Ground Support Worldwide - 10
INDUSTRY EXPERT
COLUMN:
Photo courtesy of Piedmont Airlines
GROUND HANDLING
How Automated
Scheduling Can
Reinforce Airline
Productivity
Piedmont's use of rostering software has eliminated bottlenecks and has
improved turnaround efficiency.
By Bill Perry
W
hen Brian Wemple, director of
planning and support for regional
air carrier Piedmont Airlines, Inc.,
first came to his current role several
years ago, the airline was looking to take a next
step with scheduling. Wemple, who's worked for 20
years at the airline in various roles beginning as a
manager of ground equipment inventory, leads the
airline's group tasked with planning the resource
provisioning for ground handling.
Previously, there wasn't a system-level way to
do shift scheduling, run reports and know how
many hours the airline's regional stations were
using. The steps involved in creating a suggested
shift schedule for ground handling workers were
not automated.
Piedmont, a wholly owned subsidiary of the
American Airlines Group, includes a fleet of 58
Embraer-145 regional jets and approximately
9,200 employees, including 6,000 ground handling personnel.
The regional air carrier's managers had to print
out and post schedules in break rooms as well as
manage paper forms to assist employees in bid-
10 GROUND SUPPORT WORLDWIDE
OCTOBER 2019
ding on and swapping shifts, along with tracking
seniority to comply with rules for processing bids
and swaps.
Using a seniority system, employees could then
bid on and trade shifts. Inevitably, employees
asked for exceptions. One person might sign up
for a half-shift swap and wait for someone to take
the other half; employees would frequently check
back to see if the swap made it into the schedule
book. All the while, managers and administrative
staff at the different stations tried to stay on top of
schedules, changes, requests and more. Adding to
the complexity of staffing were local management
teams across Piedmont's 72 sites - each handling
scheduling in their own way.
A Plan for Improving Consistency
and Dependability
According to Wemple, there were two drivers for
automating crew scheduling and shift swaps at
Piedmont. First, the airline wanted to consistently manage schedules for ground staff. And,
second, Piedmont sought a capability to report on
employee dependability or how often workers were
Ground Support Worldwide
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Ground Support Worldwide
Business Buzz
Industry Expert Column - Ground Handling
Lithium Technology's Charge into the GSE Market
Food for Thought: Catering Truck Requirements
Safety Support for Australia's Aviation Industry
Stronger Together
The Electric Option
Product Hangar
Editor's Note
Ground Support Worldwide - 1
Ground Support Worldwide - 2
Ground Support Worldwide - 3
Ground Support Worldwide - 4
Ground Support Worldwide - 5
Ground Support Worldwide - Business Buzz
Ground Support Worldwide - 7
Ground Support Worldwide - 8
Ground Support Worldwide - 9
Ground Support Worldwide - Industry Expert Column - Ground Handling
Ground Support Worldwide - 11
Ground Support Worldwide - Lithium Technology's Charge into the GSE Market
Ground Support Worldwide - 13
Ground Support Worldwide - 14
Ground Support Worldwide - 15
Ground Support Worldwide - 16
Ground Support Worldwide - 17
Ground Support Worldwide - Food for Thought: Catering Truck Requirements
Ground Support Worldwide - 19
Ground Support Worldwide - 20
Ground Support Worldwide - 21
Ground Support Worldwide - Safety Support for Australia's Aviation Industry
Ground Support Worldwide - 23
Ground Support Worldwide - 24
Ground Support Worldwide - 25
Ground Support Worldwide - Stronger Together
Ground Support Worldwide - 27
Ground Support Worldwide - 28
Ground Support Worldwide - 29
Ground Support Worldwide - 30
Ground Support Worldwide - 31
Ground Support Worldwide - The Electric Option
Ground Support Worldwide - 33
Ground Support Worldwide - Product Hangar
Ground Support Worldwide - 35
Ground Support Worldwide - 36
Ground Support Worldwide - 37
Ground Support Worldwide - 38
Ground Support Worldwide - 39
Ground Support Worldwide - 40
Ground Support Worldwide - 41
Ground Support Worldwide - Editor's Note
Ground Support Worldwide - 43
Ground Support Worldwide - 44
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