Boeing Digital Aviation Disruption Management Tools

2015 | DESIGN Strategist AT continuum

Objective

When a plane is off schedule, the issues include missed connections for passengers and crew, increased fuel costs, downstream schedule impacts, and more. Boeing’s digital division partnered with EPAM Continuum to develop a value proposition and product roadmap to tackle irregular operations.

Defining Irregular Operations

An irregular operation or disruption is when a plane does not depart at the scheduled departure time or does not arrive at the gate within 15 minutes of the scheduled arrival time. The consequence of a disruption is:

• Passengers not arriving at their destination on time

• Passengers missing a connection

• Crew members missing a connection

• Crew members timing out

• Violating an airport curfew

• The tail (a plane) is potentially off schedule for the rest of the day. Aside from the above possibly occurring, a tail might miss a specific time slot at which they are allowed to take off from an airport.

Client Hypothesis

Airlines want a tool that would find the optimal solution for a disruption. An optimal solution would be the best use of resources (crew, tails, and passengers) at the lowest cost.

Role

Our team was brought in to validate if this hypothesis is true and also develop a product roadmap.

Research & Insights

There are over 200 airlines in the world, ranging from small (<20 planes) to very large (<200 planes). Each airline operates slightly differently, with their own constraints. To quote a former airline duty manager, "when you've seen one airline, you've seen one airline."

The airlines we spoke with were of different regions (2 AMER, 3 EMEA, and 3 APAC) and various sizes (10 tails to 400 tails).

Operation Control Center (OCC)

The OCC is the heart of airline operations. It's where daily decisions are made, crew members check-in, and all resources are monitored.

Tools

Current airline tools only handle a single resource at specific times (long-term planning, short-term planning, day-of-operations). Each department staff member uses their own software geared towards handling their specific resource. For example, the crew scheduler uses crew tracking software, which monitors crew members during the day-of-operations. The person in charge of tail assignment uses tail tracking software, which monitors planes take-off, landings, and location during the day-of-operations.

The result of this is staff in the OCC don't see how disruptions are impacting each resource differently. Additionally, it also does not allow OCC staff to holistically understand the impact of their decisions on other resources.

Airline Goal vs. OCC Goal

The airline goal is to deliver passengers (and cargo) from A to B at scheduled times, as safely and efficiently as possible. The OCC goal is to maintain the schedule. When not possible, return to plan as fast as possible. The assumption by the OCC is the schedule is the optimal use of resources. The schedule is a promise to not only passengers, but the crew. “Crew are an emotional group.” – Crew Controller

The Irregular is Regular

“Disruption” sounds severe and adrenalin-inducing. Most issues are constant, minor, routine. For unforeseeable disruptions, like a crew-no show or a plane taking off late due to an open hatch, the OCC wants to return to the schedule as soon as possible. For the few rare, foreseeable events, such as an airport closure due to severe weather, a special team within the OCC would create a new schedule.

Managing Irregular Operations

Our client hypothesis was that to develop solutions during a disruption is hard. Instead, we found that to duty managers, who usually decide what the solution would be, this was fairly easy. However, understanding what a problem is and the impact it will have on the operation as well as communicating out decisions to the front lines were challenging.

Disconnect On Number of Options Available for Handling Disruptions

The reality is there aren't many solutions for duty managers to work with. In general, their options are:

• Tail swap - swap planes of the same gauge so that the next flight isn't impacted

• Change aircraft gauge - swap planes of different sizes so that the next flight isn't impacted

• Crew swap - swap crews so that the next flight isn't impacted

• Reserve crew - call in reserve crew so that the next flight isn't impacted

• Quick turn - reduce time to clean and refuel between flights 

• Speed the plane - burn extra fuel while in the air to make up for time

• Gate swap - change gates on the ground 

The result is only two or three good, workable solutions for any given disruption. The best solution is a trade-off of different impacts – which are the most important right now?

If Developing Solutions Is Easy, Why Is Comparing Solutions Hard?

The Opportunity

Tools at the ends of the process increase workable solutions, growing the need for solution support.

The Solution

Offering Model

The Result