THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has declared Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) to be the first cargo terminal operator to complete the new Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit (SFOC)
THE International Air Transport Association (IATA) has declared Hong Kong Air Cargo Terminals Limited (Hactl) to be the first cargo terminal operator to complete the new Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit (SFOC). SFOC is part of the Smart Facility programme that aims to provide total transparency on capacities and services offered by CTOs, by means of a multi-tiered validation process. This could save thousands of man-hours every year taken up with largely duplicated auditing effort.
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 (over 100) it serves, and the company's highly-developed quality management systems.
'The IATA Smart Facility Operational Capacity Audit (SFOC) pilot with Hactl was successful. 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,' said Glyn Hughes, IATA's Global Head of Cargo.
SFOC targets a reduction in complexity and number of current industry audits, by adopting all IATA standards relating to cargo terminal operations.
'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,' Mr Hughes said.
The SFOC Audit shares some content with IATA's ISAGO Cargo and Mail (CGM) discipline; an SFOC- accredited CTO will therefore be automatically validated for the CGM discipline.
Said Hactl chief operating officer Tan Chee Hong,: '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. This can only result in the spread of best practice, and competition based on quality rather than price.'
Further SFOC pilot audits are to be conducted in Singapore, London, Luxembourg, Amsterdam and Dubai throughout the remainder of 2018.
