OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEATHROW AIRPORT  

OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR HEATHROW AIRPORT  
Table of Contents
Introduction 3
Challenges Identified in the Heathrow airport case study 3
Application of operations management concepts, theories and Models 4
Business process redesign 4
Six sigma 5
Lean manufacturing 6
Recommendations 7
Conclusions 8
Reference List 10
 
Introduction 
Operations management is the process through which practices and processes of a business are administered to constitute efficiency within a business. Operations management processes are associated with converting labour and materials into services and goods. The purpose of operations management is to constitute effectiveness in everyday business processes including supply chain management, logistics, warehouse and other related fields so that there is time-effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and quality management within the business. The primary benefit of operations management is to contribute to higher profit and revenue for a firm. The current study revolves around operations management procedures at Heathrow Airport where a number of operational challenges have been identified such as long waiting queues by the passenger and other issues. Thus, in this research, there is an identification of the operations management challenges along with providing necessary mitigating measures for the resolution of the issues.
Challenges Identified in the Heathrow airport case study 
The issues identified in Heathrow Airport were prior to the arrival of Bolvin as the CEO of the airport. A number of media incidents and press releases have highlighted the operations management challenges at the airport owing to which there has been increased frustration and resentment among the customers. In the opinion of Guo et al. (2020), one of the primary challenges identified in the airport is increased stress levels among passengers and travellers owing to long-standing queues and traffic jams in the adjacent areas. This is indicative of poor management system and traffic management in the nearby area as a result of which, jams are frequent. Another issue identified in the airport is in terms of capacity in terms of movement of a maximum number of aircraft movement. As such, effectiveness in the airport’s operational management rests on managing the runways, taxiways, control towers, airport access, passenger terminals, apron size and airspace and these spaces often become congested during peak hours and peak seasons. However, despite this, the airport authority at Heathrow did not take adequate steps and measures and as such, expansion of the runway and terminals could turn out to be one of the potential mitigation measures for this issue. However, the limited number of runways and terminals created issues for both the passengers and aircraft in terms of moving successfully during peak and congested hours.

Figure 1: Operational issues in Heathrow Airport
(Source: Created by author)
An important factor for international airports such as Heathrow is also efficient operations management for curbing delays. According to Henke et al. (2022), delays in aircraft could be caused by a number of factors including technical issues, poor weather, inadequate staffing at the terminal and insufficient gate positions. As such, all of these issues could have been managed at the airport except for delays due to inclement weather conditions. The issues that contributed to the delay of flights at Heathrow Airport primarily included inadequate staffing at the terminals that would attend to the customers during peak hours (Guo et al. 2022). Therefore, during security checks, immigration and boarding the passengers had to often wait for a longer period thus contributing to unnecessary delays. Additionally, a scanty number of gateways and terminals also contributed to the issue as passengers boarding on different flights often had to go through the same terminal or gateway which contributed to the creation of a chaotic situation.
Application of operations management concepts, theories and models 
Business process redesign
In order to understand the operations management challenges at Heathrow Airport, the primary model implemented is a business process redesign. As studied by Henke et al. (2022), business process redesign is focused towards integrating new processes, technologies and changes by the leaders and managers of an organisation into the firm. The crux of BPR rests on cutting excess costs and sharpening the management system which culminates in higher profitability. The disruption in the workflow is also managed effectively by BPR. The adoption of BPR in Heathrow Airport’s operations management procedure shows a lack of improvement in the airport as the CEOs and COOs have been unable to expand the capacity of the business through expansion of gateways and terminals. There has also been a lack of cost-effective measures due to non-adherence to technology. As influenced by Augustyniak (2020), the implementation of ICT could have fostered an effective communication process that would readily pass information about the congestion or traffic jams in one area. Thus, through this effective communication process, there would be availability of information on the basis of which the management of the airport could have taken immediate measures to resolve the issue. However, lack of ICT implementation in the airport was one of the preliminary operational failures as a result of which, there has been no reporting measures.
Six sigma
Another theory of operations management implemented in the current case stud analysis is six sigmas. As reported by Avanzi & Zerjav (2020), six sigmas is a set of tools and methodologies used to bring improvements in business procedure through identification and reduction of defects and errors. Six Sigma also reduces waste and brings improvement and quality efficiency in operational procedures. The implementation of the DMAIC (Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, Control) approach has shown that the issue faced by the airport authority is an increase in the cost of operations as flights took longer to take off and remained for a larger time on the ground. This automatically added to the expense of the airport authority.

Figure 2: Six sigma framework
(Source: Created by author)
Additionally, poor decision-making is also witnessed due to a lack of alignment of the managers’ performance with the growth and development of the airport. Each of the managers was fighting for their survival and to achieve a higher position in the organisation without focusing on the accomplishment of the goals and objectives of the organisation. As influenced by Di Vaio & Varriale (2020), the frequent turnover of the COOs before Bolvin further culminated in a lack of job security among managers. Poor decision-making was also witnessed due to the dearth of collaboration and communication between the different stakeholders.
Lean manufacturing
The crux of lean manufacturing rests on reducing and minimizing waste so that there is an enhancement of productivity. Waste is defined as the factors that do not add value to the customers or result in their resentment and frustration. As influenced by Guo et al. (2022), the waste identified in Heathrow Airport’s operational management was operational efficiency; the primary reason for this was poor communication. The members were not aware of the happenings and issues in different departments and thus, the issues could not be solved, thus, culminating in dissatisfaction and resentment. The lack of resilience and crisis management has also been witnessed as the airport has been informed of the snowfall that occurred in 2010. The poor communication between managers and departments contributed to the unexpected service cuts and the long queues and delays in flight take-off contributed to increased costs. Another waste identified was poor utilization of the resources. As inspired by Yanjun et al. (2019), an excellent resource available to the airport was its international recognition and increased number of international customers that could have contributed to higher sales and profitability of the airport and constitute cost-effectiveness. However, the poor utilization of decision-making approach and lack of coordination between management resulted in poor efficacy.
Recommendations 
The primary issue identified in the provided scenario of operations management at Heathrow Airport is congestion, delays and traffic jams. Thus, it is recommended to the COO, CEO and other leaders of the airport widen the gateway numbers, terminals and adjacent roads so that traffic jams could be avoided. Additionally, as influenced by Ivanov et al. (2019), there should also be a strategic partnership between the airport and the local traffic department to look into matters of traffic jams and implement strategies for clearing traffic jams during peak hours in the shortest possible time. Moreover, the airport also faced issues in managing large volumes and capacity of international and local tourists. Heathrow is one of the leading and most popular airports in the world; however, despite that, there has been ineffective management of passengers during peak seasons and hours. Henceforth, the expansion of terminals and gateways could turn out to be one of the most important strategies for accommodating increased numbers of passengers during peak hours, thus curbing the risk of their resentment and flight delay.
Furthermore, Heathrow Airport also faced issues in terms of delays in flights. As mentioned by Tabares (2021), the implementation of a lean manufacturing approach to operations management shows that one of the adversities associated with operations management is waste and the high cost of operations. The high costs of operations at Heathrow Airport were caused by delays in flights. Thus, a technical officer should be appointed by the airport authority so that software could be installed for checking the status of the aircraft. The delay in every aircraft should be tracked and updated by the technical officer which would help in clearing queues for the most recent flights or emergency flights. In that way, long-standing queues could be minimized and the issue of waste shall be curbed. Additionally, the gateway for every flight should be different so that there are only passengers of one flight in one gateway. In this regard, increasing staffing and workforce is also one of the potential mitigation measures for the issue. However, it must be identified that the cost of operations is already high for Heathrow Airport and increasing the number of staff shall contribute to added costs of operations for the airport. The increase in staffing would result in higher costs for salary and remuneration and it must be noted that this would curb the delays in flights which is a costly affair for the airport (Lee et al. 2020). Lack of delay in flights indicates a higher number of flights moving in a day, thereby, adding to the revenue of the airport.
In this context, the lack of motivation and driving willingness among the workforce and managers to contribute to organisational growth and development is also witnessed. According to Guo et al. (2020), the managers of the firm have faced a loss of confidence, job security and value due to the repeated turnover of the COOs. Therefore, it is important to implement motivational strategies for the workforce as part of which they shall be more engaged with the airport’s goals and objectives. There should also be the implementation of motivational and employee management strategies such as Herzberg two factor theory. As part of that, they should be provided with incentives, rewards and job security to keep them motivated. This would make them engaged and aligned towards organisational goals and therefore, curb the issue of disengagement.
The last recommendation for enhancing the operations management of Heathrow Airport is to improve the communications procedure. The importance of communication lies in the easy identification of the operational issues and curbing those in the shortest span. As inspired by Henke et al. (2020), there should be the implementation of ICT within the airport to foster the communication procedure between departments and stakeholders. An important factor to consider in this regard is to provide training and development to the workforce so that they become well acquainted with the use of ICT tools and other technical tools. This would help them communicate with the departments and stakeholders and resolve operational issues efficiently. Improved communication and implementation of ICT would also be beneficial for maintaining collaboration between the Planning office and Air traffic control as part of which delays due to bad weather conditions could also be curbed.
Conclusions
Based on findings and discussions, the conclusion is that the issues prevalent in Heathrow Airport included a lack of focus of the COOs towards improvements and betterments. The lack of job security among managers and poor communication systems culminated in delayed recognition of the problems. Shortage of staffing is also a significant issue in the operations management procedure. Therefore, the primary recommendation provided is to expand the roads, gateways and terminals. Increasing the number of staffing could also be one of the potential mitigating measures to the operational issue. In order to improve communication, ICT shall be implemented and staff shall be provided training on the same.
 
Reference List
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