-by-step timeline. This will help everyone involved to stay on track and ensure that stakeholders are on board.

Choose the Right Technology

Take careful consideration when selecting a digital records management system—you don’t want to change this again down the line. Look for a setup that meets your specific company needs, aligns with your budget, and prioritizes data security. The features and functionality should simplify and streamline your workflows, not complicate them.

In addition, look for something easy for your team to learn, use, and manage. It’s also critical that the solution you decide on meets all the necessary software and security regulatory requirements.

Train Employees

Prior to implementation, educate employees on the reason for the transition. For instance, its multiple benefits for the business, environmental sustainability gains, and the ways in which it will benefit the employees themselves. Provide training and plenty of support to help them adapt. This will help reduce resistance to change, encourage your team to work toward the same goal and ensure employees are comfortable and confident using the new system.

Ensure Regulatory Compliance

Ensure that your digital records meet regulations for record-keeping. This will help you avoid penalties while guaranteeing that your records are admissible in court.

The Future of Document Digitization and Data Security for Environmental Sustainability

With many hands involved in aviation maintenance and operations, submitting consistent and comprehensive documentation is challenging at the best of times. Automation with digital technology can significantly improve the speed, accuracy, and quality of work. Moreover, by reducing paper waste, modernizing operations, and supporting more efficient data analysis, digitization is helping the aviation industry environmental sustainability and transition toward a greener future.

ProvenAir will help you not just scan from paper to digital but also make your digital documents intelligent, allowing you to level up your aviation operations, streamline data processing, and reduce your carbon footprint. In our next article, we'll discuss the difference between "digitization" as simply scanning documents and providing raw OCR, to leveraging an intelligent system to understand the data on the page and make it useful.

In our next article, we'll discuss the difference between "digitization," as simply scanning documents and providing raw OCR, and leveraging an intelligent system to understand the data that is on the page and make that data useful.'

Get in touch with the ProvenAir team today to get more value out of your data while saving significant time and money—and building a better planet.