AutoSave Home Insert Draw lets Paste Times New... x [D g? aIu ' SHE)?\" El Design Layout References exerclse 3 pm Mailings Review View Grammarly Q Tellme AaBchDdEe AaBchDdEe AaBchDc AaBchDdEs AaBb( AaBchDdEr ) A Normal Na spacing Heading 1 Heading 2 TERMINAL 5- LONDON HBATHROW AIRPORT The queen announced to a select audience at the ribboncutting ceremony for Terminal 5 at London Heathrow Airport, \"It gives me great pleasure to open Terminal 57the let century gateway to Britain and, to us, the wider world.\" At the cost of over $5 billion British Airways (BA) was banking on Terminal 5 eliminating what had commonly been called the \"Heathrow hassle.\" Over the past decade Heathrow had earned a reputation for baggage delays, long queues, and lost luggage, so much so that premium passengers were avoiding landing there and paying extra to land in ultra-modem hubs, like Amsterdam and Frankfurt. Terminal 5 was designed by a world-famous architect and featured sweeping views of London; wide, open spaces; and rows of luxury shops. including Tifny's and a Gordon Ramsey restaurant It was designed to handle 30 million customers a year with state-of-theart departure lounges. It included a sophisticated baggage setup designed to handle 12,000 bags per hour and eliminate the Heathrow hassle. March 28, the opening day of the terminal, started ominously. The rst warning came at 4:00 a.m., when many of the staff and passengers began showing up late because they could not nd parking. The road signs outside the terminal were not clear, and people said they were given the wrong information once inside. Once the staff arrived at work, many were unable to log in to the computer system due to inadequate training. As a result, processing of passengers began to bog down, and the luggage began to stack up. Technical glitches with the baggage system emerged. An underground conveyor system became clogged up. By noon, BA had had to cancel 20 ights. By 5:00 p.m., BA had suspended the checking in of all luggage. This meant passengers at the airport had the choice of ying with just hand baggage, getting an alternative ight, or claiming a refund Of all the planes that left that day, one in three had no luggage! That was only day 1; ights were canceled all week and BA brought in hundreds of volunteers to tackle the baggage mountain. In the end, over 28,000 suitcases were shipped to Milan, where they were sorted out away from the turmoil in London. The opening of Terminal 5 was an embarrassment, with hundreds of canceled ights and thousands of lost bags. It cost BA over $32 million and two senior executives their jobs. BA later admitted that customers were deserting in wake of the Terminal 5 asco, with passenger numbers down 7 percent. What are the lessons to be learned? There are many. The rst is that on complex projects there is a tendency to focus on the technical challenges and shortchange the human side of the project. Remember, projects are socio- technical systems! A more robust RBS may have revealed the need for more training and a walk-through before the terminal became operational. One also must question the wisdom of going fully operational on day 1. Going om operating zero ights one day to 380 is a formidable task. A more prudent approach may have been to l limit the ights the rst week to work out the kinks and ensure success 1. Why do you think British Aimays decided to 90 fully operational on day 1? Title Subtitle Styles Pane Q Dictate Q n9 15 Share D Comments 4'9 Edltor Open Grammarly Page 1 of 1 547 words II? English (United States) Focus u :1 V+ 111%