How Groupe Europe Handling Keeps Airport Devices Ready with ForwardPass

Background

At a busy airport, the smallest operational hold-up can have a ripple effect. For Groupe Europe Handling (GEH), making sure employees can quickly access the right mobile device is part of keeping aircraft and passenger operations moving.

Today, GEH manages more than 800 mobile devices with the help of around 17 ForwardPass Smart Lockers. Over roughly three and a half years, the organisation has expanded the program to reduce manual device distribution, give employees more independence and create clearer accountability for shared equipment.

Fabien Cossenet, Chief Information Officer at Groupe Europe Handling, has seen the program evolve from a practical solution to a much bigger operational need. What started with around 100 devices became increasingly difficult to manage manually as the fleet grew.

As the number of devices grew, the manual process simply became harder to manage. GEH needed an easier way for employees to get the devices they needed, while giving managers a clearer view of who had each one.

That’s why organisation turned to ForwardPass Smart Lockers.

The challenge: Scaling beyond manual device distribution

Before ForwardPass, device collection was a manual process. Employees depended on someone being available to issue equipment and manage its return.

As the number of devices increased, so did the amount of staff time tied up in a task that Fabien felt added little value.

“We realised there wasn’t much value in having someone spend their time managing device distribution. It’s repetitive work, and not particularly motivating.”

There was also a question of responsibility. When devices moved between employees, it could be difficult to know who had used a particular device or where responsibility sat if something was lost or damaged.

That was especially important with Zebra devices costing more than €1,000 each. GEH had been losing or damaging around two to three of these devices a month.

With the fleet continuing to grow, the existing approach was becoming difficult to sustain.

The solution: Giving employees self-service access with accountability

ForwardPass gave employees a more direct way to access the devices they needed.

Instead of waiting for someone to hand over equipment, employees could collect and return devices through the locker themselves. Authentication gave GEH a clear record of those transactions, while devices could be stored securely and charged between uses.

The shift removed a routine handoff from the working day, but one of the most useful lessons came after the lockers were introduced.

At first, employees were collecting and returning devices between individual flights. In practice, that meant a lot of unnecessary movement and made it more likely that devices would simply be passed from one person to another.

GEH changed the process so that employees keep responsibility for a device for the whole of their shift.

That small operational change made a noticeable difference. There were fewer handoffs, the process became easier for employees to follow, and responsibility for each device was clearer.

For Fabien, it reinforced an important point: the technology works best when the workflow around it works too.

The results: Less manual work, greater autonomy and better control

The biggest change has been removing much of the day-to-day effort involved in distributing devices.

At one GEH subsidiary, Fabien estimates that automation freed up the equivalent workload of one person, allowing that time to be spent on more useful work.

For employees, the process is also more straightforward. They can get the device they need without waiting for somebody else to issue it, which is particularly useful in an environment where teams are working to tight operational schedules.

GEH has also seen fewer issues with devices being lost or damaged. With a clearer record of who has collected and returned equipment, there is less ambiguity around responsibility.

Together, those changes have given GEH a simpler way to manage a much larger device estate without recreating the administrative burden that came with manual distribution.

Growing with the operation

GEH has continued expanding its use of connected lockers over roughly three and a half years and now has around 17 lockers in operation.

For Fabien, the fact that the organisation has continued investing in the model is the clearest endorsement.

“We’ve continued to order more lockers, which I think speaks for itself. We’re very satisfied with the solution.”

Fabien also speaks highly of the support from ForwardPass by PC Locs, particularly the speed of the team’s response and their ability to provide a solution quickly when needed.

What started as a way to simplify device distribution has become part of how GEH manages shared technology across its operations.

Looking ahead

After several years of use, GEH sees little reason to return to the old manual approach.

Its experience has also highlighted something that is easy to overlook in automation projects: the technology is only one part of the solution. The way people use it matters just as much.

By adapting the process around how its teams actually work, GEH has created a system that is easier for employees to use, less demanding for managers to oversee, and better suited to a growing fleet of shared devices.

For a busy airport operation, that means one less thing getting in the way of the work that needs to happen.