Lean Six Sigma - a new approach to airport consultation and management

Tony Gollin and Thomas Hyde

Introduction

• Auckland Airport is committed to playing its part in improving the border experience

– Facilitating the border agencies and airport/airline entities to work together to improve processes and the passenger experience

– Providing the airport infrastructure (people, processes, technology) to best support government and commercial objectives in passenger and aircraft facilitation

The Need

• Customer focus– The experience of the “facilitated passenger” is influenced

by a number of factors:• Environment• Front-line individuals• Processes• Multiple parties (airport, airlines, ground handlers, government

agencies…)

– “Customer” means different things to each airport stakeholder

– No one party is entirely responsible for the experience a passenger has on arrival or departure from NZ

How do we create a culture across the airport eco-system that puts the customer first, with a shared vision and set of actions?

What is Lean Six Sigma?

• A fact-based approach to continuous improvement• Operational focus – happens at the front line• All about reducing “waste” (time, cost,…) • Puts a cost on variance against target performance• Usually applied within a single business

We applied the approach across seven organisations!

ControlImproveAnalyseMeasureDefine

DMAIC

Scope of activity

DEPARTURES

SMARTGATE

TRANSIT

ARRIVALS

IMMIGRATION, CUSTOMS

BAGGAGE CLAIMMAF

DUTY FREE

EMMIGRATIONAVSEC

SCREENINGDUTY FREE

GATE ALLOCATION

AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE

AIRSIDE OPERATIONS

GATE ALLOCATION

LANDSIDE

AIRSIDE

SMARTGATE

X-Ray Image Transfer

(To destination)

X-Ray Image Transfer

(From Origin)

BOARDING

Self-Service

CHECK IN

BAGGAGE SCREENING

Initiatives

• Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study (Arrivals Process)• Extended into a rolling Lean Six Sigma Programme

– On-going improvement of Arrivals process– Departures process

• Parallel support and integration of Border Agency initiatives with Trans-Tasman focus, e.g.– Customs – SmartGate– MAF – Fast Track

Seeking to provide benefits to participating organisations, improving/reinforcing Auckland Airport’s brand with customers, and

supporting NZ/AUS Govt objective to streamline Trans-Tasman passenger facilitation

Example: Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study (Arrivals Process)

Start

End

Approach

• Kick off work shop and training sessions• Establishment of an operational Arrivals Team• Governance Group meetings for decision making• CEO Group for endorsement• Detailed analysis of all aspects of arrivals process

– Baggage handling– Customs and MAF processing and resourcing– PAX timing– Data mining (FIDS etc)

The Team identified the two key areas to target for customer satisfaction were speed and environment

Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study (Arrivals Process)

11:00 12:01

11:00 - 11:16

Disembark aircraft

11:16 - 12:00ICAO 45 mins

BAGS TO CAROUSEL

CUSTOMS QUEUEDUTY FREE MAF QUEUEINSP INSP

Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study - Outcomes

• Successfully built a multi-party operational team that can make decisions and implement improvements

• Quantified key aspects of the arrivals process, understanding the factors that most affect processing times at high pax volumes

• Identified improvement opportunities and/or potential cost savings for all parties

• A number of immediate environmental changes made• Several longer term improvement projects identified (prioritisation for roll on

programme)

Economy First/Last April 1st 2009

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DJ96 DJ188 DJ162 BI77 SQ285 CX107 EK412 EK406 EK434 DJ164 DJ186 SQ281 DJ54 DJ78

Flight

Min

ute

s

Time Taken Economy

Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study – Vision for Arrivals

“Compliant passengers will take an average of 15 minutes to progress from the start of the Customs passport control into the public arrivals area, and no more than 25 minutes at any time.”

Lean Six Sigma Pilot Study (Arrivals Process)

• New technology:– RFID for passenger tracking

– Exploring application of CCTV, blue tooth and door counters

– Providing real time decision support information to multi-stakeholders (e.g. Inbound aircraft passenger profile)

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0:00:00 1:00:00 2:00:00 3:00:00 4:00:00 5:00:00 6:00:00 7:00:00

Time

No

of

PA

X AUS/NZ

AUS/NZ Transfer

Other

Other Transfer

Environmental Improvements

Environmental Improvements

Environmental Improvements

Governance Structure for on-going ProgrammeCEO Steering

GroupChair AA CEO

Governance Group

Chair AA COO

Lean Six Sigma Programme

Director

Lean Six Sigma Programme

Manager

Assistant Programme

Manager

Lean Six Sigma Working Group A

(e.g. Arrivals)

Stakeholder Project Team Members

Lean Six Sigma Working Group B (e.g. Departures)

Stakeholder Project Team Members

Lean Six Sigma Working Group C

(e.g. A/C Processing)

Stakeholder Project Team Members

Project Management Function

Auckland Airport IT Group

Improvement Project 1

Improvement Project 2

Improvement Project 3

Lean Six Sigma Management Function

Benefits and Conclusions

• Basically, we proved it works and drives real improvements.

• All agencies have committed to applying the methodology airport-wide.

• Adopted as the ‘execution tool’ for introducing trans-Tasman initiatives over the next 14 months.

• Empowers front-line staff to make and act on improvement decisions.

• Was highly motivational for the staff involved.• Locks in a continuous improvement culture in the

organisations involved.• Serves as a powerful project management tool.

Thank you

Questions?