Recovery from the COVID 19 crisis is one of the hot topics of discussion in the business establishment, where experts try to assess the recovery scenarios and predict the recovery with V, U, and L shaped curves. As there is uncertainty in understanding the changes in the customer behaviour and pattern of demand expected there is a puzzle to be solved of what capacity can be deployed for operations and what could be the next new normal. In this article, I would like to bring forward some of the challenges facing airline engineering and what business values can be contributed.
The airline has kept the fleet under parking/storage conditions. Engineers have a great responsibility of protecting this high-value machine. Returning back to service the aircraft to a flight-ready condition requires a lot of airworthiness activities to be performed. It requires all the elements in the maintenance ecosystem to work in synchronization with each other to have a seamless operation. Now due to the global disruption of the supply chain, there are challenges in the accomplishment of the task due to mobility issues, and these tasks cannot be done through a virtual model. Airline engineering needs to play two important roles in the recovery action. Firstly, the responsibility of keeping the aircraft safe for the guests by following appropriate disinfectant procedures. Secondly, keeping the Total Maintenance cost low as engineering cost is the second major cost next to fuel in airline operations.
Building Trust:
Airline engineering department has the objective of meeting the dispatch reliability goals, quick turnaround times, maintain OTP, and ensure optimum utilization of the fleet. However, in the current scenario, the most important concern for a guest will be to have a safe flight without getting infected. The engineering division needs to give special attention to the cabin cleanliness and ensure that all this cleaning activity is carried out with the highest quality. A genuine approach to this process can build trust among the guest and helps to bring back the lost demand. The first look of the cabin “feel-good factor” is what we need to focus on and let the customer be aware of the efforts being put on the cabin cleanliness. Having the guest informed about the quality of the cabin offered including the protection in the air circulation and the scientific facts (evidence-based) of why there are hardly any chances of getting infected inside a cabin will help to reduce the psychological fear of guests and this will help airlines accelerate the recovery. Gaining trust and confidence based on the customer experience will help in reaping the benefit of the customer value proposition and gain a competitive advantage.
Rethink the Processes:
Getting back to the pre-crisis volume (traffic levels) of supply and demand may take a while. As there seem to be issues pertaining to capacity deployment airline engineering needs to take this opportunity to rethink the way it operates and thus contributing towards better cost management and efficient processes.
From the Engineering process perspective, most of the processes in airline engineering can be categorized as a Non-value-added category (regulatory requirement). A review of the process needs to be done keeping in view of the well known “cowpath theory” and “status quo” thereafter through the growth and mature stage. If the right processes are not established at the earliest stage there is a risk in replication and inefficiency gets magnified multiple times when the organization gets mature. As such, there exists an opportunity to relook into the processes and we can rethink the way we accomplish it.
In the past 30 years, though there were major changes in regulation by way of harmonization with international standards, the fundamental structure of the organization still remains the same. The structure is broken down into independent silos or functional departments, and while working in silos each of the verticals works towards its own departmental goal and fails to get aligned towards the one big objective of why we exist in the business.
Today, having a customer-centric organization is imperative. As such, breaking down all the silos within the organization is necessary to rebuild a high performing and agile organization that delivers efficient and effective services as it represents the organization's capabilities. A radical approach and an innovation culture is required to rebuild a whole new system and sustain the goal. One way airlines can achieve this is by making all the staff understand the philosophy of what it means by customer-centric and proactively delivering the customer values and needs. Encouraging the staff to identify the area of improvement in each area of business processes, studying the problems, and addressing it through collective wisdom will yield results.
The improvement and the level of impact will be based on the technological adaptation and digital maturity of the firm. Documenting the process will help the organization to measure what it does to meet the objectives and the resources needed to deliver the deliverables to its expected standard. Staff must be made part of the implementation to make them feel valuable in the system and link to a reward mechanism. Post-implementation a framework of knowledge management is essential to keep the organizational knowledge relevant and stay competitive. Risk management is another area that needs to be integrated with the DNA of airline processes to stay resilient and be self -sustained.
In my opinion we need to approach it as if we start new and gain momentum as it matures and evolves even stronger.
This article was originally published on my LinkedIn page.
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