18th August 2017
Earlier this week we posted an article discussing the readiness of airports to move away from using outdated modeling methods in Excel to going cloud-based. This week yet another Trial of Better Security solution has been completed in a large European airport. Copenhagen Optimization has been on the floor, working side by side with the central security personnel and in doing so, we have been reminded of the apparent need to have simple, optimized and efficient plans available on mobile devices.
Kasper Hounsgaard, the Managing Partner at Copenhagen Optimization, explains why Better Security differentiates itself from other planning methods – it’s actually quite straight forward “when plans become difficult to follow and challenging to understand, they simply don’t work.” We have seen this issue eliminated in Dublin Airport Authority, Geneva Airport and many more. The primary objective of the deployment of Better Security cloud-based solution is the creation of plans, which are trusted and followed daily by the dispatchers of the security operator.
Benefits of doing airport security planning in Better Security:
Lower Wait Times and Higher Efficiency Per Employee:
Better Security delivers an optimized balance between demand for and supply of staff. By optimizing Lane Opening Plans, and by configuring Staff Demand Plans to actual supply of staff, the users can achieve a higher efficiency per employee, with lower waiting times. Periods with too many staff lead to wasted resources, whereas periods with too few employees result in longer wait times.
Real-Time Mobile Tool
Better Security’s inclusion of real-time inputs, coupled with the cloud-based tool being readily available at the checkpoint on tablets or smartphones, allows checkpoint supervisors the ability to track changes in staffing and lane demand in real-time and react based on something more than a visual inspection of the lines. As flight arrival times change – updated through Better Forecast – so does the staffing and lane opening plan, thereby allowing checkpoint supervisors to staff up and open new lanes before lines start to build (at which point it is often too late). As opposed to the static plans that are typically printed before shifts and used as rough guidelines, Better Security provides a continuously updated plan that checkpoint supervisors can trust.
Easy-To-Follow
We have invested significant resources in the design and the user experience (UX) to make it incredibly easy for screening officers, supervisors, schedulers, and senior-level staff to understand and use.” Says Kasper Hounsgaard, Managing Partner at Copenhagen Optimization. He continues “This helps personnel who are new to scheduling or management, or who may be outside the organization and interested in monitoring planning activities (e.g., airlines or airports), and eliminates the argument that we often hear from the staff on the ground; “the plan was too difficult to follow or understand.”
Ready for HBS machine staffing:
Apart from passenger screening, Better Security could also be extended to cover the staffing of HBS machines in airports if required. In cases where security staff covers both HBS machines and passenger screening points from the same staff pool, the HBS machine demand and corresponding staffing should be included for completeness.
