Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited has become the first cargo terminal operator to complete a pilot for the International Air Transport Association’s new Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit.

According to IATA, SFOC aims to provide total transparency on capacities and services offered by terminal operators by means of a multi-tiered validation process. This could save thousands of man-hours every year taken up with largely duplicated auditing.

“The IATA Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit pilot with Hactl was successful,” said Glyn Hughes, global head of cargo at IATA. “The feedback received from the Hactl team was valuable in fine-tuning the audit questions, auditor actions and guidance ensuring a consistently high audit quality across the programme.”

By adopting all of IATA’s standards relating to cargo terminal operations, SFOC targets a reduction in complexity and number of current industry audits.

“Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit reports will enable carriers to complement their risk analysis data, and conduct more focused on-site audits that are shorter, less resource-intensive and less frequent,” added Hughes.

The programme aims to initially reduce carrier audit complexity by 50% to reduce the burden on cargo terminal operators. It will encompass remote validation of handling facilities’ infrastructure and equipment, supplemented by the SFOC on-site audit. All participating handlers’ physical resources and capabilities will be collected in a central register which will also confirm that all validated handling agents comply with IATA’s Cargo Handling Manual, a uniform set of standards and criteria.

“The IATA Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit will provide assurance to the air cargo industry that the published infrastructure, equipment and operating procedure information is complete and accurate,” said Marc Voelkl, project manager of the smart facility programme at IATA. “Having validated capacity information of cargo terminal operators publicly available will facilitate better matchmaking between carriers and handlers, and assist in network planning and development, catering precisely to the shippers’ needs.”

Because the SFOC audit shares some content with IATA’s ISAGO Cargo and Mail programme, an SFOC-accredited terminal operator will automatically be validated for the CGM discipline. The SFOC audit will be offered as a standalone audit or in conjunction with ISAGO refresher audits, further reducing accreditation costs and audit duration.

Hactl was chosen as the launch test site for the new audit system because of the scale and complexity of its operations, the diverse range of cargo it handles, the number of carriers it serves and the company’s highly developed quality management systems.

“The Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit will provide a simple, public register of all handler’s facilities and capabilities, supported by benchmarking against universally accepted industry standards,” said Tan Chee Hong, chief operating officer of Hactl. “This can only result in the spread of best practice, and competition based on quality rather than price. We were very happy to support this excellent initiative from IATA, because Hactl is in favour of any measure that promotes the adoption of high and consistent standards throughout the air cargo industry. We must all eradicate any weak links in air cargo supply chains, for the collective good of the industry – and this is a very effective move towards that goal.”

Further SFOC pilot audits are to be conducted at handling locations in London, Luxembourg, Singapore, Amsterdam and Dubai throughout the remainder of 2018, during which IATA will also continue developing the Smart Facility Standards Manual and the Smart Facility Auditor Training programme.