Key Points

• Kaizen is the perfect pairing for faster turnarounds on the tarmac.
• There is no question that airports and airlines need a new business philosophy.
• The hope is that Kaizen can be quickly implemented and adopted by airports across the country.

When you think of any industry that has one of the most frustrating experiences for customers that is in desperate need of change, airline travel is one of them. The stress of getting to the airport early and waiting in line at security, only to wait in line for food, only to again wait in line to board and sit down, the stress of it all demands a massive overhaul.

Thankfully, change is on the way, and while it’s not going to happen overnight, the rise of Kaizen in the airport world is coming, and not a moment too soon. It doesn’t matter whether the airline or the airport, introducing Kaizen, the very same business philosophy that helped rebuild post-World War II Japan, can really make a difference in how well the airline industry works in the future.

What Is Kaizen?

Understanding how Kaizen, a Japanese philosophy, works and has worked for over the last 40 years is critical to knowing how it’s going to help transition life for everyone on the tarmac. At its core, Kaizen is a strategy where employees at every level of a company will come together and work proactively to achieve regular and continuous improvements to some of the manufacturing or delivery processes.

At its core, Kaizen is best known for its work in the manufacturing world, but it certainly doesn’t have to be pigeon-holed into thinking it’s only good in this one space. Instead, the idea of Continuous Improvement, which is synonymous with Kaizen, goes across all different kinds of industries and isn’t best-suited for any one over another.

Ultimately, what matters most is that Kaizen focuses on bringing improvements to an organization that benefit customers, leading to increased loyalty and satisfaction, which in turn results in a growing bottom line.

A Kaizen Event

For the most part, any Kaizen event is going to follow a prescribed set of happenings, in order, that help get things started. This likely starts with setting the goals and providing the working teams with any necessary background as to why changes need to be made.

From there, it’s up to a team and its leadership to look at the current state of the business and come up with a plan that can be implemented in order to make improvements. Unsurprisingly, the next step is to make said improvements that can have a dramatic effect on any organization, manufacturing, airline, or otherwise.

The next step is to look at what has taken place and begin to add other fixes that can be incorporated to make sure what didn’t get fixed in the first round of effort is fixed during a second round of changes. The last step would then be to look at the results of what has taken place and work with the different teams involved to understand what follow-up items are actionable and how they can be implemented in the future.

This process is revolving, which is why Kaizen is closely associated with Continuous Improvement, because the work is never finished.

Kaizen and Aviation are a Perfect match

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that the world of Kaizen shares a lot of synergy with the world of aviation. Aviation is a fast-paced, safety-first environment that is going to immediately benefit from any Kaizen initiatives that can increase overall efficiency.

Whether these efficiencies are looking to tackle customer pain points like delays in boarding, or business-first pain points like delays in fueling or maintenance, the goal is to implement Kaizen in a way that works hand-in-hand with both regulatory and cost pressures.

The good news is that there is plenty of history incorporating Kaizen into the airline world, something Southwest Airlines did in the 1980s. At the time, when Southwest was trying something different, it created its famous A, B, and C numbers, which function as a sort of Kanban card to help control the flow of passengers boarding the aircraft. In 2012, a Mythbusters episode determined it to be the fastest boarding system, surpassing a famous television show.

Something similar happened back in the early 2000s at Atlanta-Hartsfield airport to speed up the overall system of moving luggage by installing over 24,000 feet of conveyor belt for luggage. At the time, this system was incorporated for use at nearly 100 gates and 1,050 flights, numbers that have only gone much higher.

At the time the system was incorporated in Atlanta, the Kaizen way of Continuous Improvement resulted in 75% fewer baggage jams, 25% fewer mishandled bags, and a 15% reduction in fuel costs as planes were not waiting as long for luggage to be delivered. In addition, and arguably most important to flyers, was a 15-minute reduction in baggage claim wait times.

Finally, Kaizen also helps manage the variability in flight schedules, which are often disrupted by weather. This system helps achieve at least a 15-25% faster turnaround, all without ignoring FAA safety standards.

Understanding Turnaround Challenges in Aviation

When you consider where considerable delays occur on the tarmac, such as gate delays from slow cleaning or fueling, it can cause even a minor 10-20 minute holdup. The same can be said for baggage handling, resulting in delayed arrivals and outgoing flights for passengers. Similarly, poor team coordination between groups on the tarmac and at the gates can also extend ground times, and this can happen when there is an equipment shortage or some other delay.

All of these things result in two major concerns: rising costs to the airline and an increase in passenger frustration. Airlines know that passengers who are frustrated at the airport, an already stressful experience, result in a lot of bad media, social media posts, and demands for everything under the sun.

While all of these frustrations are taking place and turnaround delays are holding up passengers and dropping passenger satisfaction scores, there is also consideration that crews face a heightened level of stress. When passengers miss their connection, there is lost revenue, and temporary fixes like extra staffing don’t fix the root cause of any Kaizen-related issue.

Rest assured that the Kaizen system is here to implement lasting solutions, something which is good for both passengers and airlines alike.

How Kaizen Will Help Improve Turnaround Times

As you get into the crux of this issue and start to think about how Kaizen really starts to improve turnaround times, there are four main ways it will do so.

Reducing Downtime

At the top of the list here for looking at how to incorporate Kaizen strategies, executives from the airlines and airports should consider doing Gemba walks around the tarmac and through the gates. On the tarmac, in particular, they should be looking at how long planes are waiting for catering trucks, and whether or not they can prestage such equipment to cut downtime by as much as 30% based on historical airline data.

Additionally, airlines can look to optimize fuel schedules on the tarmac to speed up departures. By leveraging the concept of Continuous Improvement, we can also utilize crew feedback to identify additional refinements that can be made, ultimately leading to faster performance, as these teams are well-positioned to accurately pinpoint where the bottlenecks truly exist.

Streamlining Processes

One of the biggest things that Kaizen can do on a tarmac for an airline is to remove redundant steps, like duplicative safety checks, as long as they don’t affect passenger safety. Anything that can be done to accelerate the boarding process, like simultaneous refueling and cleaning, can help increase turnaround time by as much as 20%, potentially even higher.

There is even an opportunity, as processes are being streamlined, to look at overall waste reduction. Optimized tarmac layouts should be a high priority for airports, as this can be a critical way to maintain smooth operations, and there should be checklists in place to make sure errors are reduced.

Optimizing Resource Allocation

Another big principle of Kaizen that can play a big role here is Just-in-Time, which is going to be helpful in making sure ground support is in lock step with airplane arrivals. One such process would be to cross-train staff on various tasks that need to be completed when aircraft arrive at a gate to reduce bottlenecks.

Similarly, using something like mobile apps can allow for real-time tracking of tasks, and the data from these apps can be integrated into systems that can analyze the results and look for improvements that can be implemented down the line.

Enhancing Safety and Compliance

Safety improvements are not just something to ignore, but something Kaizen should be heavily focused on with any tarmac integrations. The lower the accident risk, the better off both passengers and airline and airport personnel are going to be. Kaizen is already well-designed to be aligned with aviation safety systems, and can be incorporated with a goal of reducing accidents by 10-20% right from the start.

The best part is that Kaizen aligns with FAA requirements, and through continuous monitoring of these practices, any violations can be immediately caught and addressed to avoid further issues.

Sustaining Kaizen on the Tarmac

Continuous Monitoring

At the very top of any list to keep Kaizen performing well on the tarmarc, it’s going to take continuous monitoring. This includes looking at turnaround data regularly to ensure that there is progress being made, and if not, that there is data available to make adjustments beginning the next day in order to keep things moving safely but faster.

Employee Engagement

It should go without saying that employee engagement is going to be among the most critical aspects of a successful Kaizen rollout. Nothing about this system rollout is going to work if the teams that have to do the day-to-day work aren’t on board. The goal is to build a lasting improvement culture that uplifts employees while doing their job and hopefully rewards them for doing their jobs well.

Standardizing Processes

Documenting successful changes, like optimized baggage flows, can ensure consistency, and regular Kaizen events can help refresh the already-in-place standards that exist. The goal is to achieve standardized processes that prevent former inefficiencies from ever re-emerging.

Scalability and Adaptation

Once Kaizen begins to expand across all airport operations, on the tarmac and at different gates, whether it’s through maintenance or check-in processes, the benefits of doing so are crystal clear. Also important is that Kaizen has to be flexible in order to be tweaked so it can be adjusted to seasonal or weather-related changes, so that turnaround changes are not lost in the shuffle when something goes wrong.

Other Useful Tools and Concepts

While reading about Kaizen and tarmacs is fun, it’s not nearly as much as some of the other topics we have available for you. How about learning all about faster patient flow with Lean Six Sigma, which is super important the next time you’re in a hospital? Separately, could you keep the Kaizen conversation going by discussing how to prevent small problems from escalating into bigger ones through daily Kaizen?

Keeping to the same idea of fun topics, how about how to handle customer complaints from creeping up on your business? This is a super necessary conversation, and any instance of complaints can really set a company back.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, there is no question that Kaizen not only has a place on the tarmac, but it’s just a matter of how quickly airlines look at this business philosophy and decide to implement it as fast as possible. There is no question that it’s already made changes for Southwest and even for Delta at Atlanta-Hartsfield airport. The only question is, what are other airlines and airports waiting for?