Virgin project: TCS, Oracle in JV

Tata Consultancy Services and Oracle have begun a pilot project involving international carrier Virgin Atlantic to manage critical parts used in aircraft maintenance and repairs by tagging them with a radio frequency identification device.

The pilot will use the RFID and sensor-based solution to manage the accurate consignment, storage and dispatch of parts of Virgin Atlantic at its Heathrow Airport warehouse in the UK, TCS said on Thursday.

Virgin Atlantic, a long-standing Oracle and TCS customer, agreed to the project to try and find a complete and easy to implement low-risk solution.

The proposed solution would be used along with process reviews and Virgin Atlantic's current materials management software, Ultramain, to enable Virgin Atlantic Engineering to reduce costs and increase efficiencies through improved visibility and accountability, and to gain better automated control of its engineering parts supply chain.

The solution would be developed and implemented by Tata Consultancy Services on Oracle Fusion Middleware, RFID-enabled applications and Oracle Database 10g.

"This pilot will help Virgin Atlantic Airways further utilise its existing Oracle infrastructure to achieve even greater real-time visibility," Nigel Woodland, RFID director, Oracle said.

"TCS recognises the potential of RFID as a business transformational technology and continues to invest substantially in developing RFID-enabled business solutions," TS Rangarajan, head, TCS, RFID Solutions, said.