AIRLINES AND LEAN MANAGEMENT

Airline operations present a striking dichotomy. Each day, the airlines

achieve the remarkable by safely moving nearly five million people more
than 40 million air miles around the world. Often, however, they fail to
deliver on the ordinary. Once the aircraft land, all too many of them taxi to a
jetway and waitperhaps for a ground crew to arrive and open a door or for
the end of the traffic caused by another planes maintenance delay. Even
standout, low-cost performers lose bags, keep valuable employees idle,
depart late, and have billions of dollars in chronically underutilized aircraft
and other hugely expensive assets.
These extremes coexist because airlines have historically focused on safety,
aircraft technology, speed, geographic reach, and in-flight service attributes;
on distinctive regulatory constraints and labor issues; and on the
unpredictability imposed by weather and rapidly shifting demand. At the
same time, issues such as route structures, excess capacity, pricing, and yield
management compete with operations for the airlines attention.
1
As a result,
the airlines havent given their operations factorylike, industrial-engineering
scrutiny. Great operators in other heavy industries have worked through
these challenges to deliver low costs, high quality, and satisfied customers.
Yet up to 45 percent of an airlines cost structure consists of maintenance,
ground handling, in-flight services, call centers, and aircraft acquisitions
(which are influenced by operational variables like aircraft downtime). One
hundred years after the first powered flight, its time to start looking at the
airlines as mature industrial companies and to apply proven manufacturing
practices that can streamline their process-intensive activities. At stake is an
opportunity to reduce overall costs dramatically by using labor, materials,
and assets more efficiently, to enhance the reliability of service, and to
strengthen flight safety.
Lean approaches, adopted by numerous industrial and service companies
(including many that are heavily unionized and some, like hospitals and
medical-device manufacturers, that are highly regulated), are well suited to
the airlines challenges. As lean techniques eliminate waste, they also root
out the nonstandardized work times, variable team structures, and highly
asynchronous work flows that many airline executives now view as
unavoidable.
The lean approaches of pioneering airlines have begun with the maintenance
shop, which functions very much as a disassembly-assembly factory and
displays a striking degree of waste and variability. Impressive maintenance
results30 to 50 percent improvements in aircraft and component
turnaround times and 25 to 50 percent improvements in productivity (Figure
1)are encouraging signs for the airlines other operational choke points,
such as baggage handling, passenger loading, and customer service.
Applying the philosophy and methods of the lean approach also creates new
opportunities for outsourcing and insourcing.

In any industry, companies that adopt lean techniques face difficulties, such
as getting senior management committed to the effort, developing the talent
pool to lead it, and avoiding the "pick-and-choose" lean-tool-kit approach,
which in the end fails to address the root causes of problems. Yet precisely
because the lean journey is difficult, the gains won by airlines that persevere
with it are more likely to be truly differentiating and sustainable than those
resulting from more imitable tactics, such as extracting wage concessions or
cutting service. As the industry struggles through the most severe downturn
in its history, now is the time to begin.
Figure 1



When airline executives talk operations, more often than not they focus on
the features that distinguish their industry from others. Yet an airline orders
materials just as a factory does, and it sequences work, deploys workers to
specialized tasks, commits itself to quality levels, and at regular intervals
turns out the equivalent of productsserviced and airworthy aircraft.
Conversely, like airlines, factories face variability when large orders roll in
unexpectedly, equipment breaks down, or snowstorms interrupt supplies.
Underlying lean techniques are four principles: the elimination of waste, the
control of variability, flexibility, and the full utilization of human talent.
These principles have enormous relevance for organizations concerned with
safety, customer service, and unpredictable events such as weather.
Companies that embrace lean really begin to see things differently. Our
work with several international carriers and with a European third-party
maintenance provider has provided a glimpse into this tremendous
opportunity.
In spite of the strong cost-cutting efforts of the airlines, they still harbor
large amounts of what lean practitioners define as waste: anything that
doesnt add value for end customers. Waste starts with the utilization of
aircraft and other kinds of infrastructure, which often falls below 50 percent.
Passengers see a part of this problem in the form of empty gates, avoidable
tarmac delays, and idle planes. Valuable and highly skilled employees
routinely spend a large part of their time on low-value activities or just plain
waiting (Figure 2). The arriving traveler watches in frustration as a baggage
carousel remains empty for 30 minutes because of a lack of handlers.
Dozens of stranded travelers fume while a single clerk processes them. In
maintenance hangars, mechanics spend far more time chasing parts than
repairing aircraft. Moreover, airlines struggle to tailor the level of staffing or
the pace of work to their service demands efficientlydespite the
predictability of many tasks, such as the removal of wheels. In some
maintenance shops, 20 to 30 percent of the mechanics time is spent in the
break area; in others, actual clocked person-hours are 30 percent lower than
scheduled hours.


Standard operating procedures exist, but the airlines generally focus on what
regulators such as the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) require
them to do, not on how to do it efficiently. Thick manuals outline tasks but
without standardizing sequences, processing times, or best practices.
Passengers experience this problem firsthand in the form of check-in and
loading procedures that vary from airport to airport or even gate to gate. The
absence of operating standards often breeds inefficiency in spite of workers
best efforts to carry out required tasks and meet regulatory standards. Weve
seen two mechanics using different toolsone half as effective as the
otherto remove a panel from the underside of a fuselage.
Figure 2



The suitability of lean techniques to meet these and other challenges presents
the airlines with a ray of hope. What exactly would a lean airline operation
look like and deliver?
To illustrate the application of lean techniques, well look closely at a single
operationthe A-check, analogous in role (but not complexity) to servicing
a car. Picture the scene: an aircraft pulls into a hangar late at night.
Schedulers "job-card" the list of tasks to be performed and coordinate
tooling, spare parts, and staffing. Engineers define the person-hour
workloads. Supporting departments and workshops, such as materials
management and avionics, provide parts. As if the number of parties
involved didnt generate enough complexity, many nonroutine issues are
created by cracks, leaks, system faults, and extraneous damage (for instance,
engine damage from bird strikes). The goal is to wade through the surprises
and get the plane on the flight line by morning.
A new operating system. Adopting a lean operating system first requires an
organization to search for order in the demand patterns of its "customer" (in
this case, flight operations). When this discipline is applied to the
maintenance shop, only a third of all A-check activities turn out to be
nonroutine. Of the nonroutine work, nearly a quarter is accounted for by
wing maintenance, which overwhelmingly involves just four areas (Exhibit
3). Standard preparations for them transform nearly 20 percent of all
nonroutine A-check tasks into routine ones. A better system for replacing
lightbulbs makes almost 5 percent of all currently unpredictable A-check
operations routine. Most maintenance organizations already know that
nonroutine work is clustered, but few have reliable records or analyses to
make sense of the patterns.
Figure 3

Such knowledge helps an operator create standard tasks and workplace
designs. Drawing on the collective expertise of its mechanics, it could
develop standard work routines, making use of enhanced tools and fixtures,
that would substantially increase the efficiency of their wrench time. During
A-checks, for instance, they sometimes lubricate parts using a two-person,
hand-pumped grease gun while a hydraulic model that allows one person to
do the job sits idly in a corner. Arraying such tools at the ready in a highly
organized work space can yield large efficiencies. Pre-staging parts such as
replacement filters eliminates a source of error by ensuring that they wont
be overlooked. Mechanics become surgeons, with all their equipment and
tooling arranged carefully ahead of time and reliable procedures in place to
deal with surprises. Simply by eliminating ongoing searches for parts, tools,
and paperwork, a carrier may improve the productivity of its repair
operations by more than 30 percent.
Standardization progresses as operators determine the actual time needed for
each task, along with the sources of variation. Rather than stepping away to
find a tool, mechanics stay by the aircraft and visually signal their tool and
part requirements. As they work, they note any flaw in the process and
perfect it for the future.
Well-defined, standard work practices make more rigorous scheduling
possible. Standard completion times and best-quality sequences help
operators divide and balance their workloads so that they can choreograph
aircraft movements during nightly A-checks. (In a carefully scheduled lean
system, everyone knows that a 767 will come through the door at a certain
time and will exit, say, two hours and 40 minutes later.) That level of
scheduling rigor helps companies match their staffing levels with work
sequences more accurately. Meanwhile, demand-based materials
replenishmentmade possible bykanban signals that directly link upstream
activities to actual usagelocks in replacement parts and minimizes
surprises.
Improved information flows and standard job practices combine to make
schedules more stable and introduce an operating pace, formerly a novelty
for repair operations. Keeping the front line informed is vital, particularly in
maintenance shops where aircraft move slowly and no formal assembly line
provides rhythm and discipline. In a lean A-check, marks on the hangar floor
inform the tug operator and the mechanics where a plane will stop,
equipment will be kept, and workers will be deployed. Performance-
management boards close to the aircraft convey the status of each task and
thus help the team utilize resources efficiently and in real time. Workers use
these boards, a visual form of communication involving the whole team, to
transfer information on progress rapidly. Through visual card displays,
mechanics can see the pace of a job and learn the job sequence of the
turnaround. The team counts its time-to-completion visually. When the
check is done, the team draws on the boards performance data to see how it
could improve.





ONLINE TICKET




















Customized offerings and vast selections are now expected as the norm in
consumer-focused industries. As the percentage of leisure travellers continues to
grow, airlines need to find innovative ways to increase the effective yield from these
lower-margin travellers. Clearly, there is one size fits-all approach to reaching
customers, as Generation Y passengers under 30 years old will have markedly
different criteria for an enjoyable travel experience than parents with toddlers. The
online ticketing portal starts when a customer logs into a website of ticket booking.
He requests the destination and the date of journey and is then provided with the
travel information he is been looking for. He selects the applicable and the required
flights and routes that is displayed. The usual process stops here but according to
our research and project we feel we have something to add on here. The website can
then further display the add ons for any special requirement by the passenger. The
special requirements majorly contain A wheel chair for the old people, a pram for
the baby, etc. As the screen opens up, it will be basically show up the food section
that the customer can choose what it wants to have at the flight and the special
requirements. Now the basic motive to do this would be To charge the customers
with only the Travel fee. Example: Many of us dont prefer to eat anything on the
flight but the charges of it are included in our ticket. So the basic motive of this
system will be to reduce the cost of travel as to attract more customers and
customize their travel so that they revert back again and thus end up becoming a
loyal customer for the Air India. This also helps us creating a central database which
can further be used to deliver the services efficiently at the time of arrival.



CUSTOMER ARRIVAL

As the customer arrives in the airport, with the help of the central database that is
already been created during the online ticket booking, all the resources with any
special requirements are been kept ready at the time of arrival. There will a small
counter at the arrival with all equipments ready and as the customer approaches the
Air India personnel verifies the ticket information and provide them with the
requirements that is on the ticket. If there are any special requirements, the
customer gets the resources opted for and then he further moves inside the airport.
The benefit of doing this would be it saves a lot of time of the passenger and makes
their travel journey easy. The passengers need not to go and find out at the time of
arrival at the airport with any requirements and then waiting for things to get
cleared; instead with the help of the central database system, everything is kept
ready and the customer just need to show their ticket and get all the requirements
on the spot, without wasting their time searching for the resources at airport. Just in
time process helps us to reduce the wastage and keep things up to the mark and that
everything is working efficiently.






BAGGAGE



As the customer enters the airport after the ticket checking and the verification of
their identity, there will be a separate weighing belt of Air India in which the
customers need to weigh the weight of their luggages. The Air India personnel
appointed for this verifies the belt of the customer, if the weight is in the limits, the
personnel put a tag and let the person take the baggage to the check in counter. In
case if the weight is more, the customer is taken separately to adjust the weight and
is been provided with the adjust baggage in which he need to shifts his stuff and
take it as a handbag on the flight. This process helps Air India and the customer too
saves a lot of time. The time when the person stands on a Que with the bag adjusting
his luggage eats away his time as well as of the other customers too. This process
helps us standardizing the process reduce the Que time.
















HAND BAG


There has been times when our hand baggage is usually bigger then what we should
carry with us. The problems that occurs in this as we dont get enough space to put
of baggage on the hand baggage space provided in flight due to the size of the
handbag. This process will help us cut down that problem and makes the journey
smooth. In this the customer stands in the weighing Que and the Air India personnel
verify the size of the baggage. If the size is in limit, the customer continues to check
in, and if not the customer is provided with the separate bag to place the necessities.
Example: A mother carrying a baby with her needs the stuffs like milk, bottles, etc,
so she will be given a separate bag to carry those things as a hand baggage in the
flight and the rest stuff will be sent as a main luggage. This helps us standardizing
our services and the difficulties faced by the passengers are been taken care of in
this matter.
















FOOD KIOSK









An airline meal or in-flight meal is a meal served to passengers on board a
commercial airliner. These meals are prepared by airline catering services.
These meals vary widely in quality and quantity across different airline
companies and classes of travel. They range from a simple beverage in short-
haul economy class to a seven-course gourmet meal in long-haul first class.
To provide everyone with high quality food which is served hot a special
provision is made for passengers who did not book their food online. The kiosk
displays a list of items which can be served hot within the given time of a flight
thus preventing inventories and providing passengers with hot food. As displayed
in the figure different food items are displayed with time remaining to make an
order for the item. As time goes by the items in the list decreases based on the
time for preparation and in the last half hour before boarding only those items
which can be made fast such as a sandwich remain on the list and 20 minutes
prior to boarding the kiosk is closed for that particular flight
Kiosks are placed after security check and also inside the waiting areas so that
passengers can order food that they require before they board the flight based on
the time restrictions.
Caterers usually produce alternative meals for passengers with restrictive diets. These must
usually be ordered in advance, sometimes when buying the ticket if not based on time restrictions
these can be chosen at the kiosk. But this would require passengers to access the kiosks much
earlier in order to have the full menu available to them. Some of the alternative meals are:
Cultural diets, such as French, Italian, Chinese, Japanese or Indian style.
Infant and baby meals. Some airlines also offer children's meals, containing foods that
children will enjoy such as baked beans, mini-hamburgers and hot dogs.
Medical diets, including low/high fiber, low fat/cholesterol, diabetic, peanut free, non-lactose,
low salt/sodium,low-purine, low-calorie, low-protein, bland (non-spicy) and gluten-free meals.
Religious diets, including kosher, halal, and Hindu, Buddhist and Jain vegetarian (sometimes
termed Asian vegetarian) meals.
Vegetarian and vegan meals. Some airlines do not offer a specific meal for vegetarians;
instead, they are given a vegan meal.


QUALITY METHODS
We have build our service blueprint on ZERO DEFECTS MODEL.By analysing the
stages and the problems that arise at the grassroot level like the waiting for
baggage, people blocking way in queue,etc we have created a model where errors on
being detrected are prevented to reoccur.
This is done by stanadardising the process from the check in to boarding the
flight.The role of standardizing is that the number of variations are prevented
leading to consistent flow in the process



ZERO DEFECT MODEL
















SIX SIGMA APPROACH



Six-Sigma engage each employee of the organization from top executives to the
employee on the manufacturing or service floor.It focuses on quality improvement,
cost- reduction ,cycle time reduction and improved delivery performance. This
results in higher profits and customer satisfaction .It also improves the relationship
between the management & employees.
In order to implement the principles of this approach we propose the following:
By reducing the blockage at the time of check in (due to excess baggage)
we not only reduce the variation caused but also reduce the impact on
cycle time and make the process flow smoothly.
By introducing RFID tags and we can effectively improve the the flow of
passengers.
Also by putting baggage on flight according to the order so that passangers
who disembark first and on reaching conveyer belt find their bags already
arrived and who arrive late are aware that arrival of their bags will take
time.It will led to less hassle and disappointment which will directly
improve satisfaction level of customers.


PROBLEM: Generally bag handling is a challenge for airlines and a problem for
customers. They have to wait for their bags for hours even when they have reached
on time to conveyer belt.
RECOMMENDATION: We suggest instead of placing bags in a random order if bags
are kept in an organized manner we can smoothen the process.This will happen by
colour coding the bags after check in the ground staff can stick colour tags to
bags.To explain , lets say the bags are coded red if they are of passengers sitting at
last seats (last section).These bags are loaded first on the carriage of aircraft and
placed first.Secondly bags of second last section are attached a green tag and kept in
front of the red colourbags in order of seats.Similarly for other sections bags are
kept in order such that bags of people in the back section of plane (who are last one
to disembark and reach conveyer belt) arrive in the end.














BAGGAGE COLOR CODE:







BLUE
RED
GREE
N