Theoretically, baggage-handling is quite simple.

Baggage input is connected to merely two events: an airplane lands or a person checks in. However, it’s risky business. Baggage handling is the second most important factor in having a pleasant trip, according to a 2009 IATA CATS survey. Moreover, mishandled baggage is a $2.5 billion problem for industry every year.

Just think that this problem may annually affect about 51 million passengers travelling through Schiphol airport alone.

In 2004, IBM Corporation,Vanderlande Industries and later Grenzebach Automation Systems, jointly took up the challenge of renewing the Baggage Control System for one of the biggest airport hubs in Europe, and one of the busiest in the world: Schiphol International Airport, in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

With an investment of around $1 billion over a period of about 10 years, Schiphol’s goal was threefold: (a)

realize a monumental 1% maximum loss of transfer baggage (against the initial 22 million lost baggage);

(b) increase capacity from 40 to 70 million bags; (c)

reduce cost per bag without increasing wait-times.

Most of the job involved Schiphol’s gigantic baggage conveyor network: 21 kilometers of transport tracks, 6 robotic units, and 9,000 storage capacitors, all behaving as one system. Also, extending the system with more surfaces is not possible, given the land conditions surrounding the airport. The baggage conveyor network has a simple goal: the right bag must be at the right place at the right time. To pursue this goal the network must perform several key roles: move bags from the check-in area to the departure gate, move bags from gate to gate, move bags from the arrival gate to the baggage claim, and plan and control peripheral hardware and software. In addition, these roles involve a wide variety of sensors, actuators, mechanical devices, and computers. The network uses over 3 million lines of source code.........

1. How many levels of complexity can you identify in Schiphol’s baggage conveyor network?
2. What are the management, organization, and technology components of Schiphol’s baggage conveyor network?

3. What is the problem that Schiphol is trying to solve? Discuss the business impact of this problem.
4. Think of the data that the network uses. What kinds of management reports can be generated from that data?