Denver International Airport Baggage

...

The failure of the project lies in the fact that the airport’s Project Management based its strategic plan on the past decisions made regarding baggage facilities. CCMP’s main objective is working towards the constant improvement of a project and reducing the time and cost simultaneously. Project planning is one of the elements of CCMP that can be used. Critical chain is a part of project planning which contributes and planning and managing the project step by step, and the resources that are used to execute the project are given maximum importance. The main issue that led to a change in the strategy plan was due to the Project management assumptions based on the history of the baggage system. They lacked communication and change. They were not prepared for uncertainty. The buffer implementation could’ve helped the management be well prepared for uncertainty, and through buffer management, better communication could've been possible initiating integrated baggage system as per the requests that were made. Hence an appropriate strategic plan would have further helped the Project Management achieve “Just In Time(JIT)” results without any schedule pressure.

The decision to proceed

With the change in strategy plan the Project Management was left with less time considering the complexity of the baggage system. Despite this, the management team and BAE(the system assigned by United Airlines) proceeded with the plan. There were clear indications that the possibility of completing the project in two years was nil. According to the reports BAE had initially chosen not do proceed with the contract but the communication between the airport’s Chief Engineer (Walter Slinger) and BAE’s Senior Management team changed BAE’s decision (Calleam Consulting Ltd, 2008).

Both of them had their individual perspectives on the project. Slinger was over ambitious, naïve about the complexity, falsely assumed that the prototype created was feasible and completely ignored the responsibilities and workload that was going to come along. On the other hand, BAE’s Senior Management team considered this an opportunity for their growth. Both BAE and Slinger chose to ignore the duties and workload that was going to be a major part of this. It is believed the work pressure due to limited timeframe led them to make decisions in haste.

The major drawback inferred from the reports is that the decision to proceed despite the time and complexity factors was due to failed communication between the management team and the team members. CCMP, as we know, helps in project planning making sure there is a constant improvement. Implementation of the critical chain would’ve given the higher authorities and the management head an idea about the project duration preventing them proceeding with the project. CCMP approach enables the communication between senior authorities and the other team members working. Hence using the buffer management approach BAE’s Senior management team and Slinger would’ve put their perspectives behind and communicated with the other people who were a part of this project.

By doing so, it would have given them a broader perceptive about the projects forecast and helped them make the right decision. Also using the concept of project and feeder time buffers which aggregates the buffer time, the DIA project could’ve had a better control on buffer time hence providing shorter and more controllable lead times (Stratton, 2009).

This is exactly what the project needed due to their limited timeframe. Another aspect of CCMP that would’ve stopped the senior authorities from proceeding with this project is by implementing the S&T approach which would've given them a deeper insight into the project and defined the accuracy of their assumptions.

Schedule, scope, and budget commitments

The main factors behind a successful project lies in the following factors. A good plan for the project, looking into its scope making sure that the project is completed within a certain period and considering the financial aspects. In the DIA project, BAE took up the responsibility of handling the schedule, scope and budget commitments. It was a surplus amount of work that had to be executed by BAE at a limited timeframe. BAE’s management completely failed to look into the consequences and the workload before committing themselves to such a huge responsibility. If only they had analyzed the condition in a practical and conceptual way, they could’ve taken respective measure to reduce the workload and limit the scope to something more feasible. The complexity of the project and the limited timeframe caused tremendous workload along with “intense” work sessions (Calleam Consulting Ltd, 2008). Another major mistake was ignoring airlines and not including them in the project discussions. Airlines being key stakeholders could’ve contributed to the project.

One of the elements of CCMP is to help in project planning. Critical planning is a very important factor that gives an estimate of the project's duration. The estimate would’ve prevented BAE from taking the risk of going forth with the project. CCMP also helps in reporting about the task completion and providing visibility of upcoming task. Through this, the management is aware of the remaining time required for the tasks to be completed. Hence it helps in planning the tasks well. The S&T(strategy and tactic) approach would've helped the management to prioritize their tasks as there was limited time and the workload was huge. The project being complex it was hard to complete it within 2 years. Hence by implementing buffer management, the management could've got a better control over lead time and decreased it. Buffer management also helps in prioritizing among the various tasks. Hence by doing this the scope of the project is being limited, thus reducing the workload and pressure. Another issue was communication. Buffer management technique would’ve helped in notifying the airlines and everybody involved in the project and management about the discussions and project proceedings. Staggering process another element of CCMP would've helped in reducing the team's workload by focusing on the important aspects of the project only.

Acceptance of change requests

From the reports, we can infer that BAE and the Project Management were not in sync with the airlines and had a poor sense of planning. Consequently, the airlines were dissatisfied and demanded changes. The management was forced to make changes due to increased demands. The process of altering and changing consumed extra time, as it is the project was under work