Writing on Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System[pic 1]
SECTION A – PROJECT SELECTION
- Was the project scoped properly? Why/why not?
The scoping of the project was not done properly; furthermore, there were distinct lacking or shortcomings:
- Planning: Initially they didn’t consider for the baggage handling system.
- Poor design:
- Allowed the system to become the airport’s critical path.
- It failed to link the overall strategy of the project.
- Error in designing of the physical building structure.
- Selection of vendor:
- The vendor had no experience of such activity of this scale.
- The vendor had lack of due diligence in designing.
- Budget control:
- Lacking in controlling the budget.
- Limit & exclusions:
- Limit and exclusion was defective; therefore, the contractor has installed additional equipment to control the misreading destination of bags which raised the budget high.
- Risk assessment & mitigation approach:
The project failed to asses and mitigate the risks:
- “Cascade of Queues”
- “Reliable Delivery time”
- “Line balancing problem”
- “Installation complexity”
- Making firm commitments in the face of massive risks and uncertainty
- No backup for PCs network and
- Detection of Jam of more bags.
- Impractical timeframe and milestones:
- No ‘Reliable Delivery time’ and ‘milestone’ in the scope.
- Excessive schedule pressure
- Scope control:
- Subsequent changes in strategy.
- Failure to understand the implication change requests.
- Shift in technology.
- The decision to seek a different path
- Poor stakeholder management:
- The team worked in silos.
- The team failed to have effective communication with airlines, the important shareholders.
- Singer was the system’s de facto sponsor and his death left the project without much needed leadership.
- No consultancy before the Mayor did the arrangement with Logplan.
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- Poor communication:
- The airlines were were excluded from the discussions.
- Deliverable:
- The project failed to consider its deliverables properly.
- What were the project goals?
Goals of the DIA project regarding installation of the Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System were
- to deliver one of the world’s most efficient airports.
- to deliver an integrated nature of the new systems to handle the baggage meant that instead of airlines looking after their own facilities, airport’s needed to take control.
- The maximum baggage delivery time was apparently set at 20 minutes for narrow body and 30 minutes for wide body aircraft.
- Should this project have been deemed feasible? That is, should it have been allowed to go ahead? Why/Why not?
No. The project should have not been deemed feasible, to allow it to go ahead due to its shortcomings:
- Without properly scoped.
- Without back up it was not feasible to operate the automated technology.
- It was more like an attempted leap from the third to the fifth or sixth generation of systems.
- Insufficient time and that exposed to massive levels of schedule pressure.
- Wrong design.
- Negative report of Breier Neidle Patrone Associates and BAE Senior Management team.
SECTION B – PROJECT PLANNING
- What were the project deliverables?
- "Integrated Automated Baggage Handling System" with the design to distribute all baggage; furthermore, the system is including automating transfers of baggage between check-in, the aircraft and pick-up on arrival.
- Baggage handling system of 50m passengers annually.