Q-PULSE CASE STUDY Brussels Airlines travels to operational excellence with Q-Pulse Operating in the heavily regulated aviation industry, Brussels Airlines was required to modernise its safety management system following the introduction of stricter regulations from bodies such as the European Aviation Safety Authority (EASA), as well as updated recommendations from the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Brussels Airlines’ internal safety and quality departments were also amalgamating and therefore a single product was required which would provide integrated safety and quality management, risk management capability and in depth riskbased performance monitoring. The Q-Pulse solution will provide us with much better efficiency in investigating our safety issues. Adriaan Charlet, Safety Service Manager, Brussels Airlines Adriaan Charlet, Safety Service Manager for Brussels Airlines, said: “The reasons for moving to a new system was that effectively our former legacy system was old and tired and due to new, stricter regulations and our own restructuring of our safety department we needed an enterprise solution and entire suite of products for reporting, investigations, compliance monitoring, risk assessments and performance monitoring. “Over the last couple of years aviation regulation has been increased and improved. Nowadays it is important that we strictly comply with EASA regulations and ICAO recommendations which was another focus in sourcing an enterprise capable product.” How is Brussels Airlines travelling to operational excellence? BENEFITS • Improved safety & quality of operations, including proactive risk management with in depth performance indicators • Additional risk assessment capability & data for transportation of specific cargo, allowing Brussels Airlines to pinpoint specific areas for attention • All operational & safety data surfaced quickly providing data on positive & negative business performance • Cockpit and cabin crew can file reports on the move via reporting portal & tablet – including external Ground Handlers Brussels Airlines chose Ideagen’s software Q-Pulse QMS. The solution provided Brussels Airlines and Adriaan with an integrated suite, improving overall safety and quality of their operations and allowing them to proactively manage risk with in depth performance indicators. Adriaan added: “Q-Pulse QMS provides us with much better efficiency in investigating our safety issues. It doesn’t just provide safety related efficiencies, we are also provided with operational reporting benefits with all our operational departments benefiting from the system. It is one single system used throughout the entire company using the reporting and investigations but also the compliance monitoring and the corrective actions. The great advantage of this is that the corrective actions can be treated in the very same way as the findings and recommendations based on safety reports and investigations.” The risk management module – for instance for the transportation of specific cargo which requires additional risk assessments – and performance monitoring capability was also hugely important for the airline, which includes about 900 Q-PULSE CASE STUDY We can capture safety issues more easily and work more proactively as we can detect hazards in advance, which was something we previously could not do. Q-Pulse will improve safety immensely at Brussels Airlines. Adriaan Charlet, Safety Service Manager, Brussels Airlines staff in its headquarters, 1300 cabin crew, 600 cockpit crew as well as 1000 staff based all over Europe and Africa. Adriaan added: “The risk management capability is a very important part of our overall solution – not only because we can focus on the safety issues – but also enhance our operational risk assessments. For example, nowadays we are able to carry specific cargo that requires to be handled with care thanks to our risk assessments. Through these assessments we can pinpoint areas that need to be tackled allowing our operations to benefit from extra cargo that can now be transported. “Performance monitoring capability is very important for Brussels Airlines as it is the link between safety and efficiency. In the past we needed to gather this information ourselves manually from a variety of different databases. However now, thanks to the Performance Monitoring capability, we are able to view all of that data in one blink of an eye in one central portal. We don’t need to search or look for this ourselves, the system does this for us and tells us what areas require extra attention or is performing well.” Currently Brussels Airlines have around 3500 staff members that can report in to the system including cabin crew, cockpit crew, ground staff and technicians in its maintenance and engineering department. The airline has now rolled the solution out into all operational departments which means flight crew – cockpit crew and cabin crew – are now able to file reports using the reporting portal and also the reporting application on their personal iPad. Adriaan added: “We also have the maintenance and engineering department who are using the reporting tool the same way – the Web Reporting Portal – as well as the ground staff and the entire ground operations of Brussels Airlines. This is not only limited to Brussels Airlines staff though as, for example, within Ground Ops we also allow external parties such as ground handlers and suppliers to report any safety issues they find into our Web Reporting tool of Q-Pulse.” Dirk Adriaenssens, Safety and Compliance Monitoring Manager, said: “The solution provides full integration of all safety issues for all departments and also is able to integrate with existing interfaces for a complete safety product. Each department can individually work with the system online and offline and that provides us with higher efficiencies. We now don’t have to duplicate a lot of our tasks and data as we have one database where everyone can work. “We can capture safety issues more easily and work more proactively as we can detect hazards in advance, which was something that was hard to do in the past. Q-Pulse QMS will improve safety even more at Brussels Airlines.” About Brussels Airlines Brussels Airlines, a member of Lufthansa Group and a Star Alliance member, is a Belgian airline offering the widest choice of flights to and from the capital of Europe, Brussels Airport. The company has more than 3,500 employees and 49 aircraft operating some 300 flights daily, connecting the Capital of Europe to over 90 European and African destinations, as well as two destinations in the USA (New York JFK and Washington D.C.). Are you on the correct flight path to operational excellence? Contact us today, info@ideagen.com Ideagen | e: info@ideagen.com | w: ideagen.com Q-Pulse is a registered trademark of Ideagen Products Ltd. Copyright © 2020 Ideagen plc.
