OPTIMISATION
SOFTWARE
SMOOTH
OPERATORS
Here, INFORM’s Product Manager - GS RealTime Staff & Equipment, Michael Reinkober,
explains how optimisation software is helping air cargo carriers meet their most
pressing challenges.
According to Boeing’s World Air Cargo Forecast, air cargo
traffi c will double in the next 20 years, while the world
freighter fl eet will grow by more than 75%. A lot of this
growth is attributed to the explosion in e-commerce sales, which
the same study forecasted to increase to US$4.9trn in 2021. There
are, however, obstacles on this projected growth path. For one, the
growth path may not be linear. IATA has reported that demand
fell by 4.7% in April 2019 compared to the same time period in
2018. There are also market disruptors, including the expansion
of Amazon Air and the adoption of new technologies, including
Artifi cial Intelligence, Big Data and blockchain. That said, there
are three key challenges that air cargo carriers need to address
to boost profi tability and process effi ciencies. These challenges
comply with set SLAs and include optimising staff and equipment
utilisation on the apron and in the cargo warehouse; maintaining
situational awareness; and management by exception for complex
and confusing situations.
Previously, dispatchers had to work manually or with large,
complex Gantt charts. Achieving optimised business outcomes
depended solely on the experience and time the allocator had
to combine tours and dispatch transport tasks at hand. This was
a tall order, prone to error in the fast-changing, high-pressure
cargo handling environment. Working manually on optimising
workfl ows, while factoring in fi scal parameters and concurrently
maintaining operational
awareness, can be a daunting
and cumbersome task.
Solutions available
Today, though, there are
digital decision-making
tools available. They are
based on operations research
optimisation algorithms and
include machine learning to
render cargo carriers’ business
operations more profi table,
reliable and agile.
INFORM’s cargo solution
(a digital decision-making
tool) builds on 20 years of
experience in the air cargo
industry. The best solutions
are built with the business
processes and their users
in mind. INFORM applies
customer feedback and
targeted in-depth case studies
Optimisation
of ground
transportation...
is becoming
increasingly
important
Michael Reinkober, Product Manager,
GS Real Time Staff & Eqpt, INFORM
12 October 2019 www.airlogisticsinternational.com
/www.airlogisticsinternational.com