Perfect storms, the confluence of several events or low probability large adverse events, uncovers weakness in Mgmt's operational strategies. Southwest just got shown theirs, outdated crew management and scheduling software, where the cancellations and crew member locations have to be updated manually. Works fine in a normal, blue sky day, where cancellations are few and data entry manageable. . when a very large winter storm hits and shuts down a very large proportion of the system, their old software system got overwhelmed by events. mgmt must be blamed for software maintenance / upgrade processes inadequate
Its not that crew members got out of place, as they stayed with their planes, its that the manpower plane scheduling system's automation had them out of place, and that must be tracked for FAA regulatory requirements, and the manual update got overwhelmed with manual telephone system updates. . .
My last company replaced the faxed in time sheets from field employees about 8+ years ago so that it was electronically entered. Its called going digital where digital feeds and real time data is integrated into manpower scheduling software
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