CASE STUDY: SMARTLYNX
“The pilot creates the load sheet on the EFB which is fully OFF-line capable and which takes 25-30 seconds. He signs it and the load sheet goes to a pre-defined list in the back-Office so, when they’re departing from one place, it is sent to wherever the customer wants…” place, it is sent to wherever the customer wants in a really easy process. But then we got a requirement from one customer that they wanted to have a type B message sent to their Ops system because their Ops system wasn’t reading the email or the copy of the load sheet itself and they, of course, wanted the numbers into their Ops system. So SmartLynx asked IFS to add the LDM (Load Distribution Message) format to the bottom of the load sheet itself but then had to work out how it could be taken from there and displayed as a type B message. The way this was resolved, SmartLynx asked IFS to pull the load message itself after it has been signed by the pilot and drop it into the airline’s database. Once there, it is processed using a Pentaho transformation engine to a Connector+ from ARINC that can send type B messages; so the load sheet is dropped into the Connector+ Outbox where there is the opportunity to define a call sign and destination. It works well and, at SmartLynx, everything concerning the load sheet is done on the iPad. The pilot completes the load sheet, signs it, a copy is sent to the handling agent and a type B message is sent to whoever wants to receive it. In the final step for the load sheet, the process has to copy generated LDM
files for ARINC using the eHub Connector+ from ARINC. From there, it is an automatic process using whatever settings have been loaded to the system.
post-flight report is signed, everybody gets a copy of everything.
Back end portal
SmartLynx grabs any digital data that can be taken and processed into information. For instance, navigation fees are calculated by the flight planning system, PPS from Air Support, which used to generate a printed report that the airline has used to challenge the navigation fee invoices from Eurocontrol. Now, finalizing the step, we are in a preparation process that will enable information to be automatically sent from PPS to the EFB, processed to SharePoint from where it goes directly to AX/Axapta to challenge invoices and into the Ops system where it will be used to forecast estimated navigation costs. With post flight data, the data goes from the EFB server into RAIDO which is then locked for editing. SmartLynx considers the data as defined by the pilot to be the Master Data: as soon as he has signed it, it will go into the Ops systems and is locked so that all the duty times (figure 7) calculations become the actual data. Also available is the load information, fuel (figure 8), and take-off and landing pilots, to ensure that pilots complete their required number of take-offs and landings and to help manage pilot rotations.
The back-end portal in the IFS solution is also its strength. The focus is usually on what the pilot is doing from the Ops side and, from the company side, users are very interested to use the data that comes after a flight has completed. So, again SmartLynx approached IFS to make it easier to process the data. Now, there is an excellent back-end portal with all the data from which a user can select what they want, download it as a CSV file and then process it. SmartLynx is currently working with IFS to develop a report generator so the back-end portal digital data can be analyzed to detect areas on which the airline can take action and improve processes. The report generator lets the system administrator create any rule using digital data from the portal. Also, warnings and notifications can be emailed based on the rule: if someone is overtankering, putting on too much fuel, they can be notified; equally, if the landing/arrival fuel is less than it should be, an email to that effect can be sent to the dispatcher and to the civil aviation authority (mandatory) so that someone can check why that has happened. The important thing is that the tool allows users to take immediate action.
Digital data
Post-flight report When the post-flight report has been signed, data from the flight is made available on the back-end portal. SmartLynx then sends the post-flight report to the customer with a full Journey Log, a copy of the load sheet and a picture of the fuel slip. Before this all became operational, emails were used for this job, copying in a lot of people which led to emails bouncing back and forth trying to find one fuel slip. Now that doesn’t happen because as soon as the AIRCRAFT IT Operations • MARCH-APRIL 2018 • 32
FIGURE 7