A Case Study in Cargo Conversion Flows Using a Collaborative Project Management Tool

Owing to the complicated cargo conversion processes, it is hard for project managers to design and manage the conversion projects. The most critical characteristics of cargo conversion process management are as follows: A conversion process consists of hundreds of tasks and execution of these tasks is controlled via job cards and regulations. If any procedure violates the regulations, inestimable cost will be induced. A platform is required to seamlessly link the project management and execution tasks for more efficient operation and schedule control. Expected or unexpected process exceptions occur frequently. Cost analysis and pre-defined rescue process of each task are needed. There is no centralized knowledge management platform to share document. Therefore, an integration platform is required to coordinate the engineers (e.g., job card creation and management, steady-state process control and dynamic process control) and deal with unexpected emergency. This paper utilizes a project management platform (namely DesignJet) to support cargo conversion project management. DesignJet can be applied specifically for dynamic conversion process management. Many entities in a conversion project such as designers, design documents and drawing, engineers, project managers, costs and processes can be managed over the DesignJet platform. The key contribution of this research is to demonstrate a PM solutions for project managers and engineers in the aviation industry to effectively manage the cargo conversion projects. Keyword: Project Management, Collaborative Engineering, Workflow System, Knowledge