2. Additional information gathering at Siemens’s mock airport is a good idea, but who to send?

Identify how many and which type of managers to recommend for a fact-fi nding team and to tour the facility at Furth, Germany. Estimate how much money will be required to fund such a trip. What a trip!84 You’re exhausted from changing planes (three times because of cancellations) and trying to corral your colleagues as well as their luggage. And after all the cramped seats, complaining travelers, long lines, and marginal food, your team still hasn’t come to a decision about what do to—at your own airport.

Last month, you and your management team from Hartsfi eld-Jackson Atlanta International Airport began discussing using radio-frequency identifi cation (RFID) tags in the airport’s baggage-handling operations. Recent reports on lost luggage have caused more than a ripple of concern, with roughly one in every 150 U.S. passengers losing a bag in any given year. U.S. airlines spent an estimated $400 million to replace mishandled luggage in a recent year, yet passengers are regularly incensed that the airlines give only partial reimbursements for lost bags and belongings. The cost of lost luggage, however, is not just the $400 million in reimbursements.

There’s the time and expense of staffi ng large customer-service departments to take complaints, process claims, track down and identify missing baggage, and deliver found bags to either the owner’s travel destination or home.

Multiple deliveries are often made, as the bag arrives at the passenger’s destination after he or she has left for another destination or returned home. The International Air Transport Association estimates that airlines worldwide could save

$760 million a year by reducing lost luggage.

Your team would love to reduce the costs associated with lost luggage at Hartsfi eld-Jackson (ATL), which consistently wins the title of world’s busiest passenger airport.

Nearly 6.5 million travelers pass through the airport in a given month and bring about 75 metric tons of luggage with them. That’s more than the either the monthly amount of mail or commercial freight (think FedEx and UPS) that passes through the airport’s facilities!

Thirty-one airlines take off and land at ATL, but Delta accounts for over 58 percent of passenger volume.

As (bad) luck would have it, Delta has a dismal ranking for lost luggage, reporting 6.8 mishandled bags per 1,000, second only to US Airways’ 7.7 losses per 1,000.

Company-wide, Delta handles 1.3 bags per passenger, and there’s no reason to think this number is any lower in Atlanta, its biggest hub. That means Delta alone puts over 160,000 bags into the ATL system each day!