By Nick Heath, 3 November 2008 14:36
NEWS
MPs have told British Airways and airport operator BAA they "could and should have avoided" the Heathrow T5 baggage chaos.
Both BA and BAA have been criticised for "serious failings" in a parliamentary transport committee report into the shambolic opening of the £4.3bn terminal in March this year.
The report, released today, says "what should have been an occasion of national pride was in fact an occasion of national embarrassment" as the baggage system failed to process more than 20,000 bags during the first days of its operation.
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In a memo to the committee BA admits that end-to-end integration testing of key BA operational IT systems was delayed until 31 October, which it says "affected our ability to run both the proving trials and staff familiarisation".
In the report, BA is quoted as accepting the committee's findings that training and testing had been insufficient saying: "We should not have absorbed the continuing building delays by compromising the time needed to complete the full testing and familiarisation process as planned."
"We should have delayed the move," BA concludes.
The transport committee report notes the impact of a lack of joint groundwork saying: "The chaotic scenes of late March and early April could, and should have been avoided through better preparation and more effective joint working."
However, according to BA, there have been significant improvements since the March opening of T5, with the terminal "now providing the best customer experience Heathrow has known for many years", with "significantly improved baggage handling".
BA and BAA now hold regular joint meetings between managers, in order to review baggage operations at T5 and to monitor the timetable for switching remaining flights from T4 to T5.
Since the debacle BAA told the committee it has established a joint BA/BAA crisis management team and set up a direct link between BAA and BA baggage and logistics teams.
BAA added the difficulties are now behind it.
"Terminal 5 hasÂ… been used by more than 11.5 million people. We regularly exceed performance targets for cleanliness, wayfinding and security queues have been less than five minutes nearly 98 per cent of the time," the airport operator said in a statement to silicon.com.
Comments
There are 7 comments. Join the discussion
1. Roger Huffadine
BA's response leaves me with no confidence in their management structure or working practices - they admit that they permit pressure to cause compromise.
2. anonymous
Personally I feel the root cause was inneffectual senior management, BA full of thier own huffing and puffing of self importance, and a firm belief in project management by wishful thinking.
Anyone with half a brain could see anything this inherently complex needed to be better thought out, staffed, trained, tested and most of all have a staggered introduction rather than overwhelming on day one with a overnight 'house move' which was just a plain dumb idea.
3. Chris Goodman
As a customer my needs are a quick and painless journey through to my flight and the assurance that my checked baggage is 100% assured to arrive at my destination WITH ME.
Simple? Should be with the right management and properly trained staff.
4. Radical Meldrew
A bad workman blames his tools and likewise bad management blame their workforce. Do those at the top ever learn - or they too focussed on next year's target bonuses to care?
5. Steve Gedney
Sir,
Testing is a crucial part of any project. By not allowing sufficient time to test a system, organisations run the risk of it falling at the first hurdle. Unfortunately, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is going to be remembered as a text book example of what happens when systems are not tested properly.
Testing needs to take two forms. Testing throughout the lifecycle of the project allows flaws to be identified and rectified before implementation, ensuring that costly adjustments to live projects can be avoided. Performance testing, immediately prior to implementation and live status, allows an organisation to ensure the system can cope with the load it will be required to handle.
By not testing at either or both of these stages, organisations run the risk of repeating Terminal 5’s problems. One can only hope that such a high profile and embarrassing systems failure will demonstrate to other organisations the need to do everything necessary to avoid a similar disaster.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gedney
MD, Borland UK and Northern Europe
6. Steve Gedney
Sir,
Testing is a crucial part of any project. By not allowing sufficient time to test a system, organisations run the risk of it falling at the first hurdle. Unfortunately, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 is going to be remembered as a text book example of what happens when systems are not tested properly.
Testing needs to take two forms. Testing throughout the lifecycle of the project allows flaws to be identified and rectified before implementation, ensuring that costly adjustments to live projects can be avoided. Performance testing, immediately prior to implementation and live status, allows an organisation to ensure the system can cope with the load it will be required to handle.
By not testing at either or both of these stages, organisations run the risk of repeating Terminal 5’s problems. One can only hope that such a high profile and embarrassing systems failure will demonstrate to other organisations the need to do everything necessary to avoid a similar disaster.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Gedney
MD, Borland UK
7. Dick Vinegar
Today's project managers are box-tickers, from T5, through the NHS NPfIT to the CSA. They also lack common sense. And the guts to confront their bosses.
These things would not have happened thirty years ago, but we were giants. You lot today are pygmies.