Case Report On Birmingham International Airport
By: ANKIT MALHOTRA SEC – A SMBA 11005
Introduction Birmingham Airport, formerly Birmingham International Airport is an airport located (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east southeast of Birmingham city centre, at Bickenhill in the Metropolitan Borough of Solihull within the West Midlands, England. The airport is a base for Bmibaby, Flybe, Monarch, Ryanair, Thomas Cook Airlines and Thomson Airways. The airport offers both domestic flights within the UK, and international flights to destinations in Europe, the Middle East, Pakistan, North America and the Caribbean. After handling a record 9.6 million passengers in 2008, passenger numbers declined to 8,572,398 in 2010, making Birmingham the seventh busiest UK airport. BHX offers excellent transport links by road and rail, including the free Skyrail service direct to Birmingham International Train Station. BHX's two terminals provide a comprehensive range of passenger amenities including restaurants and bars, shops, currency, business, family-friendly and special needs facilities. Case analysis The case study discuss about how to manage various ongoing activities at an airport (Planning, organizing, supervising, express operations & scheduling) . The other thing which case tries to make us understand is how operation activities take place at BHX, and roles and strategies that are required to be implementing as an operation manager moreover, how the operations manager is responsible for the airport Operations and supervision of several activities and coordinate with different departments. The case also describes the duties & challenges which the airport director has to face in order to operate the airport efficiently & effectively. Q1. Identify some of the micro operations to be found at the airport. For each one: a) Identify the transforming and transformed resources b) State which is the predominant transformed resource c) Describe the output of each micro operation and say who you think its customers
a) Micro Operations Transformed Resources Baggage Handling Ticketing
Transforming Resources
Baggage Handler Ticket Clerk
Bag Ticket
Fuel Loading
Fuel Handler/Company
Fuel
Building Maintenance
Maintenance Team
Building
Aircraft Cleaning
Cleaner
Aircraft
b) Resources are the most vital part of every production process, thus it is sensible to follow the way of transformed and transforming resources. Transformed resources - The raw materials that undergo makeover to be converted into final product for the markets. As asked in the question we need to provide transformed resources, so the predominant transformed micro resource would be ‘Passenger’ Whereas, the pre-dominant macro resource would be ‘Passenger Information’
c) Using the data from Q1(a), we can prepare another table which provides us the ‘output’ & ‘customers’ for each micro process. Micro Operation
Transforming Process
Transforme d Process
Output
Baggage Handling
Baggage Handler
Bag
Ticketing
Ticket Clerk
Ticket
Fuel Loading
Fuel Handler/Compan y Cleaners/Team
Fuel
Arrived at Passenger Correct Destination Accurate Passenger ticket informatio n Fuel Tank Crew full Members
Maintenance Team
Building
Aircraft Cleaning Building Maintenanc e
Aircraft
Clean Aircraft Hygienic Building
Customer
Customer Productivit y Happy
Content
Safe Journey
Both(Passenge Cleanliness r & Crew) Client of the Safe to use building
Q2. Summarize the job of the operations director. What are the main problems/issues he faces in managing the airport?
The job of operations Director is full of challenges & he needs to be present & on the foot to face any situation. For an operations director no 2 days at the airport are the same.
The operation Director is responsible for duties which include: -
Evaluating, and coordinating airport operations activities Safety and security needs Assist in enforcing airport policies and regulations Setting the safety and customer service standards for everyone to adhere to Allocate the best infrastructure to the airlines Controlling Wildlife animals Emergency evacuation plan Adhere to Environmental policies Airfield Maintenance Dealing with unsatisfied customers
Q3. What do you think Richard Heard actually does each day (how does he spend his time)? According to me, Richard Heard spend most of his day by dealing with customers. Every customer is different from another; one could praise him for providing them the best services whereas another customer could be largely dissatisfied with the services. So in order to maintain good terms/relations Richard Heard need to know how to tackle his customers and also must give their customers full satisfaction. In addition, to ensure the success of the concern, Richard Heard should also spend some of his time to re-examine and reassess any development. He also must allocate his time to pay attention to the customer’s feedback which is a very good way to serve the customers they want.
Q4. Discuss the relationship between the day to day tasks and the long term issues and explain how Richard manages to oversee both at the same time? Day to day responsibilities/activities in fact is fundamentally important for an organization to have better strategy in future. Successful day to day operations will lead to a smooth & efficient decision making for the long term. Day to day issues contain such as maintaining the runaways, agreeing slot allocation with the airlines, developing and implementing safety management systems etc. Whereas long term issues engage, Developing new infrastructure, Car park etc…
Richard, being the operations director on the other hand is responsible to oversee both the long & short term goals. So to achieve the goals he appoints a manager in every department. By appointing a manager in a certain department and area, Richard Heard can get a fast feedback about the day to day operation from each department. Furthermore, Richard also gets time to manage & handle the customer’s problem by referring to the certain area. To retain customers, customer’s satisfaction is the key determinant which ensures the loyalty of the customers. Today airlines industry faces a stiff competition thus it is important for managers and the entire management to ensure customer’s satisfaction to achieve the level of loyalty of their customers.
