Last autumn, SAS and Carmen Consulting prototyped an automatic tool for one of the corner stones in the manpower planning process - movement planning - that decides which pilot should move to what new position based on vacancies, seniority and bids. The prototype can easily be turned into a strategic decision support tool. Important factors learnt from this project included that the process can be automated and there are lots of business rules involved. These business rules can and should be separated from the core system and placed in Rave or a similar modelling language.

"The project shows the benefit of prototyping as a tool for documenting and understanding the planning process and the used movement rules. We hope to have an automatic FDA (Movement planning) system in full production by Q1 2003," says Lars Temnerud OR specialist and SAS project manager who adds: "It was great to get help in understanding the important aspects of choosing a method for solving this complex problem."

Manpower planning is an area that all airlines talk about, and it is a box containing many different tasks. The processes at various airlines have both similarities and differences. This does not mean that Carmen avoids attacking this very interesting field.

The approach is to help each client achieve a system that suits their specific needs. The four corner stones of Manpower planning Supply, Demand, Movement planning and Training planning exist at all airlines, but Movement planning and Training planning contain specific variations.

"With the knowledge from discussing Manpower planning with many airlines and the experience from the SAS project and others, we are certain that Carmen Consulting can help any airline improve their Manpower planning, starting at any of the four corners," concludes Erik Hasselberg, Managing Director of Carmen Consulting.

Lars Temnerud, OR specialist and SAS project manager