Schiphol International Hub - GST 5103

Company Profile

• Fourth largest airport in term of passenger number

• Number four in transport movements and third in terms of cargo volume

• Oldest international airport in the world located at the original site of first aircraft

• One of the lowest lying airports in the world

• Located in a polder reclaimed between 1848 and 1852 at 4.5 meters below sea level

• Since 1980, the airport has won some 200 international awards and is recognized  as one of the best airports in Europe and the world at large

• The airport is built as one large terminal (a single terminal concept), split into three large departure halls,
  which connect again once airside

• The most recent of these was completed in 1994, and expanded in 2007 with a new section, called
  Terminal 4, although it is not considered a separate building

• Plans for further terminal expansion exist, including the construction of a separate new terminal between the
  Zwanenburgbaan and Polderbaan runways that would end the one-terminal concept

How many levels of complexity can you identify in Schiphol's baggage conveyor network?

Schiphol's involved gigantic baggage conveyor network that includes 21 kilometers of transport tracks, 6

robotic units and 9000 storage capacitors, all behaving as one system. Extending the system with more surface is not possible given the land conditions surrounding the airport. The baggage conveyor network goal is to have the right bag must be at the right place at the right time. Network must perform several key roles that is moving bags from check-in area to the departure gate, move bags from gate to gate, move bags from the arrival gate to the baggage claim and plan and control 

peripheral hardware and software. System involves a wide variety of sensors, actuators, mechanical devices and computers and this network uses over 3 million lines of source code. Some advance technology used in baggage-handling system includes destination-coded vehicles (DCVs), automatic bar code scanners, radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and high-tech conveyors equipped with sorting machines. Baggage should move from its current location to its destination before travelers do. Further complications shows that all of this must be available and robust that is it must operate 99.99% of times while being able to minimize loss or damage in that 0.001% of time it doesn't.

What are the management, organization and technology components of Schiphol's baggage conveyor network?

The baggage conveyor network starts with tagging travelers’ luggage when they do the checking-in. The tags contain details on flight information and a bar-code/RFID that all baggage-handling system can access. The information contains and determine where to send each bag. The system will redirect based on three parameters that are time of its flight, priority and size. Each bag will be determine as hot will be sent immediately to aircraft and cold baggage will be rerouted away from the main highway tracks directed towards various storage points in the network. DCVs are unmanned carts that can load and unload bags without shipping movement. These carts move on tracks like miniature roller coasters along the main highway track that span the airport. Computers throughout the system keep track the location of each bag, its destination and time needed at that destination. It can optimize the routes taken by the carts to get the bags the bags needed most urgently to destinations fastest. To make sure that baggage is not lost, the system reconciles baggage with its owner , it checks if baggage and owner are actually at the same plane.

What is the problem that Schiphol is trying to solve? Discuss the business impact of this problem

• Baggage handling system can be extremely expensive

• The new baggage system at Schiphol is not flawless 

• In November 212, a special warrant by local Police was    issued that required  stopping the tracks at Schiphol as part of a drug-smuggling investigation

• Some of the 140000 passengers that were being served by the international  Hub at the time suffered baggage loss

• The baggage tags can be miss-tagged or unreadable even flight schedule changed  

• The lack of peak time capacity, no fall back, change from semi-manual to automatic sorting system, unstable control system due to the solutions are not always easily implemented

• At Schiphol they have four baggage handling companies with a total of 2000 employees dealing with 150000 bags a day, each one uses different processes and technologies

• These companies also have to hand over baggage to each other which gives added complexity

• Their road to improvement will last 13 years and high cost

• It is a two-pronged approach focused on quick short-term measures and a longer term goal which process 70 million bags per year while keeping mishandling rates below 15/1000 passengers

• Schiphol must overcome six challenges that is to expand capacity, improve quality, cut costs, improve working conditions, boost staff productivity and create a more robust system

Think of the data that the network uses. What kinds of management reports can be generated from the data?

• The management of Schiphol can generate a lot of reports from each network they uses

• The data that they can generate is the quantity of baggage in and out  the system and how the activity is being carried out.

• Make Schiphol goes for their goal by realizing a monumental 1% maximum loss of transfer baggage against the initial 22 million lost baggage

• By getting baggage information they can predict the future capacity and plan to increase the capacity from 40 to 70 million bags

• As baggage handling system can be extremely expensive, the capacity data  related to baggage would be a great help on reducing the cost per bag without increasing the waiting time of each passenger

• The RFID system used will help to redirect data to three based parameters, time of flight, priority and size bags for immediate embarkation are considered hot and will be sent straight to the aircraft and the cold baggage are quickly rerouted away

• So the data kept in the computer will keep track on the location of each bag, its destination and time needed at its destination

• This data also helps to make sure bags is not lost and the system reconciles baggage with its owner to confirmed the baggage and owner are actually at the same plane

• Inbound and outbound message routing can now be configured based on message type and content by independent of the data provider

• Baggage tracking and reconciliation have evolved over the last 10 years from traditional client-server architecture to web-based products

• The expansion of this model provides many opportunities for Schiphol and handlers to use baggage tracking in operations where it was previously technically or financially impossible. Allows Schiphol to provide better security and customer service across their networks