Reducing Flight Operation Cost

Reducing Flight Operation Cost
An Airline’s Perspective
Captain Terje Lovoy
Flight Operations,
SAS Braathens
SAS Braathens
Company Information
• 58 aircraft
– 51 737-400/-500/-600/
-700/-800 series
– Operated 737 since 1969
• 440 daily departures
• Part of Scandinavian
Airlines Group
• Europe JAR-OPS
SAS Braathens
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Our Story…
…from 36 years of internal authoring to
generic Boeing web manuals…
737
EFB
PDF CD ROM
Single source
web manuals
Generic Boeing
procedures
1969
1946
Intelligent
semantic
search tools
2001
2004
2005
SAS Braathens
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Our Goals: Cost and Operational Benefits
• Our goal was to reduce cost and improve safety…..
• Could we beat our traditional cost versus safety model?
Improve
safety
Lower
cost
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Specific Objectives:
Cost Control
• Focus on airline
production – not on
development
• Electronic publishing
and distribution of
documentation without
extensive data
programming
Improve Safety
• Tighter focus on most
important threats
• Clarify philosophy for
documentation
• Efficient and accurate
distribution of safety
information
• Intelligent search tools
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Create Manuals
• Contents
– How many details?
– Need for a philosophy not just personal SME*
likes/dislikes
– Target audience all users - not just crew
• Authoring – in house SMEs or Boeing?
• Web and print publishing
* SME – Subject Matter Expert
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How Many Details?
• Too much information – just as bad as too little
• Keep manuals as “slim” as possible
• Philosophy for content based on Boeing
– For example: QRH new checklist content description
• Focus on safety
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Tighter Focus on Safety
• Important to focus on basic
philosophies, procedural
design and crew coordination
• Generic Boeing philosophy
met our needs better then
old internal text
• Practical operational focus not highly detailed theory
of component design
and construction
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In-house Authoring of Manuals?
• Flight OPS: “Our time – our most important resource”
• Lean airlines must utilize chief pilots and supervisors
in an efficient way with correct focus
• Generic Boeing combined with our EDOCS system
solved this at the fraction of the cost – giving chief
pilots and supervisors more time to focus on
operational issues like:
– CRM/human factors/error prevention
– Fuel saving
– On time performance
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Simplified JAR – OPS Compliance
JAR OPS OM-A
General
JAR OPS OM-B
Aircraft specific
(Only items not covered in Boeing manuals)
FCTM
MEL
QRH
FCOM VOL 2
FCOM VOL 1
“Plug and Play” modular manual solution
compliant with AMC OPS 1.1045
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Can Web Manuals be Made at Low Cost?
• Wanted web based master manuals
• Did not want to make short-term investment
in XML programming
• Solution:
– Boeing configured manuals with customer
originated changes (Plan 2 FCOM and
FCTM)
– In-house authoring of general operations
manuals and information not supplied
by Boeing
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Create – Manage – Deliver – Update
In-house authoring
PDF
BOEING
FCOM
PLAN 2
PDF
PDF
SAS Braathens
BOEING
FCTM
W
FM
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GEN OPS
GEN OPS
GEN OPS
JAR OPS A & B
JAR OPS A & B
JAR OPS A & B
PLAN 2
Prepress
Synchronized converter
Tagging
Indexing
Web preparation
Web
distribution
SAS Braathens
Print publishing
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Low Cost Paperback Manuals
PDF Print
on Demand
Tabs
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Low Cost Web Manual Solution
• HTML based
• No need for
high-speed line
• View advanced
layout as PDF
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Training, Evaluation and Recording
• Training Manuals
– Referencing to Boeing
manuals simplifies authoring
and upkeep
• ATA based phase of flight sets
of standards
• Efficient electronic record
keeping, grading and
performance monitoring
systems for:
– Proficiency Checks
– Line Checks
– Safety Audits
– Emergency Response System
SAS Braathens
TABLET PC RECORDING
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Target Audience
• Flight crew
• Cabin crew
• Ground handling
• Third party providers
• Search engine
must recognize:
– User groups
– User role/functions/needs
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Intelligent Search Engine
Semantic Search Technology*
• Relevant search engine
customized for airlines
• Defined users and roles, restricted
access, filters and built-in intelligence
– Examples: “Dogs = live animals”
“Commander = captain = pilot”
– If you search for dogs you will also get hits on
live animals
• Other features: Highlighting, % relevance and
manual ranking based on user defined needs
– Examples: Search by an agent will only give hits in
ground handling manuals. While search by a flight
attendant will prioritize FA manual first.
* Details about this semantic search engine can be obtained from morten.kopke@sasbraathens.no
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Feedback from Crew
• Generic Boeing is better and safer
• We like the structure of Boeing manuals
• Simplified the merger of SAS and Braathens crew
by adopting best practices from Boeing
• We like paperback books – and that we don’t have
to do revisions
• Most crew will use web version
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Summary
Cost Benefits
Operational Benefits
• Reduced volume of paper
• Better efficiency, usability and
• Lower cost of paper
• Tighter focus on essential
manuals
manuals
• Reduced cost of manual
distribution
• More efficient use of chief
pilots and supervisors
• Low cost electronic manuals
accuracy of documentation
safety issues through new
procedures
• Management can spend more
time on high priority tasks
• All crewmembers will always
have updated manuals
• Search feature saves time
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