3. Background
Our Story and Position
• Founders: Rolling King and Herd Kelleher
• Chief Competitions: Car and Bus
• Commitment: Most inexpensive fare and most frequent flight between urban
markets separated by 500m or less
4. Background
To Reach Our Commitment
Strategy
Turn Aircraft Around Quickly at Gate
Benefits
Minimize an airplane’s time on Ground
One Operating Platform --the Boeing 737 Increase efficiency (crews, furnishing, etc.)
Use less-congested airports
Avoid Disrupting flight operations and
maximize plane in the air
Limited Services
No in-flight meal
No transfer Baggage
Single class seating
Increase Efficiency
5.
6. Southwest vs American Airline
Employees
Cross-Functional Accountability
Functional Accountability
Managers
Focus on Learning
Focus on Measurement
Supervision
Small Spans of Control
Large Span of Control
Hiring
Based on Teamwork Ability
Based on Working Experience
Resolution
Proactive Conflict Resolution
Minimal Conflict Resolution
• More supervision
• Less performance measurement
• Less supervision
• More performance measurement
7. The importance of BWI
• First East Coast gateway
- Strategic location - in the center of East Coast
• After 7 years, share of Southwest’s passengers reached 34% higher than the
perennial leader, US Airways
• One of Southwest’s mega station
- Offered more than 100 flight departures per day
• One of Southwest’s biggest transfer station
- More than 800,000 passengers made connection there
8. BWI’s Challenges
Growing number
of connecting
customers
Operational
challenge
Facility
constraint
Any delay of
flights could result
in holding the next
flights which will
ripple throughout
the system
Bag sorting area
had already
reached its
capacity
Shortage of
Employees
New workers
create
inexperienced
workforce
9. Current Flight Situation
Flight
From
To
Scheduled Arriving Time
Actual Arriving Time
F110
Nashville
Baltimore
8:15
8:55
Flight
From
To
Scheduled Departing Time Actual Departing Time
F110
Baltimore
Manchester
8:55
9:10
6/33 make connection to Flight 232 (Buffalo) departing at 8:40(B15)
3/33 make connection to Flight 1819 (Albany) departing at 9:25(B13)
24/33 have enough time to make connection
11. Process
7:30
7:45
8:45
9:03
8:55
Get a call from F110
Assign B17 Gate to
F110
Broadcast Crew
”Arriving Late”
Attach The FI and
CBLS on the Clip
Ramp
Supervisor
(B17, B19)
8:50
Make the Bags to
Manchester Ready
Identify
Hot Bags
Ramp Agent
B17
Take the CBLS
F110 Crews
Pilot Calls Alice
F232 Ops
Agent
F232 Board
Passengers
9:15
9:12
F110
Arrive
Inform flight
Crew
Transfer Gate
9:05
Ops
Coordinator
F110
Ops Agent
Doug
Dallas Office
Notice the
Delay of F110
Decide to
Hold F232
Fuel Invoice
Nashville
Cargo Bin Loading
Incomplete Data
Schedule
of F110
Decide to Hold
F232
F110
Depart
Deplane Finish
Start On Boarding
Finish Boarding
Farewell to
Passengers
• Report to Dallas
• Informed of the
lost Luggage in
B17
Send out Allowed
Fuel Amount
Click Me to See Breakdown
Put back
the CBLS
Clean
Cabin
F232
Depart
Notify the Lost
Three Luggage
12. Ramp Agent Process Breakdown
Set to Proper
Position to load
Fuel Begin
Engine Off
8:55
10 sec
75 sec
40
sec
Finish Uploading
90 sec
1 min 20
sec
30 sec
9:07
9 min 30 sec
F110 Arrive
First Hot Bag
Out
Disgorge the
Packages
Unloading
Completed
13. Process
7:30
7:45
8:45
9:03
8:55
Get a call from F110
Assign B17 Gate to
F110
Broadcast Crew
”Arriving Late”
Attach The FI and
CBLS on the Clip
Ramp
Supervisor
(B17, B19)
8:50
Make the Bags to
Manchester Ready
Identify
Hot Bags
Ramp Agent
B17
Take the CBLS
F110 Crews
Pilot Calls Alice
F232 Ops
Agent
F232 Board
Passengers
9:15
9:12
F110
Arrive
Inform flight
Crew
Transfer Gate
9:05
Ops
Coordinator
F110
Ops Agent
Doug
Dallas Office
Notice the
Delay of F110
Fuel Invoice
Nashville
Cargo Bin Loading
Incomplete Data
Schedule
of F110
Decide to Hold
F232
F110
Depart
Deplane Finish
Start On Boarding
Finish Boarding
Farewell to
Passengers
• Report to Dallas
• Informed of the
lost Luggage in
B17
Send out Allowed
Fuel Amount
Click Me to See Breakdown
Put back
the CBLS
Clean
Cabin
F232
Depart
Notify the Lost
Three Luggage
14. Process
7:30
Ops
Coordinator
8:45
7:45
9:03
8:55
Get a call from F110
Assign B17 Gate to
F110
Broadcast Crew
”Arriving Late”
Notice the
Delay of F110
F110
Ops Agent
Doug
Nashville
Incomplete Data
of F110
Fuel Invoice
Dallas Office
Decide to Hold
F232
Attach The FI and
CBLS on the Clip
8:50
Make the Bags to
Manchester Ready
9:15
9:12
F110
Arrive
Inform flight
Crew
Transfer Gate
9:05
Identify
Hot Bags
F110
Depart
Deplane Finish
Start On Boarding
• Report to Dallas
• Informed of the
lost Luggage in
B17
Send out Allowed
Fuel Amount
Ramp
Supervisor
(B17, B19)
Cargo Bin
Loading
Schedule
Ramp Agent
B17
Take the CBLS
F110 Crews
Pilot Calls Alice
F232 Ops
Agent
F232 Board
Passengers
Click Me to See Breakdown
Finish Boarding
Notify the Lost
Three Luggage
Put back
the CBLS
Clean
Cabin
Farewell to
Passengers
F232
Depart
15. Value Map
Turnaround F110
Front End
Back End
On Flight 110 to Baltimore
System
OTIS & FIDS
Get Notified about the delay
Arrive
Offer Customer Services
Transfer/ Stay on F110
Manchester passengers onboard
Manchester Passengers take seats
Fly to Manchester
Clean Cabinet& Assist onboard
Apologize for the delay
Offer Customer Services
Broadcast
System
16. Key Customer Interface
Key Customerfacing activities
Southwest Action
-Crew in place
(Inbound)
Flight 110
Deplane passengers
-Take care of passengers
with special needs
Positive Impact
Passengers with special
needs
All passengers
Meet and direct hot
passengers
Meet, greet & direct
Hot Passengers
Confirm passengers with
continual flight stayed
onboard
Check & Confirm, Fast
Maintenance
Passengers onboard
17. Key Customer Interface
Key CustomerFacing Activities
Southwest Action
Positive Impact
(To Buffalo)
Flight 232
Regular Passengers
Onboard Regular
Passengers
Complete onboarding
before F110 arrived
Hot Passengers
Onboard Hot Passengers
Supervisor lead Hot
Passenger to F232
Hot Passengers
18. Key Customer Interface
Key Customerfacing activities
Southwest Action
Positive Impact
(inbound)
Flight 110
Issue boarding passes
Complete before F110
arrived
All passengers
Board Passengers
Group & Greet & Board
All passengers
Onboard Hot passengers
Assist hot passengers &
Apologize
All passengers
19. Southwest Control Mechanisms
Strength
Weakness
Achieve control without compromising
coordination
Good performance is not easily defined
Reduce unproductive blaming
Employees are not easily evaluated and
motivated
High level of trust
Vulnerable to the loss of trust
Richer communication & flow of
information across all levels
Hiring & training process is more
complicated and time-consuming
20. Recommendation 1
Future F110 Situation
• A more comprehensive plane-holding decision making process
Hold the plan
Conduct Financial
Projection
Transfer to other airlines
Don’t hold the plane
*Require form an
alliance with other
airlines
Provide accommodation
for overnight stay
21. Recommendation 2
• Operation Agent delegates Cargo process responsibility to Ramp Supervisor
Operation Agent
Ramp Supervisor
Cargo Chart
Other responsibilities
Ramp Agent
Less Mishandled
Luggage
22. Recommendation 3
• More efficient Mentor & Training Program for new employees
Experienced
Employees from
Dallas
Relocate to
BWI
Mentor new
employees
BWI New
Employees
Dallas
1 month
working/training
BWI New
Employees
A bit background: Industry-wise & SW achievementCar and bus: Chief competition: most inexpensive fares and most frequent flights between urban markets separated by 500 miles or less. Hub and spoke system: consolidate passengers from small markets at hub airports to assure relatively full planes for long-haul flights. Spend less time aloft relative to other carriers’ planes. Time spent on the ground and physical stress on aircraft from a higher frequency of take-offs and landings- costly and labor intensive
Operating strategies to reduce operating costs and offset the productivity disadvantages inherernt in short-haul, point-to-point flying. They focused on turning aircraft around quickly at gate to minimize the time on the ground 2, Using only one operating platform, the Boeing 737, enhancing efficiencySW used less-congested airports with easy access to large metropolitan areas.Offering limited services (no in-flight meals, did not transfer baggage to other airlines) Offered open, single class seating.
1972-2001, stock outperformed ALL other US stockWon “Triple Crown” in Airline Industry: Fewest delays, fewest complaints, fewest mishandled bags Southwest Effect
FIDS- Flight Information Display SystemOTIS-Operations Terminal Information System
Definition: A moment of truth is usually defined as an instance wherein the customer and the organization come into contact with one another in a manner that gives the customer an opportunity to either form or change an impression about the firm.
American: Measuring performance by numbers & assign outcomes to individual department ---- carried out from distance, supervisory functions be minimized, ----- flat in the field operation (efficient/week coordination, employee focus on their own piece of process and ignore downstream consequences---narrow functional perspective front-line employees Southwest: need for coordination --- ‘Team delay’, reduce the precision of performance measurement (reduce unproductive blaming)—supervisors ---coaching, richer communication across levels
Looking at the cases above, we have come to 3 recommendations for Southwest. The first one is to have a more comprehensive plane holding decision making process. Holding a plane is expensive. We encourage Southwest to conduct a financial estimation to determine what is their time limitation for holding a plane. By using this time frame, there will be 2 outcomes. First, is to
