View from the Board-Christopher Rueter, Quality Management, LufthansaCargo

Christopher Rueter, Quality Management, Lufthansa Cargo

With the year ending soon, the Cargo iQ board is looking ahead to further provide the best quality management framework for the industry. With that in mind, the board currently focuses on creating additional governance to drive key projects beyond the definition of standards and frameworks. We further concentrate on facilitating the actual implementation of Cargo iQ specifications and consistently reevaluate the impact of technologies, i.e. APIs, how to use these, and how to include them in Cargo iQ initiatives.

For the upcoming year, the Cargo iQ board is therefore putting emphasis on achieving 100 percent reporting by enabling the measurement of shipments originating from or destined for stations served only by Road Feeder Service, or by including lanes which so far have not been included as Cargo iQ lanes.

Through a detailed rollout plan on new Cargo iQ specifications, updated audit requirements, and regular auditing of our members, we strive to ensure that Cargo iQ specifications and processes are implemented and lived by within the Cargo iQ community. By reviewing the current data landscape and the Cargo iQ reporting, we aim to provide the basis for enhanced data analytics that add value for our members.

However, it is also time to look back at another year of steady progression. Based on the eager involvement of many of our members, we continued to develop topics like ‘Care Mapping’, to enhance the well-established Cargo iQ methodology to also reflect specific shipment requirements, and RFS Standards, to increase transparency at offline stations. As of this year, FIW and FOW (Freight into and out of warehouse custody) are IATA-endorsed milestones in the Cargo XML toolkit, reflecting the hard work of the Cargo iQ community to define these new standards. These milestones will enable carriers to increase transparency on their ramp processes at interfaces between ground and ramp handling and are a valuable addition to the milestone plan. This new transparency enables all members to improve the reliability of their customer promise. We also incorporated an updated version of the MOP (Master Operating Plan) and the Cargo iQ Glossary, providing a guideline of all relevant Cargo iQ processes, metrics, and terminology.

The most recent global developments indicate that the upcoming year may be as challenging as all years since 2020. A global economic downturn is anticipated, with implications on the logistics industry already noticeable to some degree. Hence, it is even more important to diversify your product offering with strong reliability and a high quality level. Cargo iQ provides a great set of tools to measure the performance of air cargo processes and enables a deep down root cause analysis, which is crucial for continuous improvement.

However, the best ‘tool’ Cargo iQ has to offer is a broad and passionate community that enables us to strive for the best quality in air cargo. I would like to thank you all for your collaboration, participation, and engagement in a once again challenging year 2022.

I am looking forward to working with you again next year and would like to encourage everyone to continue to be an active part of this great community.