What are the key ingredients of lean

Assignment Help Project Management
Reference no: EM131260368

Alaska Airlines operates in a land of rugged beauty, crystal clear lakes, spectacular glaciers, majestic mountains, and bright blue skies. But equally awesome is its operating performance. Alaska Airlines consistently provides the industry's number one overall ranking and best on-time performance. A key ingredient of this excellent performance is Alaska Airlines' Lean initiative. With an aggressive implementation of Lean, Ben Minicucci, Executive VP for Operations, is finding ever-increasing levels of performance. He pushes this initiative throughout the company with:

(1) a focus on continuous improvement,

(2) metrics that measure performance against targets, and

(3) making performance relevant to Alaska Airlines' empowered employees.

With leadership training that includes a strong focus on participative management, Minicucci has created a seven-person Lean Department. The department provides extensive training in Lean via one-week courses, participative workshops, and two-week classes that train employees to become a Six Sigma Green Belt.

Some employees even pursue the next step, Black Belt certification. A huge part of any airline's operations is fuel cost, but capital utilization and much of the remaining cost is dependent upon ground equipment and crews that handle aircraft turnaround and maintenance, in-flight services, and customer service.

As John Ladner, Director of Seattle Airport Operations, has observed, "Lean eliminates waste, exposes non-standard work, and is forcing a focus on variations in documented best practices and work time." Lean is now part of the Alaska Airlines corporate culture, with some 60 ongoing projects. Kaizen events (called "Accelerated Improvement Workshops" at Alaska Airlines), Gemba Walks (called "waste walks" by Alaska Airlines), and 5S are now a part of everyday conversation at Alaska Airlines. Lean projects have included

? Applying 5S to identify aircraft ground equipment and its location on the tarmac.

? Improving preparation for and synchronization of the arrival and departure sequences; time to open the front door after arrival has been reduced from 4.5 to 1 min.

? Redefining the disconnect procedure for tow bars used to "push back" aircraft at departure time; planes now depart 2-3 minutes faster.

? Revising the deicing process, meaning less time for the plane to be on the tarmac.
Improving pilot staffing, making Alaska's pilot productivity the highest in the industry. Every 1% improvement in productivity leads to a $5 million savings on a recurring basis. Alaska Airlines has achieved a 7% productivity improvement over the last five years.

405_Fig 04.jpg

Another current Lean project is passenger unloading and loading. Lean instructor Allison Fletcher calls this "the most unique project I have worked on." One exciting aspect of deplaning is Alaska's solar-powered "switchback" staircase for unloading passengers through the rear door (see photo). Alaska is saving two minutes, or nearly 17%, off previous unloading time with this new process. Alaska Airlines' Lean culture has made it a leader in the industry.

Discussion Questions*
1. What are the key ingredients of Lean, as identified at Alaska Airlines?

2. As an initial phase of a kaizen event, discuss the many ways passengers can be loaded and unloaded from airplanes.

3. Document the research that is being done on the aircraft passenger-loading probem.

Reference no: EM131260368

Questions Cloud

Prepare adjusting entries and adjusted trial balance : Making journal entries for each transaction in chronological order. Prepare adjusting entries and adjusted trial balance. Prepare Income Statement, Retained Earnings Statement, and Balance Sheet. Depreciation expense for the year was $14,500. The com..
Perform a full system scan every saturday at midnight : Perform a full system scan every Saturday at midnight. Check for updates before performing the scan.Apply default actions to items detected during a scan. Configure the following actions when items are found:
Explain what is meant by the strategic management process : Explain what is meant by dedicated teams, and functional organizations? What do they have in common, relating to Project Management. What does the example (Snapshot) of the Apple problem show regarding dysfunctional culture in an organization and ..
Develop an ontology for a product category : Develop an ontology for a product category - Construct and store the ontology in your selected software and Specify 2 intelligent functions/applications that the ontology can support, that are not supported on current online portals
What are the key ingredients of lean : What are the key ingredients of Lean, as identified at Alaska Airlines? -  As an initial phase of a kaizen event, discuss the many ways passengers can be loaded and unloaded from airplanes.
What is a relational database : What is a relational database? What are the advantages of a relational database over a file system?
Compute the corresponding angle of twist for steel : Determine the largest torque that can be safely applied to the rectangular steel bar if the maximum shear stress is limited to 120 MPa.
What is an associative entity : 1. What is an associative entity? When must a many-to-many relationship be modelled as an associative entity? Provide some examples demonstrate this issue.
Define the critical chain and explain the concept of ccpm : Characterize the scoping phase of an adaptive PMLC project? How is the scoping phase of TPM different than the scoping phase of an adaptive PMLC project?

Reviews

nab1260368

5/9/2017 1:17:53 PM

Gold country Airlines works in a place that is known for tough magnificence, completely clear lakes, astounding ice sheets, great mountains, and brilliant blue skies. Yet, similarly great is its working execution. The Frozen North Airlines reliably gives the business' main general positioning and best on-time execution. A key element of this phenomenal execution is Alaska Airlines' Lean activity. With a forceful usage of Lean, Ben Minicucci, Executive VP for Operations, is finding perpetually expanding levels of execution. He drives this activity all through the organization with:

Write a Review

 

Project Management Questions & Answers

  State one strategy you think jetblue should adopt

Based on what you have learned in this course, state one strategy you think JetBlue should adopt over the next three years

  Determine the critical path and project duration in days

Determine the critical path and project duration in days and given that each resource is assigned 100% to each task, identify the resource constraints.

  Which one of the following list is a hygiene factor

Frederick Herzberg propounded the Motivation-Hygiene Theory which classified workplace factors as motivators and hygiene factors (causing dissatisfaction). According to this theory, which one of the following list is a hygiene factor

  Cultural challenges in adopting scrum methodology

Draft three or four research questions you might pursue for your Management Research Project and some initial thoughts about research methodologies you might use to answer these questions - Cultural Challenges in Adopting Scrum Methodology.

  Draw the incentive contracts on the given graph

Draw the following incentive contracts on the same graph, with gross profit for the firm on the horizontal axis and manager pay on the vertical axis as in Figure.

  Project management systems development1 which project

project management systems development1. which project management methodology would you choose to run your software

  Explain about pmo model

The PMO Model - Suppose a medium size company that has decided to begin using project management in a wide variety of its operations

  Software development project management

If you wish to reduce the time required to complete this project by two weeks, which activityies should be crashed, and how much will this increase the total cost?

  Critical analysis of the project management plan

Critical Analysis of the Project Management Plan The case study discusses about the application of the changes and development of a new project management plan that helps in reducing the electricity consumption in the farm.

  Good project management can aid with project failure

Very interesting article is present at CIO.com. Title of this article is "Why Project and Portfolio Management Matter More at Recession Time". Do you believe good project management can help with project failure?

  Project life cyclethe project life cycle typically passes

project life cyclethe project life cycle typically passes through four stages definition planning execution and

  Communication and technology help on the job

Communication and Technology help on the job - Explain how has technology helped you communicate while on the job?

Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd