7.1.5 Support the user’s current way of working
Take into account that the Operations Monitor will fundamentally change how the user
works. Consequently, the incorporation of the Operations Monitor might make the user
feel as if he or she is being replaced by an automated system. To counteract this, allow
the crew controller to decide to what degree he or she wants to use the Operations
Monitor, and provide support for the way they work today. It is important that the
Operations Monitor truly supports the essential part of the system, namely the crew
controllers themselves. This can be done by providing them to use it as:
a. A monitoring source.
Provide the crew controller with a view of alerts, so that he or she can
monitor the current status of operations, and react to problems. If he wishes
to handle an alert, let the user assign himself or herself to it. This lets the
user, and other controllers, know that he or she is handling the alert. Also,
provide the function of being able to create a disruption from the alert, so
that the user may send it to the Disruption Manager.
A shortcut to the Disruption Manager should be available in the
Operations Monitor, so that the user may quickly open it. It should be
apparent also, if a disruption has been sent to the user from another
controller, for evaluation. This can be done by, for example, placing incoming
disruptions as graphical objects in the container where the alerts are located.
In this case, the Disruption Manager messages should be distinguishable
from the alerts. Another alternative would be to have a status bar for the
Disruption Manager, showing information on incoming and outgoing
disruptions.
b. An information source.
Let the user use the Operations Monitor for information retrieval, and
determine whether or not he wants to solve the issue in his or her old way, or
with the Descartes system. Provide the crew controllers with the means of
looking up detailed information on:
§ Crewmember schedules and their personal information, e.g.
name, telephone number, address, crew id, etc.
§ Aircraft schedules.
§ Weather predictions.
§ Current standby status. Total number of standbys and their
current status, e.g. at home, at base etc.
§ Check-in status of the crewmembers.
This information should naturally be derived from the airline’s own
databases, and updated in real-time, so that the user is always presented with
up-to-date and current data.
Another basic, but very important piece of information is the current time.
This should be shown in GMT (Greenwich Main Time), as the operations
control always works according to this time zone.
A search function should be available, letting the user search for information
in the database. There should be a possibility of searching for everything that
is currently in the database.
c. A scenario tool.
Provide a scenario function that lets the user manually create a new, or
modify a by Descartes created, solution. This can be done by graphically
presenting, e.g. with a Gantt view, the crewmembers schedules and making
them alterable.
Crew controllers often depend on the communication with other crew controllers and
other resource areas, and including a complement to this oral communication, a message
system allowing the controllers to communicate via the Operations Monitor through the
use of message, would be beneficial. There should be some indication if new messages
have been received.
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