The following are concrete examples of consulting assignments that Carmen Systems has carried out for different transportation companies.

Process and System Evaluation
KLM asked Carmen Systems to assist in investigating its current planning process and the IT support for cabin crew planning. The objective was to describe and analyze the complete planning process, and based on this, propose a strategy for how to further develop the process.

In a study Carmen walked through the whole process from long-term planning, through crew scheduling, to crew control and day of operation. Then a "brains trust" was formed at Carmen to analyze all the steps in detail to find bottlenecks, strengths and weaknesses, to come up with a strategy for changing the planning process in the most effective way.

"All our sincere compliments to all of you at Carmen for the job done! It really is very helpful to us - already." Wim Vollenberg, Manager Cabin Crew Planning. [2001]

Production Setting
Carmen always assists in the production taking process. Taking a system with advanced optimization into production actually requires a lot of interaction both with the client's planning experts and with management. A lot of the quality and stability criteria that has to be respected are often not available on paper, only in the heads of certain key individuals. After taking the system into production all the quality and stability criteria must be carefully documented and accessible for future analysis and tuning.

"The strong commitment of all individuals involved together with the excellent cooperation between British Airways and Carmen Systems, are the foremost reasons why it was possible to install Carmen Crew Rostering with preferential bidding so quickly. It has been a pleasure to be involved in such a project", Rob Moran, Project Manager at British Airways. [2001]

Production Planning
Carmen can assist with production planning. It is very common for Carmen staff to actually carry out a major part of the production planning process during the final period of taking the system into production. Carmen also sometimes assist clients for a short period when they are suffering from a temporary lack of resources.

"Something even more important to us is the level of service and professionalism provided by Carmen's staff, allowing us to benefit from the increased productivity from the start of the implementation project." Mexicana Operations Manager, Eduardo Serrania. [1999]

Assistance with Contract Negotiations
Carmen often provides assistance during contract negotiations or when the infrastructure or cost structure is subject to change. Carmen has assisted with evaluating the operational consequences of opening new bases, the cost impact of changing the aircraft fleet structure or simply assisting in coding new rules or cost structures for simulation purposes. Clients often do these basic simulationson their own, but sometimes there is simply nobody around who has the time to do them.

One example of assisting a client in reconstructing an entire agreement structure is the British Airways Crew Rostering project at Eurogatwick. The project task included assisting British Airways in negotiating crew agreements and deciding on a new bidding system with crew representatives. "Carmen Systems' expertise and British Airways' enthusiasm for change has resulted in an excellent outcome", says Mike Szucs, Chief Pilot at British Airways Eurogatwick. [2001]

Assistance with Process Changes
In the same way as Carmen can provide assistance when agreements are about to change, Carmen can also assist when the planning process is being changed. It can be a new bidding process, changed publication period from two weeks to one month, integration between crew and fleet, etc. Carmen's staff can always assist with carrying out the required changes or at least by advising on how the process changes can be introduced.

Working together with Management and Unions
Carmen can also work together with management and crew unions as an independent technical consultant. By testing many different scenarios it is possible to create the same perspective for negotiations.

ASPA (Asociación Sindical de Pilotos Aviadores de México) the Pilot's Union of Aeroméxico and Mexicana, spent a whole week at Carmen in Göteborg together with Aeroméxico's management and planning staff. The aim was to see if bringing together planning expertise and running different crew assignment scenarios with system specialists and pilots, could create a more common ground for discussions at Aeroméxico.

"The possibility of running a lot of scenarios in a short time-span, coupled with all the information needed to achieve the optimal pairings and crew rosters to balance costs, productivity and quality of life, was very interesting" says Captain Antonio Vargas. "We were very pleased with the support we received from Carmen and would like to thank the Carmen consultants who set up all the analysis rules and reports for us." [2000]

Resource Consulting
All our clients have dedicated staff who ensure that their model of legality, quality and costs is always in tune with reality. Sometimes there is simply too much to do for them. It can be a planning process change that has to be supported in the middle of an agreement negotiation; it can be a statistics report that needs to be adjusted urgently, etc. In these cases Carmen's consultants can be used as a pure resourcetool.