Alaska Airlines is unique among the nine major U.S. carriers not only for its extensive flight coverage of remote towns throughout Alaska (it also covers the U.S., Hawaii, and Mexico from its primary hub in Seattle). It is also one of the smallest independent airlines, with 10,300 employees, including 3,000 flight attendants and 1,500 pilots. What makes it really unique, though, is its ability to build state-of-the-art processes, using the latest technology, that yield high customer satisfaction. Indeed, J. D. Power and Associates have ranked Alaska Airlines highest in North America for seven years in a row for customer satisfaction. Alaska Airlines was the first to sell tickets via the Internet, first to offer Web check-in and print boarding passes online, and first with kiosk check-in. As Wayne Newton, Director of System Operation Control, states, "We are passionate about our processes. If it's not measured, it's not managed." One of the processes Alaska is most proud of is its baggage handling system. Passengers can check in at kiosks, tag their own bags with barcode stickers, and deliver them to a customer service agent at the carousel, which carries the bags through the vast underground system that eventually delivers the bags to a baggage handler. En route, each bag passes through TSA automated screening and is manually opened or inspected if it appears suspicious. With the help of barcode readers, conveyor belts automatically sort and transfer bags to their location (called a "pier) at the tarmac level. A baggage handler then loads the bags onto a cart and takes it to the plane for loading by the ramp team waiting inside the cargo hold. There are different procedures for "hot bags" (bags that have less than 30 minutes between transfer) and for "cold bags" (bags with over 60 minutes between plane transfers). Hot bags are delivered directly from one plane (called "tail-to-tail"). Cold bags are sent back into the normal conveyor system. The process continues on the destination side with Alaska's unique guarantee that customer luggage will be delivered to the terminal's carousel within 20 minutes of the plane's arrival at the gate. If not, Alaska grants each passenger a 2,000 frequent-flier mile bonus! The airline's use of technology includes barcode scanners to check in the bag when a passenger arrives, and again before it is placed on the cart to the plane. Similarly, on arrival, the time the passenger door opens is electronically noted and bags are again scanned as they have placed on the baggage carousel at the destination-tracking this metric means that the "time to carousel" (TTC) deadline is seldom missed. And the process almost guarantees that the lost bag rate approaches zero. On a recent day, only one out of 100 flights missed the TTC mark. The baggage process relies not just on technology, though. There are detailed, documented procedures to ensure that bags hit the 20-minute timeframe. Within one minute of the plane door opening at the gate, baggage handlers must begin the unloading The first bag must be out of the plane within three minutes of parking the plane. This means the ground crew must be in the proper location with their trucks and ramps in place and ready to go. Largely because of technology, flying on Alaska Airlines is remarkably reliable-even in the dead of an Alaska winter with only two hours of daylight, 50 mph winds, slippery runways, and low visibility, Alaska Airlines has had the industry 's best on-time performance, with 87 % of its flights landing on time.

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Question

1. Prepare a flowchart of the process a passenger's bag follows for a sample flowchart.) Include the exception process for the TSA opening of selected bags.
 

Example 2 STUDENT TIP + Flowcharting any process is an excellent way to understand and then try to improve that process. A FLOWCHART FOR HOSPITAL MRI SERVICE Arnold Palmer Hospital has undertaken a series of process improvement initiatives. One of these is to make the MRI service efficient for patient, doctor, and hospital. The first step, the administrator believes, is to develop a flowchart for this process. APPROACH A process improvement staffer observed a number of patients and followed them (and information flow) from start to end. Here are the 11 steps: 1. Physician schedules MRI after examining patient (START). 2. Patient taken from the examination room to the MRI lab with test order and copy of medical records. 3. Patient signs in, completes required paperwork. 4. Patient is prepped by technician for scan. 5. Technician carries out the MRI scan. 6. Technician inspects film for clarity. 7. If MRI not satisfactory (20% of time), Steps 5 and 6 are repeated. 8. Patient taken back to hospital room. 9. MRI is read by radiologist and report is prepared. 10. MRI and report are transferred electronically to physician. 11. Patient and physician discuss report (END). SOLUTION Here is the flowchart: 2 3 5->> 6 20% 2 INSIGHT With the flowchart in hand, the hospital can analyze each step and identify value-added activities and activities that can be improved or eliminated. 80% LEARNING EXERCISE A new procedure requires that if the patient s blood pressure is over 200/120 when being prepped for the MRI, she is taken back to her room for 2 hours and the process returns to Step 2. How does the flowchart change? Answer: 3 10 4