PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Project management

Introduction

This report to the Board of Qantas explores the relative costs and benefits of establishing a training centre in Mumbai, India. The centre will train both pilots and cabin crews, with a specific focus on security training. Due to foreign ownership restrictions limiting investment to 74% of any airline venture, a joint venture arrangement would be appropriate. A joint venture with a domestic carrier will also provide the project with significant advantages that come from having local knowledge. There are currently a number of Indian airlines that are considering the establishment of a training centre, including Air India, Air Deccan and Kingfisher Airlines (Francis 2006). Accordingly, a time critical opportunity currently exists for Qantas to initiate a joint venture with a domestic carrier.

This joint venture will leverages Qantas' own knowledge in operating a training centre, and take advantage of the domestic advantages in India such as a large population of highly educated candidates wanting to become pilots and cabin crew, as well as the current undersupply of adequate training centers to meet the growing demand.

Discussion

More than 90% of the critical skills that an aviation maintenance technician uses are acquired through on-the-job training (OJT). Yet many aviation maintenance technicians rely on a 'degenerating buddy system', 'follow Joe around', or unstructured approach to OJT. Many aspects of the aviation maintenance environment point to the need for a structured OJT program, but perhaps the most significant is the practice of job bidding which can create rapid turnover of technicians. The task analytic training system (TATS), a model for developing team-driven structured OJT was developed by the author, and first introduced in Boeing Commercial Airplane Group to provide competency-based OJT for aviation maintenance and inspection personnel. The goal of the model was not only to provide a comprehensive, highly structured training system that could be applied to any maintenance and inspection task, but also to improve team coordination, attitude and morale. The first goal was accomplished by following the systems eight-step process, the latter through incorporating human factors principles such as decision making, communication, team building and conflict resolution into the process itself. In general, the process helps to instill mutual respect and trust, enhance goal-directed behavior, strengthen technicians' self-esteem and responsiveness to new ideas and encourage technicians to make worthwhile contributions. The theoretical background of the model is addressed by illustrating how the proven training methodologies of job task analysis and job instruction training are blended with human factors principles resulting in a unique team-driven approach to training

General environment

The Republic of India is the seventh-largest country by geographical area and located in South Asia. It is the world's second most populous country, and the largest democratic republic in the world. The economy of India is the fourth largest in the world as measured by purchasing power parity (PPP), with a GDP of US$3.63 trillion (CIA Factbook 2005). India has been growing at a rate of 8 per cent since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took office in early 2004 (Ryan ...