In February 2012 the second largest airline at London Heathrow, bmi, signed a contract with INFORM for the implementation of GroundStar planning and rostering, and the introduction of GroundStar RealTime.
Operational bases at five UK airports will implement GroundStar net demand and roster planning. The system will handle roster, planning and administration, vacation management, and over-time and shift pay for about 600 customer and gate services staff. It will also include a web roster functionality that allows staff to enter their shift information and request shift swaps on-line. The process to replace the former demand and shift planning system has already started.
"A crucial factor for our decision to sign up with INFORM was it proved, during the comprehensive analysis stage, to be the most efficient solution meeting our requirements, with excellent client references and major airline portfolio. The system will give us a flexible and scalable architecture, which provides us with industry standard technology, which in turn will lead to greater planning and rostering efficiencies, and cost and service benefits.
The new system also allows real-time allocation, to be able to deliver additional savings through allocation efficiencies whilst ensuring the resource management system is still able to address the most critical process areas and systems requirements." says Renu Kanda, project manager at bmi.
INFORM specialises in intelligent planning and logistics decision-making software, based on mathematical optimisation algorithms.
INFORM’s flagship product, GroundStar, used by over 60 organisations in more than 150 airports worldwide, provides tools for the improvement of processes, planning and real-time deployment of mobile and stationary resources, monitoring of the entire turnaround, including the management of passenger and baggage misconnections, and production of business intelligence to guarantee maximum adherence and minimum cost to flight schedules.