Crew Rostering

[Roger]

Does anyone have any details on crew rostering software.

[nugpot]

Does anyone have any details on crew rostering software.

Yes. It is expensive and doesn't always work as planned.

During 2007 our shortlist ended up as AIMS (probably the best but very expensive), Pegasys (Fujitsu-Siemens) (used by SAA and quite good for SA situation) and KEOPS (from IFR, an EADS company - not very good, but what SAX bought due to other compatibility reasons).

We looked at various other options, none of which seemed to do the job correctly. These days there are several new entrants and even the big names (Boeing, Jeppesen, SITA) all have scheduling software suites. The effectiveness of all these software suites depend on the complexity of your pools and schedule and whether you have enough crew. There is no software on earth which can roster a schedule which is short of crew. Most of these suites work very well if you have a bit of fat in the system for leave, training and sick leave, and don't work at all if you are short.

[nrm]

I once developed a spreadheet to handle this.

Of course it was manually done but it worked a treat.

I had 4 different lines which ensured that each line (person) had the required legal days off and only worked no more than the max allowed. Then one could enter any other requirements for time off such as medical, training, renewals etc. These lines were set up in such a way as to avoid more than one person in that group being off simultaneously.

Once that was done, the empty blocks meant available to work.

It also ensured that each person had one full weekend off once every 4 weeks.

There were times, load requirements based, that people got more time off than minima, but that was simply the way things worked out.

So the 4 lines were repeated until there were enough to cover each Captain, first officer and cabin crew.

Flight numbers were then allocated where available slots were, taking into account things like local nights.

It was quite a lot of work setting it up, but once done, I had it for two weeks in advance as a minimum. That way each day I only had to do another days rostering to maintain. One could do it as far in advance as you liked. Great for scheduling things like annual leave.

Unexpected problems like people calling in sick were easily handled, as the standby crews were also on the sheet, so the despatchers knew who was on standby, and who the second level standby crew were. Particularly appropriate over weekends.

Another benefit was that out of every 8 crew it never allowed more than 2 to be off simultaneously, in each grid (Captain, First Officer, Senior Cabin and Cabin attendant.

There is obviously a practical limit to using something like this, based on the number of crew/flights per day, but it certainly worked well in the environment where I used it.

It could be programmed as the rules are very specific. It will not work if you have insufficient crew, so ideally you will have slightly more crew than you need to obviate this. If you have exactly the right number of crew you will have difficulty if someone is off sick.

[nolimits]

I worked for a company a few years ago called "Airline Control Systems" - they have a system that takes most (if not all) parameters into account like leave, training, character conflicts, seniority, office allocation days, percentage flying allocations, types, renewals, legal issues (FDP, etc), etc, etc.
designed and Developed by a Snr COM pilot.
their details are on their website ( http://www.airlinecs.com)

[nugpot]

Skybound, it might be worthwhile to know what the size of the fleet/pilot pool is. Proper airline scheduling/rostering software is a multi-million rand deal and is normally tied into operational control software so that duty and flight hour tracking for crew can be integrated. It is no use rostering a pilot who is illegal due to 7 day/30 day/365 day limits.

[Shenoi]

It is a way of ensuring employees give the right amount of notice with regard to planning holidays and vacations. There are lot of rostering systems are available, so as a starting point identify the best on, You can do a quick social media search.

I’ve actually been wondering about the time scheduling part for my employees. Traditional methods are good but this technology is new and easy to use. We are using rostering software from Replicon.

[Roger]

Thanks for the replies. It was for two of my distant colleagues in the UK - so not sure of details on size etc.

[Scrapyard Dog]

At Comair we have Sabre, which seems to work alright, it has some very clever features like being able to bid for flights only in the mornings/afternoons, request flight, combine that request with another crew member, day off requests and time off requests (4 hr period you can request off for a dentist visit for example)

The problem with ANY rostering software is that if you put BS in, guess what you get out...