1. What are some ways that Alaska can ensure that quality and performance metric standards are met when the company outsources its ground operations to a contract provider?

Alaska Airlines, with nearly 100 destinations, including regular service to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, and Mexico, is the seventhlargest U.S. carrier. Alaska Airlines has won the J. D. Power and Associates Award for highest customer satisfaction in the industry for 8 years in a row while being the number one on-time airline for 5 years in a row.
Management’s unwavering commitment to quality has driven much of the firm’s success and generated an extremely loyal customer base. Executive VP Ben Minicucci exclaims, “We have rewritten our DNA.” Building an organization that can achieve quality is a demanding task, and the management at Alaska Airlines accepted the challenge. This is a highly participative quality culture, reinforced by leadership training, constant process improvement, comprehensive metrics, and frequent review of those metrics.
The usual training of flight crews and pilots is supplemented with classroom training in areas such as Six Sigma. Over 200 managers have obtained Six Sigma Green Belt certification.

Alaska collects more than 100 quality and performance metrics every day. For example, the accompanying picture tells the crew that it has 6 minutes to close the door and back away from the gate to meet the “time to pushback” target. Operations personnel review each airport hub’s performance scorecard daily and the overall operations scorecard weekly. As Director of System Operations Control, Wayne Newton proclaims, “If it is not measured, it is not managed.” The focus is on identifying problem areas or trends, determining causes, and working on preventive measures.

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WEIGHTING PERFORMANCE SCORE BONUS POINTS TOTAL GRADE 20 15 15 20 15 15 555 15 B 5 20 A+ 15 00 B 10 9 10 98.7% 6 A 10 A ELEMENTS Process Compliance Staffing MAP Rate (for bags) Delays Time to Carousel (total weight = 10) Percentage of flights scanned Percentage of bags scanned 20 Minutes all bags dropped (% compliance) Outliers (>25mins) Safety Compliance Quality Compliance Total - 100% 224 n 70.9% 92.5% 2 2 15 15 5 20 A+ 10 10 10 100 89 10 99 < < A+ Time to Carousel Points Percentage of flights scanned Points Percentage of bags scanned 1.5 1 0 95%-100% 90%-94.9% 89.9%-85% <84.9% 0 60% or above 59.9% Points 0 Last bag percent compliance Points Below 89.9% 4 90%-100% 0 1 1.5 Last Bag >25 min. (Outliers) 20 20 15 10 O in 25