AirFrance KLM - How to Outsource a Critical Project with Lean-Agile Procurement

With a challenging six-month time frame, Air France looked to a new innovative approach to procuring the right team for the job.

Air France KLM Cargo Operations needed to improve the efficiency and productivity of its door-to-door cargo. Time is essential in freight and any delay or break in the chain would lead to product waste and unhappy customers. It was critical that a new system was created to improve the efficiency.

A new booking system was required within six months, how were Air France going to assemble a team that worked cohesively and remotely, thought innovatively, understood the cargo industry, and produce the product within the challenging time frame.

Key Points

Challenges:

• Critical project with potentially high business outcomes

• Short time frame

• Keeping a high level of cooperation with an outsourced team in a remote location

• Remodel the vendor sourcing policy

Results:

• Six weeks to select a vendor and actually start the project

• Accelerated project start: team building already done and new team already well aware of the business context and challenges

• Challenging milestones easily reached

A key player in the air cargo industry, AIR FRANCE KLM MARTINAIR Cargo is the specialised air cargo business of the Air France KLM Group, offering a worldwide network of 457 destinations from two hubs, Paris Charles de Gaulle and Amsterdam Airport Schiphol.

The recording

To hear Frédérique’s talk jump right to 31:17 in the video.

The slide deck

AirFrance KLM - How to Outsource a Critical Project with Lean-Agile Procurement from Mirko Kleiner

End of 2018, Frédéric was facing two major problems:

1. Deliver a new critical IT application for Cargo Truck management within a tight schedule. High importance – vital the Cargo Truck management system was efficient to reduce waste and increase output.

2. Recruit a new team to develop the new system. The existing team consists of many contractors from different vendors. It is not big enough to handle the project and there is a need for new skills.

The Team - Air France KLM Cargo Operations Department

• Frédéric Jacques, Head of Cargo Operations IT

• Simon Spoor, Frédéric’s Business counterpart (acting as Product Owner)

• Eric Chaumette, Head of Managed Delivery Centers initiative

• Sophie Durand and Lionel Massiera, Agile Coaches and LAP specialists

According to the new Air France procurement policy on hiring contractors, Frédéric would have to source a whole team, remotely located on the vendor’s premises.

Air France Cargo department has been working in an agile way for years (SAFe): how would a brand new remotely located team fit in? How would they quickly reach the necessary level of cooperation?

Time was of the essence and following the current procurement policy would have taken several months. Frédéric’s business counterpart, Simon was really concerned with this issue and couldn’t believe that sourcing a new team would fit in the challenging project schedule, given that traditional RFP (request for proposal) processes usually lasted several months a new way of thinking was needed.

Congratulations & Thank you!

Congratulations to the whole AirFrance KLM Team and our LAP Trainer Sophie Durand & Lionel Massiera. Furthermore we also wanna give a big thank you to Emily Ruffle from the Agile Business Consortium how made the interviews, crafted this success story and co-published it to spread the word.

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This is a video capture of a conference held for Web2Day 2019 in Nantes, June 2019 in French.

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