The 'Expiry Concept' in N-OC helps the airline to keep track of important documents and notify the planners ahead of time of any document that expires in the near future. For example: Passport, Dangerous Goods, OPC, etc.
It also tracks Reference Activities, which can be linked to the various Document Types and trigger a prolonging of the expiry transaction data.
If these Reference Activities are assigned to a crew member in the Roster Gantt, the HR Wizard can track them. If certain conditions are met, prolong document expiries linked to these Activities.
Note: Before setting up expiry rules, the user must first create and define the following:
- Document Types
- Documents
- Reference Groups
- Reference Activities.
In Rules list item, there are three tables located under the 'Document' folder:
Each one has a different purpose. You can disable one of them, and it won't affect the others. The purposes of each are:
- DocExpiryData - User sets up Document Codes to warn for expiry and so called HeadsUp parameters for these Document Codes.
- DocMissingData - User sets up links between documents and Roster Activities (which document needs to be valid/exist for the Activity to be possible to perform) checks on roster activities (Roster).
- DocUpdateData - used only in HR Wizard to find out if/when documents can be prolonged.
Doc Expiry Data
Purpose
This table is used to set up expiry warnings for specific Crew Documents (for Documents only). The user can add additional rows to create different HEADSUPLENGTH for specific Documents.
Note: If a document code is not specified in the table, then the user receives expiry warnings for ALL documents. If you want to only receive warnings for specific document then the user can insert them as shown below:
Right click on a row to Insert/Delete rows, as shown below.
Document Codes
This is the designator defined in the HR Documents dialogue Window > Shortcode Field.
| Field | Description | Example |
| Headsuplength | The user defines how long in advance the expiry warning should be displayed in N-OC. | The format is Days, Hours, or Minutes. In this example, the user will start to receive expiry warnings, for the document codes shown, 60 days prior to the expiry date. |
| WARNIFEXPIRED | ||
| Warnifexpired = False | The warnings are only received up to the date of expiry. They are not displayed after the expiry date. | Expiry date = 15 March. Headsuplength = 30.00:00:00
The expiry warning will be shown from 15 Feb until the expiry date. |
| Warnifexpired = True | Same as above, but the expiry warnings continue to be shown after the expiry date. | |
DocMissingData
Purpose
The user receives a warning if they assign an Activity to a crew member who does not possess a valid document, which is defined as a requirement for this Activity.
Documents (Codes) are validated against Crew Roster activities (only duties). If the Document is expired or is missing, a warning shows on the assigned roster activities for the Crewmember in question.
The user adds the Document Codes as shown below. These are the Documents that N-OC provides warnings for in the Gantt.
In the example below, any roster activities assigned to a Crewmember with a Document "DGR" attached to their HR Document profile is checked by the DocMissingdata Rule. In the example below, each Crewmember's HR Document profile is checked for a valid “ET01” Document, if any Roster Activity (duty) is assigned to them.
The user can also narrow the Rule check by using a combination of the following fields:
- Activity codes
- Crew Numbers
- Roster Designator (DutydesignatorCode)
- Service code
- Flight number*
- Station
- Duty Start
- Crew rank
- Aircraft type.
*flight numbers filters examples:
1..9999
1..100,200..300,777,888
HS 1..100, OS 200..300
OS 200,300..500, T
HS,LS 1..100,8888..9999 T,K
DutyStart = False - each duty activity gets the missing document warning.
DutyStart = True - only the first activity in the duty gets the missing document warning - see below.
Examples of more specific checks:
- DGR - will only check for duties that are flight legs.
- EMC - will only check for flights that have Service Type Code 'J' (Schedule flights), and for station LHR (London Heathrow).
- FIR - will only be checked for crew that hold the rank of FC (Flight Captain) or FO (First Officer).
If a document is missing or expired, N-OC provides a warning Document Name Missing or expired.
If a document is NOT included in the DocMissingdata table then Rules will NOT check to ensure it is valid.
Note:
- DocMissingData is only for Roster activities.
- If there are no Roster activities at all in the selected period, then there are no warnings for missing or expired documents.
- If there are some expired documents within the period, the user gets warnings if they have been specified in the DocExpiryData table.
- N-OC Rules considers duty activity in the Roster period, and evaluates each document defined in the DocMissingData table.
- To always check for expired documents for a Crewmember (even when NO duties have been assigned) within the evaluated period, the user needs to set up the DocExpiryData table.
DocUpdateData
Purpose
To find documents where the expiry dates may be prolonged if the required activity has been performed in the defined time window (so called Grace Period).
HR Wizard tracks Reference Activities performed by crew. If an Activity is linked to a specified Document and has been performed within the Grace Period, it triggers a new expiry date for this document. HR Wizard either prolongs the validity automatically or the user can prolong it manually (change the date).
Note: This expiry prolong is carried out by using HR Wizard. Please see: Editors > Human Resources > HR Wizard
| Field | Description |
| Document Code | The short code for the document. |
Activity Code | The Reference Activity short code |
| DEP / ARR | IATA code |
| DutyDesignatorCode | Roster Designator Code (Example: X,T,L etc) |
| Service code | Service Type Codes |
| Flight number | The flight number. |
| Crew ranks | Rank shortcode separated by comma |
| RoundUp | The expiry date is/is not rounded up to the last date of the month of the new expiry date. |
| Crew quals | Aircraft qualification |
| Aircraft types | |
| Age limit | |
| ProlongPeriod | The validity period of the document when it is prolonged. |
| GracePeriodLength | The period prior to the expiry date when the renewal activity can take place. Note: This field need a value. e.g. 0 |
Example:
DGR = 365 Days prolong period
Grace Period = 60 days
Previous expiry date = 4 Feb 2013
Next Expiry date = 4 Feb 2014
Grace Period starts 7 Dec 2013
Let's say the renewal is carried out on 1 Jan 2014
RoundUp: = False, New Expiry date = 4 Feb 2015
RoundUp: = True, New Expiry date = 28 Feb 2015
Note: If the renewal activity takes place before the Grace Period, it will not be considered.
Relationships
There are several relationships to consider:
- One Activity Code updates one or more Document Code(s)
- One Document Code is updated by one or more Activity Code(s)
- One Roster Designator (DutydesignatorCode) updates one or more Document Codes
- One Document Code is updated by one or more Roster Designator(s).
| Relationships | Description |
| One Activity Code updates one or more Document Code(s) | In the example shown above:
|
| One Document Code is updated by one or more Activity Code(s) | In the example shown above: Document Code 'OPC' is updated by the following Activity Code: LPC and OPC. |
| One Roster Designator (DutydesignatorCode) updates one or more Document Codes | In principle, this is the same as the above examples. The difference is that a Roster designator is used instead of an Activity Code. |
| One Document Code is updated by one or more Roster Designator(s) | In principle, this is the same as the above examples. The difference is that a Roster designator is used instead of an Activity Code. |
This table is only used together with the HR Wizard update document. This table is used to define how N-OC proposes to prolong crew documents in HR Wizard (and notify the user in legality check dialogue when 'documents' view is selected).
Ex: On the picture below the Rules Check Window warns the user about GRR expiry date.
After a GRR Reference Activity has been assigned to a Crewmember (and performed) within the defined Grace Period, the user also sees a reminder in the Rules Check window about the possibility to prolong the validity of the document. For example: "07JAN13 05:45 ground/refresh can be prolonged using the HR wizard displayed. This serves to remind the user that they can run an HR wizard to update the GRR document.
Legality checks each crew document, and based on crew Roster and setup in DocUpdateData table; proposes to prolong/refresh crew documents.
Here the user has the option to accept the new expiry date by clicking the Next button. The user can also manually change the expiry date. The information in the Comments field is saved to the transaction log.
Click the Next button to save.
Click the Close button.
The functionality below is not implemented at this time; however, it is a part of our product roadmap. Please be advised that everything shown is subject to change.
(Optional) : Customer specific: The projected expiry date
The projected expiry date affects the missing documents rule. It considers any Reference activities that are rostered to a Crewmember and (if applicable) turn off any warnings for Missing documents.
Note: You do not need to run HR Wizard for the violation to be deactivated by an appropriate assigned activity.
In the example below, some flights are assigned to a crew member:
As you can see, there is a violation saying OPC is missing or expired.
Once you put an OPC Reference Activity before the assigned flights, the missing violation is no longer displayed.
Note: This will not affect the document expiry rule, which simply says if a crew document has expired or not.
(the document expiry rule does not take into account any planned/projected expiry date(s).