Crew Planning Optimization Mastering the planning objectives Demo: Carmen Crew Pairing Demo: Carmen Crew Rostering Summary

Optimization

Optimization Optimization Better optimization means more room for increased stability and more business opportunities. Predictability Flexibility Holistic view Best of breed optimization always pays off Predictability (Target Mastery). Know what you get. Flexibility (Change Power). You can always change your mind and change the targets or refine your process. Avoid sub-optimization (Power Integration).

Products concepts Optimization Stability Process changes Flexibility Control Speed Satisfied crew Target Mastery Change Power Power Integration Savings Simulation capability Good forecasting Optimization shall give you all this. We have divided all these properties in three groups… No sub-optimization

Target Mastery Optimization Control and predictability of results Know what you get Create scenarios Create low cost solutions Create stable solutions Investigate trade-offs Each additional percentage saved is a substantial amount of money. Example on trade offs: 1) Roster quality vs. stability 2) Cost vs. service level (e.g. language qualification 3) Aircraft stability vs. crew efficiency The scenarios can of course be used to pick out the best scenario out of many approaches with slightly different focus (more or less focus on preferences, fairness, service level, etc). But they can also be used as a backup plan, that can be utilised if something happens. Stability: Relevant buffers, production easy to move between pairings, coordinate crew and fleet, efficient standby patterns, try to plan for standby aircrafts, etc.

Change Power Optimization The ability to quickly implement new business rules and processes You can always change your mind New agreements, new bases, revised timetables, etc Decrease the lead-time of change (of both solution properties and the process itself) Consistent legality, quality and cost constraints in all systems Of course the overall objective remains quite the same (e.g. transporting passengers in a reliable but cost efficient way), but the detailed properties of the perfect planning changes all the time. New agreements are negotiated, new bases opened, maintenance sites closed, seat configurations changed, new fleet, training rules changes, timetables revised, etc Potential process change: Less published details on the roster content. Increased/ decreased frequency of publication. Man flights according to passenger prognosis. Etc, etc. It is very important that a new process can be tried and evaluated easily. All systems in the operation shall have consistent views on what is expensive, legal good/ bad quality, etc. Otherwise each process step will be contra-productive.

Power Integration Optimization Simultaneous optimization and integration of different resources Don’t sub-optimize Always use best of breed applications Always regard all necessary resources Always have access to relevant data There are two way toward integration. One is to integrate all processes in one big system covering everything. Another is to open up the systems so that data from other systems easily can be accessed for more detailed calculations. Carmen is doing both. For our core products (crew, fleet and yield) we are integrating the different sub-systems more and more. But this is happening gradually, and our customers shouldn’t have to wait for that. And it is anyway very hard to take such a big complete system in production in one step. Therefore we have introduced the concept with Carmen Connect that makes it possible to connect any system to the Carmen products without a lot of messy special development. This gives you the possibility to always use best of breed applications. We hope, of course, that these applications shall be Carmen’s product where we have matching products. But you shouldn’t buy a Carmen product because you already bought another one of our products, you shall buy it because it is the best available product to connect to your other systems.

Optimization: Set partitioning Select the a number of pairings, such that all legs are covered and the total cost is minimised. This is a very hard optimization problem. Rosters or crew pairings min C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 leg 1 1 1 0 1 0 = 1 leg 2 1 1 0 0 0 = 1 leg 3 0 0 1 0 1 = 1 leg 4 0 1 1 1 0 = 1 leg 5 1 0 1 1 1 = 1 min cx Ax=b Flight or pairing

Optimization 130 112 98 340 115 110 107 332 128 112 92 58 390 128 110 94 82 414 128 112 95 84 419 120 75 101 89 65 450 ??? Optimize The Optimization methods allows a global approach where the total cost/quality is important. (Individual extreme cases can of course still be avoided.)

Carmen Rave Optimization The same legality tool in all products Short lead-times to introduce new rules Very important when performing simulations Clients estimate that Rave gives more than 2% additional savings RULE max_duty = %duty% <= 10:00; REMARK “Maximal duty”; END

Optimization Lufthansa Air France Core product British Airways Legality Quality Costs Reports Interfaces Colours etc... Air France Core product Deutsche Bahn British Airways Optimization methods GUI Modelling tools like Rave and the report generator Basic functionality

Optimization Benefits Reduce costs Increase stability Easy to change business rules and processes Control planning trade-off effects (e.g. cost, stability, crew influence) Detailed simulations to support informed decisions

Mastering the planning objectives

Carmen Integrated Operations Control Product Overview Carmen Integrated Operations Control Carmen Passenger Tracking Carmen Fleet Assignment Carmen Tail Assignment Carmen Aircraft Tracking Anonymous fleet assignment Aircraft Routings Carmen Crew Pairing Carmen Crew Rostering Carmen Roster Maintenance Carmen Crew Tracking Anonymous pairings Rosters Carmen Time Table Manager Carmen Rave (Global Modelling Language) Carmen Crew Communicator

The Planning Objectives Improved utilization of resources Increased operational stability Measurability and control Increased service level to the end consumer (passenger, cargo)

Improved utilization of resources Planning Objectives Improved utilization of resources Reduce crew size Reduce crew costs (e.g. hotel, per diem, positioning, etc) Allow crew to influence their rosters

Increased operational stability Planning Objectives Increased operational stability Start planning later Plan crew to minimise delays (e.g. crew synchronisation, buffers) Synchronise crew and fleet (minimize critical aircraft changes)

Measurability and control Planning Objectives Measurability and control Simulate effects from changes (new union agreements, changed crew base structure, fleet restructuring, etc) Cost control of the entire process Reduce complexity in planning process (e.g. remove lose-lose rules, put crew in control over quality aspects) Increase predictability in result (by making quality, cost and stability aspects independent of individual interpretations)

Integration and Simulation Integration within planning Simulations to support long-term decisions Simulations as a part of the planning process Simulations to explain results

Integration within crew planning Integration and Simulation Integration within crew planning Regard roster pre-assignments when creating pairings Allow pairings to be moved between bases in rostering Create preliminary pairings and rosters to find future bottlenecks Connect the planning more with the post-planning processes Evaluate pairings and rosters returned from day of operations

Simulations to support long-term decisions Integration and Simulation Simulations to support long-term decisions The potential in renegotiating the crew agreements The consequence of detailed changes The consequence of changing the base distribution The consequence of a new flight schedule, network or a new fleet structure The consequence of changing the payment structure

Simulations as part of the planning process Integration and Simulation Simulations as part of the planning process Always produce plans for Real plans Lowest possible cost Industrial rules benchmarking Crew requests status report Easier to perform relevant reporting to upper management Increase the cost awareness in the planning department Promotes planners to explore the new technology

Published Key Figures Integration and Simulation Cost Max PBS No quality and no PBS Industrial regulations JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB 2001 2002

Explaining results Integration and Simulation “How can the planning be efficient when I have two blank days, and three deadheads in my roster this month?" “The meaning with any change is to trick us into working more!“ “Why are we having less block time per crew than airline X?“

Carmen Crew Rostering Minimizing crew costs and achieving stability

Carmen Crew Pairing – Short Demo Create a solution (both seasonal and dated) Create many scenarios Analyse the result Manual operations Always legality control Apply seasonal planning to a new time period Change legality

Carmen Crew Pairing – Start the optimizer Open flights Select flights and start an optimization session in the background . . . . . .

Carmen Crew Pairing – Start the optimizer Total solution cost for each improved solution It is always possible to monitor the optimization sessions, and to analyze available sub solutions . . . . . .

Carmen Crew Pairing – Monitor the solutions Key figures are always available both from the monitoring system and from the pairing editor

Carmen Crew Pairing – Rolling-out Dated pairings Some pairings contains cancelled flights Roll out weekly pairing solution Additional open flights It is possible to apply an already available standard pairing to a new period. And some pairings becomes illegal

Carmen Crew Pairing – Repair solution The system can repair a a standard solution applied on a new period

Carmen Crew Pairing – Directly to dated It is also possible to perform dated planning directly from open flights

Carmen Crew Pairing – Legality control Illegal pairing Generic control panel for legality, quality and cost The system makes sure that no illegal pairings are created by the optimization or in the pairing editor

Adding a rule with Carmen Rave Carmen Crew Pairing – Changing legality Adding a rule with Carmen Rave RULE max_duty = %duty% <= 10:00; REMARK “Maximal duty”; END

Carmen Crew Pairing – Changing legality The system immediately respects the new rule Generic control panel for legality, quality and cost A Rave programmer creates the rule Adding a new legality rule to the system

Carmen Crew Rostering Lowering crew costs and high quality of life

Carmen Crew Rostering – Short Demo Manual editing of rosters Look for resource bottlenecks Create a solution Analysis reports Changing legality Create scenarios Improve an already existing solution

Carmen Crew Rostering Pre-planned time off Production from previous planning period Time-off request Ground duty Previous planning periods Open production (pairings and standby blocks) Select crew members and open production (e.g. crew pairings and standby blocks)

Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction It is always possible to edit details in a solution, at any stage.

Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction Assigning internal meetings to administrative pilots.

Carmen Crew Rostering – Manual interaction Copying parts of a roster.

Crew Rostering – Analyse the problem Forecast report Critical resource situation Run production forecast report.

Crew Rostering – Start the optimizer Cover production Stability Requests Fairness Set trade-off settings and start optimizer

Controlling Trade-off effects Crew Rostering – Trade-offs Controlling Trade-off effects Productivity (few crew members, low hotel and allowance cost, etc) Stability (rest buffers on strategic duty, efficient stand-by patterns, etc) Fairness (fair distribution of free weekends, attractive layovers, etc) Individual preferences / crew requests (late check in, short pairings, specific time off, etc) Service level, long-term stability, high revenue flights, etc

Carmen Crew Rostering – Monitor the solutions Comparing quality of long-term duty distribution, preferences and fairness Total solution cost for each improved solution It is always possible to monitor each scenario while it is being further improved. All open production covered

Carmen Crew Rostering – Monitor the solutions Any reports can be created with Rave Publisher. (The example shows a roster overview and crew requests.)

Carmen Crew Rostering – Improving or scenarios It is always possible to improve a scenario even further, e.g. by changing some parameters.

Carmen Crew Rostering – Improving or scenarios It is always possible to improve a scenario even further, e.g. by changing some parameters.

Summary More efficient crew planning Easy to change objectives and processes Cost and stability control Simulations and scenarios Crew requests

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