The Idea of Expanding the Heathrow Airport in London - Case Study Example

INFORMATION SYSTEMs By Introduction The idea of expanding the Heathrow airport in London came from the British Airways (BA) and British Airport Authority (BAA) to accommodate more airplanes and create room for establishment of more travel destinations. After a public inquiry that lasted 46 months, the construction of terminal 5 got a formal approval on November 20 in the year 2001 and commenced September of the following year (Airport-Technology.com, n.d). The entire planning process due to its lengthy nature consumed approximately £63m which was financed by BA and BAA since they were the two major players who proposed the project. The whole infrastructural project covering a site of 260ha was a combination of 16 major and 147 minor projects undertaken by over 60 contractors. Due to the size of the project, BAA had a special agreement with the players involved in the construction, such that it shouldered the entire risk burden involved in undertaking the project. This was meant to create a conducive working condition for the contractors since they were devoid of the fear of facing litigation incase something went wrong with the project (Doherty 2008). This helped improve their overall efficiency and dedication towards completing the construction of terminal 5 within the laid down schedule. Due to this agreement two major project involving the terminal itself and the construction of the control tower was faster than expected in the schedule. The roofing of the terminal was complete and was put into position in March 2005. The terminal had 131 escalators, 175 lifts and conveyor belt measuring 18km.the first phase had a capacity of accommodating 47 aircrafts with a further 13 being accommodated in the construction in the second phase. To link the terminal to the London city center, two major tunnels were constructed; Piccadilly Line and Heathrow Express measuring 1.9km and 1.7km respectively. The two tunnels are served by two rail platform each (Airport-Technology.com, n.d). The first phase was already complete and open by March 2008 while the second phase was destined for completion three years later. The entire project was estimated to cost BAA more than £4bn. Terminal 5 covers an area approximately 300,000m2 with the retail floor covering a space of 18,580 m2. In this space there is 150 units specializing in retail, approximately 25 restaurants and duty free shops covering around 3,250 m2. The entire terminal in its fully capacity can accommodate around 30 million passengers yearly (Airport-Technology.com, n.d). The terminal also hosts a multi-storey parking lot that can accommodate 3,800 cars at any given time. The staffing at the terminal 5 comprised purely of BAA staff since it was the sole tenant was BA. Despite a trial that lasted for six month which involved testing various systems in the terminal, the opening of terminal 5 faced serious operational problems. To start with, the staff in charge of handling luggage had difficulties accessing the facility due to security measures put in place (House of Commons Transport Committee 2008). Once inside, they were still unable to navigate to different sections of the expansive terminal and also faced difficulties login into computer systems handling luggage. This problem was compounded by earlier delay in their arrival due to inadequate parking spaces. The staffs and passengers were also not familiar with checking-in system that was put in place which delayed various flights causing an overload in the baggage handling system. This mess resulted in cancellation of hundreds of flights and separation of luggage from their owners up to three days resulting to distress among passengers (Milmo 2008). This mishap also had serious economic implications with BA having to incur approximately £16m. It also ended up in two resignations of senior managers. The collective effects of the system inefficiency ultimately led to a delay in the relocation of all the BA flights from terminal 4 till June 2009. Due to the seriousness of the problem, an inquiry was launched by the Commons Transport Committee. Information Systems structure outlined by BAA Track transit system This is an automated system offering transportation between the satellite buildings and the main terminal. The system comprise of driverless trains (automated people mover) running on dedicated guide-ways on the subsurface. Its main role is to transfer passengers to and fro between the two sections. Personal rapid transit system (PRT) This system comprise of an automated vehicles with a capability of transporting the luggage as well as the passengers. These vehicles ran on dedicated guide-ways running from the terminal to the car park and back (Doherty 2008). Facial recognition systems This is meant to ease the process of passengers’ online check-in after their arrival at the airport or in the self-service kiosks. The check-in facilities consist of 96 kiosks for self service, 96 drops for fast bag and 140 desks for customer service. Baggage handling systems This system comprises of a fast track and a baggage sorter system. It was designed by a combined team of BA, Vanderlande industries and BAA to handle inter-terminal and intra-terminal luggage with a daily capacity of 70,000 bags. Some of the processes undertaken by this system include: explosive screening, automatic identification, passenger reconciliation, fast tracking and automatic sorting. Access control system This system provides a controlled access to various systems by the staff members. To successfully access the systems, stringent authorization and authentication procedures have to be followed. Flight information display system This system main role is to indicate arrival and departure times to various destinations to help passengers to be better organized. The luggage handlers and baggage handling system is also dependent on this system for efficient execution of various activities and processes (Doherty 2008). Most of the above information systems were in place before the opening of the terminal. However, BA did not have enough time to familiarize the staff to some of these systems and the whole infrastructure. BA chief executive, Willie Walsh blamed BAA of failing to complete the entire project on time forcing him to conduct some of the familiarization programs off-site for safety reason. When he was summoned by the transport committee he confessed to trimming the exercise due to lack of enough time (House of Commons Transport Committee 2008). The resultant effects of the dismal training and testing especially on the complex baggage handling system led to its failure to process luggage at the intended capacity and efficiency. The luggage handlers also had problems with the access control system. All these problems with the information system were as a result of inadequate testing by BA staffs. The effective use of the information system could have helped BAA to avoid the terminal 5 disaster in the following ways: Comprehensive training of the staff on how to use the new systems Proper testing of the baggage handling systems Ensuring that all the staff were familiar with the systems Synchronization of flight departure system and the baggage handling system to avoid instances where the two conflicted making the passengers to leave without their luggage. Information systems are essential for running and managing organizations today since they facilitates the collection, processing, storage and dissemination of information to enhance the making of decisions, control, coordination, visualization and analysis. They also play a great role in assisting the management and the workers to solve any emerging operation problem (Norrie, 2008). In this era of advanced computer technology, it has become a necessity rather than a luxury for those organizations who want to remain competitive in the market. In addition, it helps enhance the operation of the organizations by reducing the need to dwell on bulky paper work. The shift to digital data is therefore time-saving as well as facilitating the enactment of the necessary security measures meant to safeguard the stored information. Information in digital form can be secured from unauthorized access and also ease its accessibility (Curry etal. 2006). Information systems are transforming business and spearheading globalization since they deal with digital data involving the services, products and processes in an organization. The presence of internet connection facilitates the sharing of relevant information with the consumers on the global front (Andriole 2009). The use of the internet to enhance information systems is driven by competition among multinational organization as they struggle to boost sales and increase the customer base (Murthy 2010). It is mainly used as an advertising channel in the form of e-marketing. In this way, information system has enhanced globalization by significantly reducing the advertising and transactions cost on the global scale (Brynjolfsson & Saunders 2010). Some of the emerging trends in the use of information system include cloud computing, mobile digital platform and online software-as-a-service. In addition, information systems help transform raw input data into useful output information. This in turn facilitates massive data storage, organization and dissemination to the relevant stakeholders. Currently, the emerging information technologies are making it easier to manage information systems as businesses grow in size globally (Rastogi 2009). There has been an increase in the use of wireless systems to drive information systems ensure that the clients, management, staffs as well as other stakeholders stay connected in the most reliable way (Brynjolfsson & Saunders 2010). Six reasons why information systems are so important for business today include (Curry etal 2006): Operational excellence Due to the large size of terminal 5, the presence of an information system would ensure smooth operation of various essential services such as baggage handling. New products and services With information systems in place, it is easier to offer state of the art services as well as launch new products depending on the customer demand. It is also easier to track customer satisfaction with the BA services by requesting the customer to rate different products and services. Customer loyalty The airline industry is heavily competitive with clients demanding efficient services. With information system in place, various services can be automated to ensure faster delivery and enabling self service to reduce the time spent queuing. Enhanced decision making The decision making process is made easier for management of a large airport like Heathrow. BAA can make informed decisions by mining information from the various information systems that have been put in place to ensure smooth running of various processes and overall customer satisfaction (Brynjolfsson & Saunders 2010). Competitive advantage The use of information system at heathrow provides the necessary competitive advantage over other major airports. It also ensures that large and modern aircrafts are accommodated without communication problems. Growth and security concerns The expansion of Heathrow airport by construction of more terminals is dependent on the efficient use of information systems. This is due to the huge size of the facility and the number of passengers and luggage handled per day. It also helps in tracking the movement of people and luggage as well as their safety due to increase in global terrorism. Strategic, tactical and operational decisions which might be/have been taken by BAA and how the information system supported these decisions are as follow: Strategic decision The decision to open terminal 5 on 27th march 2008 was strategic in that further delay or postponement would have created irreparable damages in the long-term. Other airlines were waiting eagerly to expand their operation as BA moved its operation from terminal 4. So any form of postponement would have caused dire consequences to all the stakeholders. Tactical decision Due to the failure of the baggage system, a decision to manually reconcile the misplaced bags was agreed upon to help ease the backlog and reunite the passengers with their lost luggage. In addition, the nags that were affected by the inefficient message filter had to be manually sorted. The management also resulted to doing away with biometric passengers’ identification due to legal concerns. Operational decision The management of BA made a decision to move their operations from terminal 4 in phases since terminal 5 was not fully complete. To avert more problems, BA had to cancel 500 flights and delay others in the fist two week of terminal 5 operation. Proper training was also done on the BA staff and familiarization programs conducted concurrently. The faulty baggage system, escalators and lifts were also repaired for smooth movement of staffs and passengers in the terminal. The information system required to support the above strategic decision is the communications-driven decision support system (Power 2009). For the long-term success of the airport, communication between BA and BAA is important for smooth management of the facility. The breakdown in communication between BAA and BA contributed to most of the teething problems that were experienced after the opening of terminal 5. With a stable decision support system in place, communication between the BA staff and the BAA ground staff would not be compromised. This would help protect the BA brand by collectively tackling problems as they surface. In the case of tactical decision, the best information system to make the above decisions a success is the data as well as knowledge driven decision support system. This decision support system would help BAA and BA to get enough information about the daily operations on the terminal from ground staffs as well as technicians put in place. It is also easier to compare data from other airlines to get a competitive advantage. Lastly, to enhance operation decisions, knowledge management system, management information systems and office automation systems are relevant to help the supervisors and employee respectively. Office automation systems help improves the employee productivity by creating a conducive working environment suited for efficient service delivery. Supervisors are important to ensure that staffs work as per the requirement and offering solutions to problems that does not require management decision. In ensuring that a knowledge management system exists in the organization, this creates a platform for employees to share knowledge that would enhance the operations at the terminal (Power 2009). These three systems are some of the information system that can create a solid support to any operation decision that may be carried out by the management. Conclusion Information systems are essential for running and managing organizations today since it creates a dependable foundation for achieving strategic goals. Some of the major objectives that are enhanced include: creation of business models, development of new products and services, efficient business operation, improved service delivery and customer loyalty, enhanced decision making and gaining of competitive advantage over the other players in the market. This in turn translates to a boost in the organization efficiency in service delivery boosting the revenue both in the short and long run. References List Airport-Technology.com (n.d.), London Heathrow Airport Expansions (LHA/EGLL), United Kingdom, Retrieved from:   [May 9 2014] Andriole, S. J. (2009). Best practices in business technology management. Boca Raton: CRC Press. Brynjolfsson, E., & Saunders, A. (2010). Wired for innovation: How information technology is reshaping the economy. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. Curry, A., Flett, P., & Hollingsworth, I. (2006). Managing information and systems: The business perspective. London: Routledge. Doherty, S. (2008). Heathrows Terminal 5: History in the making. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons. House of Commons Transport Committee. (November 3, 2008). The opening of Heathrow Terminal 5.(Twelfth Report of Session 2007-2008). London: The Stationery Office Limited. [May 9 2014] Milmo D. 2008, ‘BA chief blames Terminal 5 fiasco on BAA failing to finish building’, The guardian 8th May. Retrieved from: [May 9 2014] Murthy, C. S. V. (2010). Information systems: Theory and applications. Mumbai [India: Himalaya Pub. House. Norrie, J. (2008). Breaking through the project fog: How smart organizations achieve success by creating, selecting and executing on-strategy projects. Mississauga, Ont: J. Wiley & Sons Canada. Power, D. J., & Power, Daniel. (2009). Decision support basics. New York, N.Y: Business Expert Press. Read More