CASE STUDY ON

SINGAPORE AND MALAYSIA AIRLINES EXPERT SYSTEMS

Management of Information Systems

Submitted byGroup 2

Questions Asked

Why do airlines need optimization systems for crew scheduling?

• To prevent the shortage of the company’s flight crew or understaffing. If there is one crew that fall sick, he or she needs to be replaced immediately.

•To save the airline companies’ time in terms of managing the crew rosters: There are many crews for the airline companies such as cockpit crews, cabin crew and so on. It will take time to do all these and if there is a problem occurs, it is difficult to resolve it immediately.

•Using the expert systems will increase the quality of the services because it will provide consistent advice and reduce error rates.

•For quick decision making, so that the airline companies do not have to worry how to find a solution for each uncertainties or difficulties occurred.

Questions Asked

What role can experts’ knowledge play in this case?

            • Experts that possess an expertise need to transfer their expertise to the computer: The users can call on the computer for specific advice as needed. The computer can make inferences and arrive at a conclusion. Then like a human expert, it advises

• The experts should implement and transfer their expertise and knowledge, so that the best solution or decision making can be made.

• The transfer of expertise from an expert to a computer and then to the user involves four activities, which is:

•knowledge acquisition (from experts or other sources)• knowledge representation (in the computer)•knowledge inferencing• knowledge transfer (to the user)

Questions Asked

What are the similarities between the systems in Singapore and Malaysia?

            . They also used quite similar systems to optimize flight crew utilization. The similarities between the systems in Singapore and Malaysia Airlines are:

• Both of the airlines used Web-based intelligent systems such as expert systems and neural computing to manage the company’s flight crew scheduling and handle disruptions to the crew rosters.

• The system that Singapore Airlines used was called the Integrated Crew Management System (ICMS)

•The Malaysia Airlines also used the system called ICMS. Its Crew Pairing Optimization (CPO) module ensures it compliance with airline regulations, trade union agreements and company policies in order to minimize the costs associated with crew accommodations and transportations and to efficiently plan and optimize staff . This system is similar to the Singapore Airlines’ system used.