Airport Ground Support Equipment Tracking System for Major
European Airline
The Challenge
Along side the request for a new ERP application for
maintenance operations, our major airline customer was
also keen to develop and implement a tracking system
across their equipment fleet to make their operations more
efficient. They wanted to able to analyse their fleet
efficiencies, receive maintenance data for their workshops,
control equipment usage and produce management
reports on operational metrics, equipment utilisation,
operators performance, accidents and fleet movements.
Most importantly they wanted to pinpoint the precise
position of any piece of equipment at any time to analyse
its current status i.e. idling or moving, driver, engine date
(engine hours) and be able to assign to a job or workshop if they found that the equipment was
dangerous to operate. The solution also had to be flexible on communications and as cost effective as
possible to run and manage.
The Solution
We developed a fully functional integrated Telematics solution by developing all the application
software and integrating it with 3rd party Telematics components and technologies. We produced a
Telematics device that could communicate with a web server and was deployed in each piece of
equipment in the field. This device houses a SIM card utilising GPRS data services from the Telco so
that data would be transmitted from each device periodically. This device also logged GPS
information and could track the precise location of the equipment; it could send updates on the
number of engine hours used on a daily basis and any other engine data needed by maintenance. It
was also integrated with a 3rd party access control device so that only authorised users were able to
drive or operate certain equipment groups - access control was
managed via swiping a Mi-fare airport ID badge on a reader on the
equipment – the badge was worn by everybody working airside.
This tracking solution provided our customer with multiple benefits as
both operations and maintenance personnel would be able to receive
updates from all their equipment everyday with no reliance on
operators or employees to do this manually. They could also see where
their equipment was operating via GPS and be able to reduce
redundancy where equipment was standing still and not being utilised.
The Benefits
- Equipment location and tracking – precise pinpointing of equipment at any time
- Engine data uploads - allowing maintenance to occur based on engine hours and not monthly
as previously - this represented 3 5% cost savings in maintenance costs per equipment
- Operational awareness – providing greater fleet efficiencies, cost savings, better equipment
utilisation, controlled access, usage metrics, fuel savings
- Reduced accidents by 80% saving millions of Euros in damages ever year
- Prolonged equipment life – on time maintenance and pre-empting breakdowns
- Controlled emissions by ensuring on time maintenance and regular checks
- Brought overall cost savings to ground handling operations 35 - 40% overall
- Tracking also used for equipment pooling and billing
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