CASE STUDY DENVER AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
CASE STUDY DENVER AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
There are a lot of reasons for the problems occurred with the baggage system at DIA, but most center the root causes on some factors: the underestimation of complexity of the system; the change in the strategy³, the decision to proceed with the change³, acceptance of changes requests; newness of the technology and none improvement in the organizational side; poor project definition; and the short time span for completion. Clearly, management failed to create a consistent flow of information between all the stakeholders involved. There was no evidence that the management even tried to understand how big their problem was until the delay of the airport's opening. The initial planning decisions, the action to implement an airport wide integrated baggage system (letting aside the fact that it was already too late) and the freeze contractual requirements to scope, schedule and budget all represented judgments that were made by people who didn't have the necessary knowledge. The misjudgments resulting from those decisions were the sparks that ignited the fire, and create the "baggage system from hell"¹.
1) From the BAE perspective, what were the top factors that contributed to the failure of this project From side of the President of BAE, Gene Di Fonso, a lot of reasons could be raised in order to explain the failure in this project, such as the short deadline, the low importance given to requirements by the engineers and architects, a lack of planning resulting in subsequent changes in strategy, the inexistent time to test the system, the lack of a competent leadership after Slinger's death, the relation with the management, the lack of experience or competence from the management team, and at the end the bad relation with the city. Some quotes got from the case illustrate these reasons: "BAE told them from the beginning that they were going to need at least one more year to get the system up and running, but
There are a lot of reasons for the problems occurred with the baggage system at DIA, but most center the root causes on some factors: the underestimation of complexity of the system; the change in the strategy³, the decision to proceed with the change³, acceptance of changes requests; newness of the technology and none improvement in the organizational side; poor project definition; and the short time span for completion. Clearly, management failed to create a consistent flow of information between all the stakeholders involved. There was no evidence that the management even tried to understand how big their problem was until the delay of the airport's opening. The initial planning decisions, the action to implement an airport wide integrated baggage system (letting aside the fact that it was already too late) and the freeze contractual requirements to scope, schedule and budget all represented judgments that were made by people who didn't have the necessary knowledge. The misjudgments resulting from those decisions were the sparks that ignited the fire, and create the "baggage system from hell"¹.
1) From the BAE perspective, what were the top factors that contributed to the failure of this project From side of the President of BAE, Gene Di Fonso, a lot of reasons could be raised in order to explain the failure in this project, such as the short deadline, the low importance given to requirements by the engineers and architects, a lack of planning resulting in subsequent changes in strategy, the inexistent time to test the system, the lack of a competent leadership after Slinger's death, the relation with the management, the lack of experience or competence from the management team, and at the end the bad relation with the city. Some quotes got from the case illustrate these reasons: "BAE told them from the beginning that they were going to need at least one more year to get the system up and running, but