From a business process management perspective, there can be few systems as complex as a modern international airport. For one thing, there is the sheer scale in terms of physical size and number of planes and passengers. But for another, there are so many different processes as work. Each has its own stakeholders and managers, and its own inputs and outputs, but there are also subtle linkages that join them all together.
For example, passenger flow through the airport, air traffic control for the planes, baggage handling, check in and security, cleaning aircraft and facilities, even the very act of getting personnel and flight crew where they need to be. Each is a highly complex system, and all must take place in a crowded environment where safety and security are paramount.
The changing face of airports
Over the past 20 years, passenger numbers have more than doubled from around 1.5 billion in the late 1990s to 3.7 billion in 2016. At the same time, planes have got bigger, security tighter and passenger needs more sophisticated. Airports have had to constantly evolve and develop just to keep pace with demands – and all the while, remaining open for business.
For example, when Ronald Regan International Airport in Washington underwent extension and improvements in 2012, Lagan Construction was faced with the task of resurfacing the main runway and taxiways. The process meant milling out and replacing 55,000 tonnes of asphalt, and it all had to be done in limited night time shifts that still enabled the runway to be reopened every morning.
Using Business Process Management
Design, construction and major maintenance projects are not the only areas in which BPM plays a crucial role at airports. In 2010, Heathrow Airport, one of the busiest hubs on the globe, saved £30 million ($42 million) when it implemented its business process management project.
Given the specialist needs of an airport, particularly one the size of Heathrow, there was no shortage of raised eyebrows when the decision was made to utilize a generic BPM system, as opposed to one specifically designed for the aviation sector. Eamon Cheverton, the Enterprise Architect at BAA explained the decision at the Gartner BPM summit in London: “Somebody offered us a solution that would have cost us £1.5 million per annum. We built it for a fraction of that cost. Against buying an off-the-shelf aviation tool, we’ve saved £30 million doing it ourselves.”
At Heathrow, there is a long and complex sequence of processes that begin when a plane touches down on the runway and end when it lifts off again. BAA’s system uses a set of rules that have been designed in-house to optimize each process. If the system detects some unusual scenario, for example delays caused by adverse weather, it shifts to the specific rule set that is designed to manage the new circumstances.
The airport credits the new system with increasing the percentage of on-time departures from 68 percent to 83 percent, while also saving an average 90 litres of fuel on each flight, thanks to reduced waiting times on the runway.
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