Schiphol baggage handling
building culture
Schiphol baggage handling
Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport annually processes more than 50 million suitcases and other types of baggage. What appears to be an automated baggage-handling system is, in reality, work performed by humans under often challenging circumstances and always under time constraints. How do you improve their working conditions?
Baggage-handling services at Schiphol Airport are provided by six specialized companies, which are each individually under contract with the various airlines. While they are, effectively, each other’s competitors, they work together to uphold the quality standards for which Schiphol is known (and in which the airport’s baggage handlers are a decisive factor). Their work environment must be safe, healthy, clean and attractive. This can only be achieved if Schiphol (which owns the facilities) and the handling companies operating at the airport work together seamlessly. For these partners, the key is in defining clear principles for collaboration, having shared values and a cohesive meeting schedule, both for day-to-day operations and in joint improvement programs.
An Ami team consisting of Raymond Maas , Ronald Otten en Chris Kleinschmidt has been supporting the baggage handlers and Schiphol Airport in embracing and strengthening their partnership.
Ami helped Schiphol and the baggage-handling companies to identify and unleash their joint potential for improvement. What would be the ideal set-up for the workers in the halls, and what would be needed to create (and maintain) this type of work environment together? Our next step was to help translate ideas into an implementation strategy, while also looking at weak points in the partnership and transforming them into shared principles. The team came up with a shared set of criteria for descriptors such as “clean”, “safe”, and “attractive”, while the complex consultation system was replaced with a clear-cut management model. Hundreds of mechanical lifting aids were installed as part of the project, in an effort to reduce physical strain for workers. This project marks a first step in forging a closer alliance between the six service providers.
Jan-Jaap Hoving
“Working together to enable and improve human-driven work: that meant we had to face one another and learn to understand each other first.”