“If you always do what you always did, you’ll always get what you always got” - Henry Ford
In other words, when you are looking for a different outcome, think about what difference you can do by endorsing change. Often we think about the details, we look at the activity we are involved with and try to find a better way of being more efficient. An efficient business process can be achieved by an organization by endorsing change.
Business Process is an important yardstick for not only assessing company’s growth but also to set a right trajectory for the work flow in the organization.
One key concept that aids an effective business process is “Straight-Through Processing (STP)”. STP is an initiative used by companies to optimize and improve the speed at which transactions are processed. This is achieved by automating the process of information exchange electronically without having to manually re-enter the same piece of information repeatedly over time.
One of the industries where STP is used is in the financial systems of an organization where payment, contract or settlements have to be made on a fast track mode. STP enables the entire trade process for capital market and payment transactions to be conducted electronically without the need for re-keying or manual intervention, subject to legal and regulatory restrictions. The concept has also been transferred into other sectors including energy (oil, gas) trading and banking, financial planning and Transportation.
Aviation Sector has always been unique in following a standard process, but automation and accuracy being the need of the hour, more and more Airlines and MROs are adapting processes like STP for enhanced workforce and enterprise efficiency. In addition to compliance with the standard aviation practices, MRO IT functionalities today are also expected to follow STP.
An example of STP in Aviation is parts repair processing. A repair order process for an aircraft part involves the following steps:
- Part Removal from Aircraft
- Returning of Part to Respective Warehouse
- Routing the Part for repair
- Selection of Repair Agency
- Informing stores to arrange the part
- Stores informing shipping dept. to collect the part
- Preparing shipping document and shipping the part to repair agency
These steps usually involve many role changes, lot of document movements & more number of transactions. Ramco Aviation suite adopts Straight-Through Processing (STP) to optimize and improve the speed at which transactions are processed. Ramco Aviation widely caters to Airline, Heli Operator, MRO and Business Aviation segments.
With the help of STP incorporation into Repair order process, the following steps will be automated:
- Confirmation of parts return to respective warehouse
- Routing the Part for repair
- Selection of Repair Agency
- Informing stores to arrange the part.
- Stores informing shipping dept. to collect the part
In other words, STP looks at various parameters such as the previous document data, master entity attributes, STP configuration rules, related document states/data and then intelligently automates the documentation process.
Benefits of STP
- It's a process leaning concept where all the various elements of a process (events, steps, actors, documents, elapsed times) are critically evaluated with a view to seek and eliminate waste.
- The approach is to focus on the physical events, steps & direct actors and seek possibilities of automating indirect steps/documents (and in the process eliminate indirect actors).
- The real efficiency of STP stems from getting the event handshake between direct actors alongside eliminating wait times in the process. It also helps to free indirect actors to focus on more high impact activities (such as negotiating with suppliers for a better price based on quantified data etc.) and manages routine activities through exceptions - management by exception.
- STP still recognizes the need for document traceability from an enterprise integration perspective; consequently, the focus is not on document/step elimination, rather, it is about automation.
Typically, products and practitioners make the mistake of focusing on user interface layer for usability. In enterprise products space, real usability gains can be made by focusing on process simplicity. STP promotes usability by ensuring that the actor to system contact is kept to the barest minimum and managed in the most efficient manner; this in turn helps customers achieve higher accuracy, faster turnaround time across departments. Other important examples include processes like Aircraft Induction, Part Setup and Aircraft / Component Maintenance.
