Dragon Airlines Electronic Procurement System

TRAVEL AND TRANSPORTATION

Background

Dragonair serves 30 passenger destinations across Asia and its cargo service extends to cities in Europe, the Middle East, Japan, Southeast Asia and mainland China. The airline decided to upgrade and standardise its procurement and operation process to manage the growing number of procurement transactions generated as its business grows. To manage purchasing, it had been using a self-developed system with no standardised workflow or approval procedures and without connection to the inventory-control system. Much paperwork was generated because many of the purchasing procedures were done manually. Dragonair was looking for an end-to-end system that would enhance operational efficiency by automating the airline's procurement and inventory processes.

Challenges

Encouraging staff who had previously worked manually to shift to automatic devices was a big challenge. PCCW Solutions spent two weeks training nearly 20 warehouse and purchasing team leaders to operate the new system and new devices, such as barcode printers and wireless hand-held readers. We acted as a consultant in support of the team leaders who in turn trained their team members. During and after the training, users were impressed by the solution's efficiency in managing work processes and the easy-to-use interfaces. The barrier in adapting to the new way of working was removed. This critically contributed to the successful implementation of our solution.

Solutions

PCCW Solutions integrated Oracle's e-Procurement product suite with PowerLogistics' self-developed eLogistics Management System (eLMS) warehouse management module to form an end-to-end electronic procurement system. We streamlined the purchasing process with a multi-tier authorisation control and a proper approval procedure. The categorisation and item coding of more than a thousand merchandize items was defined for the implementation of barcode reading. Stock in and out records are now automatically input into the system once the items are read by the hand-held devices. Automatic alerts are then sent to the other end of the system as a signal of release of payment. The open infrastructure of the system allows for future development with business expansion.

Value created

The solution is providing a collaborative commerce network connecting users and suppliers of Hong Kong Dragon Airlines Limited, which enables an end-to-end automation and streamlining of the procurement process. Besides the obvious benefit of gain in productivity, efficiency and flexibility, the solution can help realise tangible savings through information transparency, enforcement of company compliance, as well as strategic supplier management.

With its long, practical experience in PCCW's internal deployment of the e-procurement solution, PCCW Solutions proves its ability in procurement workflow consultation and system implementation. The solution for Dragonair has run smoothly and efficiently since its installation.