Up in the air

Can anyone figure out how they allocate passenger seating on aircraft?

As far as I can tell, it must be a fairly complex data management task, so my hat's off to the person who wrote the algorithm for Air New Zealand.

Tell you why I think so.  All sarcasm aside, honestly.

Today I travelled on a plane, I think it was called a Q300, which had 50 seats, as per the diagram.

And you will also see from the diagram which seats were occupied (blue)... it was not a full flight.

I was in seat 6D (shown in red).  In the interests of a bit of extra elbow room for me and the person next to me, I thought it would be good to move forward to the vacant seat 5D.

Stewardess Kathy wouldn't allow it.  Man, I wish I'd been able to record her reason, but it was obviously a well rehearsed speech.

Basically it amounted to the fact that doing so would interfere with the "trim" of the aircraft during take-off and landing, throwing it dangerously off balance.

Wow! If the plane is that vulnerable to the seating configuration, it's real scary to think the seat allocation software might get it wrong.  Eh?

On the other hand, maybe what Kathy told me isn't true.

Maybe she should have said "it is strict company policy for passengers to remain in their allocated seats". Or "my other duties do not allow me the time to evaluate passengers' requests to change seats". Or some such.

Maybe Air New Zealand requires their staff to say ridiculous things to passengers.  Who knows.  But if so, that's cruel, really, don't you think?

But, as a database developer, I have to consider: If you had to place 18 people within 12 rows of 4 seats plus 2, from the point of view of preventing the plane falling over... how would you do it?

Technorati tags: database+development, seating+allocation, air+safety

Real World Access (34)

One of a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche.

 Glenn Lloyd's Distribution

Bulk Product Information Management and Reporting

My client, the regional manager for a major multi-national corporation, is responsible for the storage and distribution of a small variety of bulk products throughout a vast geographical area.

The company operates a main storage and handling facility that periodically receives stock via cargo ship and several sub-terminals located at strategic points in the region.

From the main terminal the company distributes bulk products to the sub-terminals and to industrial customers in the terminal’s vicinity. Sub-terminals, in turn, distribute product to industrial customers within their respective territories. The company distributes and re-distributes its products within the region by bulk highway transport.

The company’s global data handling and reporting system focuses on the 'big picture'. As such, it is not suited to meeting more detailed and immediate management information needs at lower levels of the corporation.

My client required comprehensive and timely reporting of ongoing business activity on a terminal by terminal basis. He had initially asked that I develop an Excel based solution for him.

However, it became clear to me, after reviewing the activities and needs he was expressing, that a worksheet approach would be cumbersome to develop and maintain. On the other hand, the data management aspects of my client’s needs indicated that a database oriented solution would be far more suitable in the long run.

After further review and discussion, we decided that Access would be the appropriate vehicle to implement the solution.

The Access application provides a form-based user interface for the collection and update of manually entered data. The interface also provides for the import of Excel data in some cases.

The system includes on demand reporting of product activity, inventory balances, customer activity, summary sales data, overtime useage, and maintenance and safety activity by product, terminal, region and customer.

Technorati tags: Microsoft+Access, Microsoft+MVP, software+development, product+distribution

Real World Access (33)

One of a series of articles about where Microsoft Office Access applications have found a real-world niche.

 Dave Hargis's WIA Database

  This Access application was written to support the United States Workforce Investment Act.  This law provide for training and assistance for people having difficulty obtaining employment.

The law requires specific reporting on these people.  The reporting goes from the entity providing services to the state.  The state combines reports from all providers and reports to the federal government.

In addition to the reporting requirements, this application provides for gathering extensive demographic information on applicants and tracking the outcome of services provided.

The State of Oregon requires that the reporting be done in FoxPro dbf files.  The reporting consisted of transforming the data into the required format, zipping the dbf files, and emailing them to the state.

It is a multi user application with about 50 users, but no more than about 10 would be using the database concurrently.

It consists of 124 tables, 90 forms (some of which are used as subforms), 130 reports, and 310 queries.

Technorati tags: Microsoft+MVP, Microsoft+Access, WIA, compliance+reporting