Sigh, you're right to point out the complexity Andrew, and I know
that there are many perspectives from which it seems the only option
is to say "we're stuffed, let's just wait until it all comes back".
I was thinking how much better it would have been, for everyone, had
the CEO concentrated in public on apologising to customers, thanking
staff for their efforts and sacrifices and being able to report that
the airline was operating, albeit at much reduced effectiveness, by
following plans prepared in the past by a foresightful management.
Distributing blame should have been kept entirely behind closed
doors. He looked weak blowing off in public that way.
Ah, maybe he actually believed that old saying "No one ever got fired
for buying IBM" and now he's beginning to wonder... :-)
Take care,
Graeme
At 08:44 PM 13/10/2009, you wrote:
Graeme Gibson wrote:
Well, I agree completely with PS. I felt that there was just a
hint of "look the other way while I cover my arse" in the tone of
the complaint by the Air NZ chief. Somewhere in there he knows
that ultimately he, and his board, are responsible for keeping
their airline running.. and pointing the finger and blustering;
"Well, the single-point-of-failure (IBM) we signed off on just
<snips>
..and then Andrew Rowley wrote:
To be fair to Air NZ, it's a bit more complicated than that.
Computerization is one of the things that makes airlines seem like a
glorified bus service. For example, before you fly you need to know:
- who is on the flight
- who has luggage on the aircraft, and cross reference that with the
passengers
<snips>
- how much the loaded aircraft weighs
Simple enough when the computer does it, but it becomes time
consuming if you have to do it manually.
I'm sure they have manual procedures, but they have an additional
problem - if they wait until the computer comes back, they can
resume using the computer immediately. Once they switch to manual
processing the computer information becomes out of date, and they
probably have to continue manual processing even after the system is
available. It might be more difficult to go back to automated
processing than it was to go manual in the first place. So the
switch to manual would be a costly decision in itself, and you
wouldn't do it if you were expecting the system to be back soon.
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