Electronic gateways (left) and automated
check-in (above) show the disparity between
the cargo and passenger sectors
The initiative
worked from day
one. That’s how
robust the system
was
Gerry Burgin, GB Cargo Associates
very first time the process had
been automated – and it was a
decade before the US decided
to adopt the idea.”
Ahead of the curve
Cutting edge, for once,
summed up the concept. The
UK was very much ahead of
the curve back in 1971 and for
Burgin, being on the board of
control from 1971-1974 and
representing BIFA, it was an
exciting time. The National
Data Processing Services
company underpinned the
technology, itself an offshoot
of British Telecom.
“The first airline to make
the cut-over was KLM,” recalls
Burgin, “and the initiative
worked from day one. That’s
how robust the system was.”
However, by 1979 Burgin
was busy shaping his own
future, not Heathrow’s, and
that year saw him merge
three companies under the
Trans Global Air banner. This
resulted in an entity that
would see 7,000 shipments
moved annually and so clearly,
there was a need to make this
operation as efficient and slick
as possible.
“Automation was the
answer,” Burgin says simply.
One of the new features
then was that of continuous
stationery. Air waybills
were printed on continuous
stationery and batches of
pre-assigned air waybill
numbers were allocated by
each participating airline.
This idea may all seem rather
simplistic now but it was
again advanced for the time.
However, the automation
stopped after that, with
no provision available for
accounting information to
There were three stages to go
through: implementation for,
firstly, imports, then single
export shipments and lastly
export consolidation. We took
a phased approach and asked
our staff for input which, it
turned out, was the Japanese
way of tackling problems. We
wrote System Mk 1 then asked
management at all levels for
comments, ideas or criticisms.
We then took note and made
amendments, coming up with
Mk 2. We finally went live
with Mk 3. Again, believe it
or not, because of extremely
careful planning, the whole
thing worked perfectly from
the first day.”
Hi-tech in a sense, this
automation involved merely a
couple of parallel mainframes,
each the size of a washing
machine, that monitored and
drove the whole system. All
staff desktop terminals were,
of course, at that time dumb
provide accurate profit and
loss figures. Assessment of
accruals was vital to this
process (expected costs vs
sales information) for export
consolidations. Thus the
need for automation became
even greater.
Burgin’s concern about
relying on computers (and
what might occur in the
event of a computer glitch)
led him to establish a back-up
solution. This was in effect a
dual system, that involved two
computers running in parallel.
In the event this proved to be
a godsend and avoided any
potential technical disaster.
Forwarders to the fore
Realising that the forwarder
would have to lead the way,
Burgin took the bull by the
horns.
“We were able to write the
basic system requirement for
the provider of the software.
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