Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., a world leader in the design and manufacture of advanced helicopters for commercial, industrial and military industries, has selected market-leading Predictive Analytics software from SPSS to increase customer loyalty by proactively anticipating customer needs in helicopter fleets. Sikorsky is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp.

Sikorsky helicopters are used by all five branches of the United States armed forces, along with military services and commercial operators in more than 40 nations.

Sikorsky offers customers various maintenance assurance programs to help improve aircraft availability and operate their fleet at a known cost. Included in this offering is the Total Assurance Program (TAP), covering up to 98 percent of costs related to parts and services.

The organization sought a software solution to help identify and predict equipment maintenance for helicopter customers, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. Sikorsky selected SPSS Predictive Analytics text mining and data mining software and its Predictive Analytics enterprise-wide enabling platform to analyze helicopter and pilot data collected by the aircraft health and usage monitoring system and flight maintenance log records.

SPSS Predictive Analytics gives Sikorsky the leading technology to analyze structured data, such as historical and current information on individual helicopters, and to use text mining for the unstructured data, including pilot and maintenance crew fault logs.

By incorporating information from all data sources, Sikorsky will be able to determine the relationships between how the aircraft is being operated and maintained and the consumption of parts. The deeper understanding of these correlations will allow Sikorsky to take proactive action to reduce direct maintenance costs.

Ted Kell, manager of logistics technology at Sikorsky Aircraft, said, “The incorporation of SPSS into our customer maintenance program supports our continued goal of being recognized worldwide as the number one vertical flight company that serves our customers with exceptional one-to-one service.”

Jack Noonan, SPSS chairman, president and CEO, said, “Sikorsky Aircraft’s investment in SPSS will enable the organization to be proactive about customer loyalty, predictive maintenance and, most importantly, safety of its machines. Through the use of SPSS Predictive Analytics, manufacturers worldwide are able to enhance reporting capabilities, manage inventory, and improve the quality of goods.”