America West Airlines : Staffing Issues

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America West Airlines Staffing Issues

• Presented By
• Derrick David
• Masafumi Ishii

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Project Outline

• Introduction of the Ramp operation at PHX,
  America Wests major hub airport
• Identify problems that discovered through field
  experience given information
• Suggestion of possible solutions that enable to
  achieve the task assigned
• Possible obstacles for those obstacles

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Company Sponsor

• Mr. Mike Garland
• - Senior Manager PHX Hub Fleet Services

Mike Garland
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Daily Ramp Operation

• 6 areas (R1, R2, R3, R4, HA, BA)

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Ramps Defined
Ramps One, Two and Three
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Ramps Defined
Ramp 4, International, British Air, and Hawaiian
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Agent Assignment

• Every ramp workers bid their work schedule
  quarterly
• Bids are awarded based on the employees seniority
• Employees are assigned a work station (or gate)
  on sign in.
• During times of difficulty, Ramp Managers can
  reassign employees based on need.
• Union contract states that every employee will
  have 30 minutes of uninterrupted break time
  during each shift

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Aircraft Operations

• Per HP Operations
• Minimum Turn Around Time
• 35 min. B737-200-300, A319
• 40 min. A 320
• 45 min. B757-200
• Minimum Turn Crew
• 2 persons - B737-200-300, A319 A320
• 3 persons B757-200

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Problems Associated with Current Work Procedure

• Each ramp must be minimally staffed even if there
  is little flight activity from time to time.
• Difficult to move people from one ramp to another
  without holes in coverage.
• Hard to effectively staff each gate
• High ratio of full time workers vs. part time
  workers (Ave. 41) ? Inducing higher costs
• Strict limitation among workers due to labor
  union
• Airport Operations looking to cut costs

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Possible Solutions

• Elimination of Multi-Zone Bidding System
• Development and use of Crew Tracking System
• Using Rolling Employee System

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Define Elimination of Multi Zone Bid

• As stated before, America West has 6 distinct
  bidding zones (Ramp only)
• R1 Ramp One ZA
• R2 Ramp Two ZB
• R3 Ramp Three ZC
• R4 Ramp Four ZD
• BA British Airways
• HA Hawaiian Airlines

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HA and BA

• The Hawaiian Air Flights 35 and 36 have a
  dedicated team provided from America West, which
  positions are bid out for 1 year.
• The British Airways Flights 288 and 289 also have
  a dedicated team provided from America West, bid
  out for 1 year.

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So That Leaves 4 Ramps Right?

• Right
• This is where the Crew Tracking System comes in
  to play.

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What Is Crew Tracking?

• Crew Tracking is a system that keeps track of
  every agent working and effectively staffs each
  flight based on aircraft type and load.

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How does it work?

• Clock In
• 1 Team Lead and Two/Three Agents Grouped Together
  at Clock In.
• .

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Work Cont.

• Team Information is loaded in to a computer in
  roster format.
• Program tracks and automatically dispatches
  employees using current computer systems like
  GateView and GateManager
• Programs like Sabre AirOps Ground Manager also
  offer such support.
• Program dispatches employees starting from the
  top of the roster and working its way down.

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Why Roster Format?

• Assures that flight and work load is evenly
  distributed among work force.

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Work, Cont.

• Operational Control, supervises the automatic
  assignment of teams to flights and changes
  assignments based on current need.

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Work Cont.

• Team Works Assigned Flight

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Work Cont.

• When Team finishes flight, the team lead
  clocks out the team from the flight on the
  computer.
• The computer puts them at the end of the roster
• Where they are assigned a new flight to work in
  the future.
• Or they are assigned a 30 minute uninterrupted
  break time as provided in the union contract

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Work Cont.

• At end of shift, team can be signed out of the
  computer, and be removed from the roster.
• Or if one or two employees leave, team can be
  assigned a new employee just starting shift.

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Wait One Minute

• Didnt America West try a system called Flight
  Following a few years ago which didnt work?
• Yes, to both questions, but where Flight
  Following failed, Crew Tracking will succeed.

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Reviewing Flight Following

• Flight Following was a similar system to Crew
  Tracking, but Flight Following had one major
  flaw.
• Once assigned, FF was difficult to change.
• Changes due to Irregular Ops, Heavy Loads, etc.

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Reviewing Flight Following

• Since Crew Tracking is fully interactive,
  Operations Mangers in the SOC can change
  assignments
• Example
• Heavy load, 757, quick turn flight
• Manager can assign two teams to one flight.

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But what about the system now?

• While the current system allows for managers to
  move based on need, they need to constantly be in
  contact with other managers to coordinate efforts
  and loads.
• The new system only requires 1 manager

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Ramps Defined Review
Ramps One, Two and Three
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Ramps Defined Review
Ramp 4, International, British Air, and Hawaiian
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Elimination of Multi-Zone Bid

• If the proposed system is implemented, there
  would be no need to bid out multiple ramps.

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Advantages Multi-Zone Bid

• Simplifies bidding process without major change
• Provides for greater flexibility when employees
  bidding for times rather than ramps.

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Advantages Crew Tracking

• Ensures that every employee is working and
  working equal amounts
• Every employee is accounted for
• Avoids minimum staffing issues by only having
  to staff one ramp.
• Employees with a tendency to disappear during
  shift are quickly identified reducing labor cost
• SYSTEM REMAINS FLEXABLE!

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What Is Minimum Staffing?

• Ideally each gate would have a staff assigned to
  it.
• Because this is not ideal, there are several
  people assigned to each ramp, which the ramp
  manager places at his/her discretion.
• This means that when some ramps are experiencing
  a heavy load, and others are not, some flights
  are short staffed, while other rampers dont
  currently have anything to do.

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Operational Tests

• Taking survey from ramp agents
• 35 Employees Randomly Surveyed
• 30 out of 35 would choose days and times on/off
  work rather than which specific ramp they would
  work.

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Operational Tests

• Review Airport Operations to gain a better
  understanding of how the America West functions

Flight At Gate
Bags Being Unloaded and Loaded
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More Pictures
Masafumi Lends a Hand
And gets a closer look
Pre Flight
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So How Does This Cut Costs?

• If America West can staff its ramp more
  efficiently, then it will require fewer employees
  to work the same number of flights.

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Rolling Employee System

• Also with greater efficiency, America West can
  expand its base of part-time employees.
• Using the theory behind a rolling hub operation,
  HP can do the same thing with employees.
• Employees constantly clocking in, employees
  constantly clocking out.

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Advantages Rolling Employee System

• Ensures that employees coming in are fresher due
  to reduced workload
• Provides greater scheduling flexibility.

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Costs

• Also with greater efficiency and using a rolling
  employee system, it is theorized that employees
  will be more likely to stay on, reducing the turn
  over rate.

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Current Disadvantages

• Union and Employees are currently very
  distrustful of any change to management or
  process status quo.
• So a great deal of communication and caution must
  be taken prior to the implementation of any of
  the above solutions.

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Questions?
HI !