Choice Aviation modernizes cargo handling operations using Microsoft Power Platform
Choice Aviation Services is a US-based international airline cargo company that offers a full range of logistics services, including freight handling, warehouse storage, import/export processing, and security. Citizen developer Mozart Ramos Junior leveraged Microsoft Power Platform to advance his career, deliver greater operational efficiency for Choice Aviation Services, and raise the bar on cargo handling industry standards.
| Read the full story here: https://aka.ms/PowerPlatform/ChoiceAviation |
Solution overview
The Choice Aviation team needed to transition operations from manual, paper-based processes to digital, starting with a warehouse that they acquired and needed to update — just weeks before a scheduled opening. The company leveraged Power Apps and Power Automate to automate outdated business operations and used Power BI for real-time business intelligence data reporting.
The solution architecture that Mozart and Choice Aviation built includes the following steps:
- Customer enters package details using Power Apps kiosk.
- Customer gets SMS receipt, sent using Power Automate and the out-of-box Twilio connector.
- Agent manages the customer queue using Power Apps connected to Azure SQL.
- Customer gets a text message when agent is ready and dock door is assigned.
- An email is sent to the airline with the package status.
High level solution architecture
The end solution resulted in a self-service touchscreen check-in experience, streamlined dock door management, and dashboards with real time performance metrics. Not only have paper-based processes been eliminated, significantly reducing customer engagement times, but Power Apps has also helped improve freight processing times by over 80 percent.
The initial Power Platform solution ultimately led to the creation of Choice’s Eco Operational System (EOS)—an integrated system of over 17 Power Platform applications. The expanded system does even more to unify and display multiple sources of customer and operational data and streamlines business processes, and truly is a one-of-kind logistics system that is setting new standards of efficiency for the industry.
Left: Kiosk for warehouse delivery check-ins, replaced a paper-based process; Right: Choice Aviation’s integrated ‘Eco Operational System’.
A mobile app built using Power Apps provides agents with a paperless tool for processing freight directly on the warehouse floor.
Power BI dashboards provide agents and managers with real-time telemetry on freight processing times based on data from the integrated Power Platform system.
Summary of benefits
- Improved freight processing times by over 80%.
- Ability to capture photos of incoming freight has nearly eliminated liability costs for cargo damaged prior to arrival.
- Better access to performance metrics. With the old system, there were virtually no metrics available to track wait times or processing cycles in the warehouse.
- Access to live data and key metrics like customer wait times has helped foster a business culture that has a greater focus on performance.
- Choice Aviation customers have found drop-offs to be seamless and well-coordinated with the new self check-in process.
“Building our Eco Operational System on Power Platform has enabled us to set new industry standards of efficiency in very short period of time—and expand and improve the system just as quickly.”
—Kenix Wang, VP of Operations and Compliance, Choice Aviation
To learn more about how Choice Aviation leveraged Microsoft Power Platform, read the full customer story at https://aka.ms/PowerPlatform/ChoiceAviation.