Cloud Computing And Database Management Systems

Cloud Computing and Database Management Systems

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Cloud Computing and Database Management Systems

Abstract

Any kind of modern business use some sort of Management Information System to handle large amounts of data effectively and the aviation industry is no exception. The two Management Information Systems selected for this paper are Asset Management System and Vertical Transportation Monitoring System.

Asset Management System

A software application that is employed by the aviation industry to schedule and efficiently manage assets and resources of the airport is called the asset management system (Kim & Park, 2016). We all know the dynamic nature of the airport that is in continuous interaction with forces that are internal and external. To cope with these internal and external forces, the aviation industry needs meticulous management of the resources and the assets of the airport all year long. This meticulous management is performed through the employment of various management information systems that enable airport managers to keep a track of the assets and resources of the airport. This kind of management information system provides tool than empowers airport managers to keep an eye on the resources and assets from the life-cycle point of view (Kim & Park, 2016). Life-cycle management of resources is imperative in achieving a high degree of operational efficiency. Keeping resources in check gives cost visibility, an important perspective often ignored in operational budgeting (Kim & Park, 2016).

As the assets and resources of the airport are of diverse nature and serve a different role in airports, Asset Management System assists airport managers to produce an asset management scheme explaining the long-term approach for consuming the resources in the best way possible. Additionally, an asset management system gives an insight into the life-cycle value of the asset.

Additionally, an asset management system helps to track labor-intensive jobs by scheduling, documenting and reporting them. Airport managers can then manage the airport staff, assign jobs to authorized persons for maintenance activities. In case the job has been assigned to a third party contractor, the asset management system enables airport management teams to keep a check on the activities of the contractor and cost incurred so far.

There are multiple asset management systems available in the market that assists airport management teams. Of all the famous asset management system, IBM’s Maximo Asset Management system is mostly used in the aviation industry.

Maximo Asset Management System

The Maximo asset management system allows an authorized individual to access the systems and choose any operational function of the airport (Al-Fedaghi & Al-Huwais, 2018). The authorized individual can choose any of the following areas such as capital planning, asset life-cycle management or project management. Once any operational function has been selected, the authorized individual can update an asset, initiate the planning process for any new project and generate reports on assets consumption (Al-Fedaghi & Al-Huwais, 2018). Additionally, the status of each resource can also be viewed using an asset management system. The Maximo asset management system assists in identifying methods to reduce input costs, saving energy, using resources efficiently. Efficient consumption of resources is vital in all dynamic industries, especially airports. Efficient consumption of resources tends to improve capital planning and decision making that saves huge operational and maintenance costs.

Primarily, the users of the Maximo asset management system are a facility, maintenance and operational managers of the airport premises. These users can schedule the utilization of assets in a productive manner. Moreover, financial officers also access the system in order to generate daily reports in which they document completed tasks and utilized resources. Airport tenants, passengers, and visitors that consume various airport resources.

The Maximo asset management system has multiple interfaces that are connected to each other and are installed on various computer systems placed at different locations within the premises of the airport. The asset management system may integrate applications from the third party. These applications can include an enterprise resource planning system or business management system. The integration of third-party applications within the asset management system is to serve the purpose of adding or tracking of resources.

Additionally, Asset management system includes a different kind of hardware as well. The hardware can be the servers on which management information system has been installed. Moreover, scanners, bar code readers, and RFID tags also comprise the hardware that can be included in the asset management system.

A dedicated IT maintenance team maintains and looks after any issues that arise in software or hardware that may hamper the operational capability of the airport.

Vertical Transportation Monitoring System

As the infrastructure of an airport stretches over a large area, it sees a movement of passengers, visitors, employees, and equipment in large number (Yang, Zhang, & Fu, 2015). This movement is often among the various level of the infrastructure of the airport. This large scale movement is monitored and tracked by airports’ vertical transportation monitoring systems (Yang, Zhang, & Fu,2015). Vertical transportation monitoring system software includes a piece of software that is used to keep track of the status of the infrastructure and equipment (Yang, Zhang, & Fu,2015). The infrastructure of the airport comprises of elevators, escalators, and moving sidewalks. In order to prevent any elevator and escalator from possible malfunctioning, it requires continuous monitoring. In the case of mechanical malfunction, safety and security of passengers and visitors can be jeopardized.

Building maintenance system (BMS) is usually employed in order to monitor the elevators of the airport (Xiao, Fu, & Zhang, 2016). Most of the time, monitoring of the elevators is given to the third party. These third parties are usually specialists in the maintenance and monitoring of the elevators. Additionally, these companies can install and repair a broken elevator. The status of the elevator is documented through reports and connections to the building maintenance system. Building maintenance system also monitors the maximum capacity of the elevators should that capacity is transgressed. The building monitoring system can indicate to the airport management if the capacity increases beyond a certain limit. Additionally, any elevator making unexpected halt would be detected through building maintenance systems. If any elevator delays for a long period of time, building a maintenance system is notified through a shared connection.

Airport facility managers are constantly viewing the status of elevators and escalator in their respective facilities. This status is usually viewed using elevator monitoring systems. Elevator monitoring systems provider reports about the status and functioning of the elevators. Using these data and reports, facility managers can make multiple decisions (Xiao, Fu, & Zhang, 2016). This includes tracking hours of usage of elevators. Tracking the usage hours of elevators can help to schedule cost-effective maintenance in order to ensure operational efficiency (Xiao, Fu, & Zhang, 2016). Airport facility managers often delegate the task of repairing and maintenance to third-party contractors because it requires specialized maintenance. A third party contractor specializes in carrying out specialized maintenance of the elevators and escalators.

The vertical transportation monitoring system is used by two audiences. First, primary users, that include airport facility managers, maintenance employee and third party contracted technicians (Xiao, Fu, & Zhang, 2016). Second, secondary users, that comprise of passengers, airport employees, and visitors (Xiao, Fu, & Zhang, 2016). The connection in this management information system includes the electrical hardware that sends the working status of each machine to the Vertical Transportation Monitoring System. Restricted access control system, building maintenance system, and fire system are also integrated into the vertical transportation monitoring system. The independent software continuously sends status and condition of the airport infrastructure.

Conclusion

Taking into account the above discussion, it can be concluded that each modern business requires management information system to ensure the smooth flow of its operational activities. There is a number of different systems that work together to ensure the smooth operation of the airport's regular operations. A typical system may include software, network connection, and database. The system may create on-demand and regular reports for airports facility managers to take the required decisions. These decisions not only help to enhance the operational capabilities of the airport but decrease the input costs significantly. Using these management information systems, Airports would only become more and more efficient in the years to come.

References

Al-Fedaghi, S., & Al-Huwais, N. (2018, May). Toward modeling information in asset management: Case study using Maximo. In 2018 4th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM) (pp. 117-124). IEEE.

Kim, E., & Park, S. (2016). Three-dimensional visualized space and asset management system for large-scale airports: The case of Incheon International Airport. International Journal of Architectural Computing, 14(3), 233-246.

Xiao, Y., Fu, X., & Zhang, A. (2016). Airport capacity choice under airport-airline vertical arrangements. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 92, 298-309.

Yang, H., Zhang, A., & Fu, X. (2015). Determinants of airport–airline vertical arrangements: analytical results and empirical evidence. Journal of Transport Economics and Policy (JTEP), 49(3), 438-453.