Being an 'operations guy' - that's what I like to think of myself as - I see a plethora of opportunity to make change in the way things happen all around. Especially in India, now that I am visiting India.
With the privilege of having studied operations, lead operations in a factory and also having lived in an operationally efficient country like the US, I feel I have some value to add in terms of making things better in the way we do things around here. Regarding the point about US, I do feel that although US is thought of the land of Hollywood, Apple, Steve Jobs and where the world's Dream Machine exists, I do think that it is also a very operationally efficient country as well. Although that aspect is not overplayed.
I landed in Bangalore after a 40 hours of flying + waiting during stopovers. At the end of it, I was glad I was home. But I lost my cool when it took me a whole 45 mins to get my luggage. So many things about the luggage claim were wrong. I could notice a few fundamental issues.
To begin with, the size of the luggage carousel (the conveyor) was very small. Any domestic flight has about 180 seats (30 rows X 6 per row) so assuming that the average passenger carries 2 pieces of luggage (say suitcases), the conveyor should be able to hold 360 pieces of luggage without a problem.
The motor powering the conveyor also should be capable of moving 360 peices of luggage weighing about 25 kg each. This is because economy airlines like Indigo, GoAir etc... allow baggage of 20 kg/person. But you also need to build in a factor of safety. What if someone is willing to pay for extra luggage? So, the motor should be able to carry 360 X 25 kg easily.
There should sufficient space for 180 ppl to stand around the conveyor! Again goes back to the earlier point. The conveyor should be long enough.
It seems that the contract was given to the guy who gave the chepest quote or the highest bribe to the IAAA official.
It was pathetic. I would see that the conveyor was not able to hold more than 60 pieces of luggage. Even with such a light load, the motor kept on tripping due to overload. Worse still, no one was picking up the luggage because the people whose luggage was going round and round somehow were not around the conveyor. And the people who were standing around the conveyor were waiting for their luggage to come which was impossible since the people who had to pick up the luggage could not see theirs.
I don't know how such basic things contribute to such frustration and spoil the entire experience.
This is where we need good engineers, thinkers and consultants.
Although we churn out a whole flock of engineers from Tom, Dick and Harry colleges, this is where lack of perception , lack of thoughtfulness,lack of imagination hits the progress of this country.
I did leave a scathing complaint/feedback to the staff of IndiGo through formal and informal means - that's what I can do a a law abiding citizen who cares.
We hear a lot about India and China becoming the superpower of tomorrow etc...I don't know enough about China, but India in its current shape is certainly not ready to become one. We have such basic infrastructural issues and that's not even the biggest issue. Work ethic and an improvement mindset is the biggest worry.
With the privilege of having studied operations, lead operations in a factory and also having lived in an operationally efficient country like the US, I feel I have some value to add in terms of making things better in the way we do things around here. Regarding the point about US, I do feel that although US is thought of the land of Hollywood, Apple, Steve Jobs and where the world's Dream Machine exists, I do think that it is also a very operationally efficient country as well. Although that aspect is not overplayed.
I landed in Bangalore after a 40 hours of flying + waiting during stopovers. At the end of it, I was glad I was home. But I lost my cool when it took me a whole 45 mins to get my luggage. So many things about the luggage claim were wrong. I could notice a few fundamental issues.
To begin with, the size of the luggage carousel (the conveyor) was very small. Any domestic flight has about 180 seats (30 rows X 6 per row) so assuming that the average passenger carries 2 pieces of luggage (say suitcases), the conveyor should be able to hold 360 pieces of luggage without a problem.
The motor powering the conveyor also should be capable of moving 360 peices of luggage weighing about 25 kg each. This is because economy airlines like Indigo, GoAir etc... allow baggage of 20 kg/person. But you also need to build in a factor of safety. What if someone is willing to pay for extra luggage? So, the motor should be able to carry 360 X 25 kg easily.
There should sufficient space for 180 ppl to stand around the conveyor! Again goes back to the earlier point. The conveyor should be long enough.
It seems that the contract was given to the guy who gave the chepest quote or the highest bribe to the IAAA official.
It was pathetic. I would see that the conveyor was not able to hold more than 60 pieces of luggage. Even with such a light load, the motor kept on tripping due to overload. Worse still, no one was picking up the luggage because the people whose luggage was going round and round somehow were not around the conveyor. And the people who were standing around the conveyor were waiting for their luggage to come which was impossible since the people who had to pick up the luggage could not see theirs.
I don't know how such basic things contribute to such frustration and spoil the entire experience.
This is where we need good engineers, thinkers and consultants.
Although we churn out a whole flock of engineers from Tom, Dick and Harry colleges, this is where lack of perception , lack of thoughtfulness,lack of imagination hits the progress of this country.
I did leave a scathing complaint/feedback to the staff of IndiGo through formal and informal means - that's what I can do a a law abiding citizen who cares.
We hear a lot about India and China becoming the superpower of tomorrow etc...I don't know enough about China, but India in its current shape is certainly not ready to become one. We have such basic infrastructural issues and that's not even the biggest issue. Work ethic and an improvement mindset is the biggest worry.
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