FACULTY OF MECHANICAL, MARITIME AND MATERIALS ENGINEERING Delft University of Technology Department of Marine and Transport Technology Mekelweg 2 2628 CD Delft the Netherlands Phone +31 (0)15-2782889 Fax +31 (0)15-2781397 www.mtt.tudelft.nl Specialization: Transport Engineering and Logistics Report number: 2016.TEL.8072 Title: Improvements for Operational Performance in Baggage Handling Systems regarding Mishandled Baggage Author: V. Groeneweg Title (in Dutch) Verbeteringen voor operationele prestatie van bagage systemen met betrekking tot verkeerd afgehandelde bagage Assignment: literature Confidential: no Supervisor: Dr. Ir. Y. Pang Date: Nov. 28, 2016 This report consists of 62 pages. It may only be reproduced literally and as a whole. For commercial purposes only with written authorization of Delft University of Technology. Requests for consult are only taken into consideration under the condition that the applicant denies all legal rights on liabilities concerning the contents of the advice. FACULTY OF MECHANICAL, MARITIME AND TUDelft MATERIALS ENGINEERING Delft University of Technology Department of Marine and Transport Technology Mekelweg 2 2628 CD Delft the Netherlands Phone +31 (0)15-2782889 Fax +31 (0)15-2781397 www.mtt.tudelft.nl Student: V. Groeneweg Assignment type: Literature Supervisor: Dr. Ir. Y. Pang Report number: 2016.TEL.8072 Specialization: TEL Confidential: NO Creditpoints (EC) 10 Subiect: Improvement for Operational Performance in Baggage Handling Systems regarding Mishandled Baggage Airports are in general struggling to stay profitable while an increasing demand of flights results in the increase in pressure to handle more passengers. The baggage handling of airports can be considered to be one of the limiting factors to increase the capacity and to improve the service. With respect to the operational performance of the baggage handling systems, one key performance indicator is the number of mishandled baggage. The delayed, damaged and even lost baggage have significant impact to the service quality, the customer satisfaction, the compensation costs and the throughput of airports. This literature assignment is to get insight in the causes of mishandled baggage concerning airports, airlines and baggage handlers. The survey will provide the state of the art solutions to improve the operational efficiency by reducing the amount of mishandled baggage in baggage handling processes. The main tasks of this assignment is the following: • to understand the functions of baggage handling systems and the relative equipment » to study the indicators for the operational performance of baggage handling • to explore the factors and the current trends of mishandled baggage • to list the root-causes and to summarize the solutions for mishandled baggage This report should be arranged in such a way that all data is structurally presented in graphs, tables, and lists with belonging descriptions and explanations in text. The report should comply with the guidelines of the section. Details can be found on the website. Dr. Ir. Y. Pang Improvements for Operational Performance in Baggage Handling Systems regarding Mishandled Baggage V. Groeneweg [THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK] Abstract 5 Abstract The process of baggage handling tends to be one of the limiting factors for the extension of airports. Furthermore the need for travelling increases, as well as the world’s population. However the airlines are currently struggling to stay profitable, what results is a focus of airlines to reduce costs. Furthermore the competition increases between the airlines to get the loyalty from the passengers to being able to provide their flight. As a result of this given trend, the airlines and airports focus to improve the throughput of the system, decrease the costs and improve the delivered quality to the customer. One of the important factors in the industry for this is the factor of Mishandled Baggage, because every mishandled bag increases the costs for the airline. This research focuses on methods to improve the operational efficiency of a Baggage Handling System regarding Mishandled Baggage. The whole procedure of baggage handling is defined with the available equipment. The process boundaries are set to be from the moment the passenger is decoupled from the baggage at the check-in desk until the pick up at the reclaim area. To see the operational efficiency of the system in a broader perspective its share in the overall operational performance is determined. It is found that the term operational efficiency is often incorrectly interchanged with productivity and performance. The difference between these terms is defined clearly as performance being the overarching umbrella of all terms, what describes the performance against a benchmark or goal. Below this the profitability defines how well a company operates in the market concerning the input and output price, while productivity only takes into account the amount of output for the amount of used resources. Efficiency and effectiveness are also important terms in these categories. The two terms split the factors for the different categories into two groups. Efficiency concerns about how well the resources are used, while effectiveness is about how a process fulfills the wish of the customer. The different methods of improvement are listed for the different causes what are in short: Human errors Tracing errors Fallen bags Lack of resources A wide variety of improvements is found for the process briefly it concerns: Training and creation of awareness of the check-in agents to prevent the wrong placement of the bags into the system. This should also concern about the mistypes and correct attachment of the tags to the bags. RFID implementation to have better tracking capabilities, what results in less staff members required to scan unreadable tags, while the ability of sorting optimized. The system design has to be such that it prevents bags from falling. Some examples are a cart-based system, reduction of inclinations an declinations to an angle below 18° and by using slowly start and stop system consisting dynamic braking or clutches. Efficient use of resources by implementation of preventive maintenance and adjustment of the flow principle from push to pull. This can be reached by having early arrival of bags in combination with an early baggage storage. Besides this the staff availability can be improved by (semi-)automation of the process and having shorter working days. To finalize the staff can work more efficient by improving communication and coordination. Literature study V. Groeneweg 6 Table of Contents Table of Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................. 5 Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... 6 List of Figures.......................................................................................................................... 8 List of Tables ........................................................................................................................ 10 Glossary ............................................................................................................................... 11 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................... 12 1.1 Problem description................................................................................................. 12 1.2 Research objective .................................................................................................. 12 1.3 Report outline ......................................................................................................... 13 2. Analysis of the BHS ....................................................................................................... 14 2.1 Traveling facts ......................................................................................................... 14 2.2 Different kinds of Baggage ....................................................................................... 14 2.3 Flow diagram of a BHS ............................................................................................ 15 2.4 Equipment for different BHS functions ....................................................................... 17 2.4.1 In-feed............................................................................................................. 17 2.4.2 Identification ..................................................................................................... 18 2.4.3 Screening ........................................................................................................ 18 2.4.4 Transportation .................................................................................................. 18 2.4.5 Sorting ............................................................................................................ 19 2.4.6 Storage ........................................................................................................... 20 2.4.7 Make-up .......................................................................................................... 20 2.4.8 Outlet .............................................................................................................. 21 2.5 Stakeholders ..........................................................................................................