What I especially love about this PCMag.com article is that they emphasize the business rationale for change. American Airlines, Delta and United Continental are testing replacing the paper flight navigation charts, manuals, and reference materials that airline pilots are required to carry with iPads.In terms of defining success, there is clear business value to changing from 35 - 38 lbs of paper to the 1.5 lb iPad:
- Time to distribute updated information to all pilots: (value of 1 day) x (time in fraction of days to download updates, as compared with disseminating paper copies)
- Capital avoidance for printing: cost reduction for keeping 12,000 sheets of paper up-to-date
- Capital avoidance for fuel costs: (weight of 2 flight bags per airplane) x (fuel consumption per lb of weight) x (number of flights)
- Risk avoidance for pilot injuries due to reduced weight of flight bags: (value of risk) x (probability of occurrence)
When new technology comes onto the market, be sure to utilize value dials to make sure there is a good reason to adopt it, and to ensure you have developed the appropriate definitions of success so that post-implementation, you can measure whether or not you have achieved your goals.