Benedictine Univeristy | Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System | MBA 683 | | Farrah R. Ansari | 10/1/2015 |

|

Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System The Denver International Airport, located in Denver Colorado, is the country’s largest airport based on total land area. The airport has the longest runway, is considered the 18th busiest airport in the world and the 6th busiest airport in the United States. There are nearly 53 million passengers that travel in and out of this airport. In the early 1990s the airport decided to create the world’s largest automated baggage handling system. In order to accommodate for the millions of passengers the project team felt this would be an effective project. The goal of the project was to create an automated baggage system that would reduce aircraft turnaround time to nearly 30 minutes. By reducing the turnaround time to a half an hour would allow for more efficient operations. The project team wanted to include this new system to all three concourses which included 88 airport gates.
The concept of the project was well intended but poorly planned and executed by the project management team. The first flaw and biggest flaw of the project was the unrealistic scope. The project failed to set a realistic deadline or budget for the project. The deadline was exceeded by nearly 16 months, the budget by $560 million, and the overall intention of incorporate all three concourses was also not met. The project was only able to be incorporated into one concourse, for one airline and only for their outbound flights.
When deciding the constraints of the project the project team had consulted with Breier Neidle Patron Associates. The purpose of this was to determine the feasibility of this project. After the meeting it was advised not to proceed with the project based on the complexity of the project. This was an opportune time for the project team to reevaluate the project scope by extending the deadline. The project team should have also divided the project up in order to ensure the automation process worked efficiently. Having the project include all three concourses was not well thought out, and should have started with just one concourse at a time.
The second flaw of the project management team was not incorporating the key stakeholders during the initial planning phase. The key stakeholders for this project were the airlines who were renting the space within the airport. The airlines would be the most effected with the outcome of the automated baggage system. The project team included the airlines too late into the project, which resulted in them having to redesign the project. Redesigning the project resulted in a waste of time and money for the project team. If they had consulted the stakeholders during the initial planning stages this process could have been avoided, ultimately saving money and time.
-------------------------------------------------
The failure of the Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System was an iconic example of how critical it is for a project team to communicate with stakeholders. The case study also showed how detrimental scope creep can be to the overall progress of a project. The project team failed to follow the basic procedures of a project which resulted in a failed project. If the team had properly followed the project management cycle it could have saved the state of Denver millions of dollars.