Denver International Airport Baggage Report

Running head: DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
Denver International Airport Baggage Handling System
Name of the Student
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Total words: 2052

1DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
1. Introduction
The discussion in this report would majorly focus on the failure aspects of the Denver
International Airport Baggage Handling System and estimating the areas in which possible lacks
could be found. The Denver Airport case can be considered as one of the strongest case in
history that leads to an understanding that project failures happening at any step could lead to
tremendous implications on the organization proposing the project. The increasing capacity of
holding a large number of people had led the airport officials to decide over the best possible
approach to mitigate the occurring problems (Burge & McCall, 2015). Hence the city of Denver
had majorly decided for constructing a new airport hub for the city. This new state of the art
airport would bring in a great reputation towards the Denver city and further develop it into an
air transportation hub.
Despite of several kind of good intentions that were made within the planning approach,
the plan for the construction of the airport hub was mostly dissolved owing to a high level of
underestimation over the complexity involved within the project. Based on the consideration of
various kind of problems being faced by the airport officials in the development of the baggage
system, the opening of the new airport was majorly delayed by a term period of 16 months. The
involved project teams had failed to gauge the various involved risks and vast complexity that
was involved within the project. With the late taking decisions, which were a consistent factor
leading towards the project failure. The project management team had allowed for the baggage
system to be within the critical path of the airport. In order to manage for the planning opening
date of the project, there should had been an intensive form of planning towards the project
designing rate and hence it would need to complete within the two years.
2. Discussion
2.1 Review of Concepts and Theories
2.1.1 Model for Analysing the Denver Airport Case Project
Based on understanding of the project case, the Diamond model would be chosen that
would help in analysis of the project accordingly. The diamond model is further been used in
projects as it is considered as a disciplined tool for the analysis of risks and expected future
benefits. The diamond model would be helpful for analysing the Denver Airport case by
identification of the possible gap areas within the Denver Airport project. This model would
further help in explaining the fact in which the identified gaps were the leading cause of the
failure for the entire project. In case of the Denver International Airport, it could be perceived as
a complex form of construction project (Shenhar & Dvir, 2007). The technological aspects used
within the case is considered as low as compared to other projects in which more focus is given
to technology. Analysis of the Denver project with the diamond model would help in
understanding that the project was competitive, fast and comprised of low focus on technological
areas.

2DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
(Figure 1: The Diamond Model)
(Source: Nicholas & Steyn, 2017)
The different dimensions within the diamond model based on which the analysis of the
failure of the Denver Airport are being discussed as follows:
1. Novelty – The novelty of a product defines the ways in which the new technology or
project would be accepted by potential customers and adapted to the changing face of the market.
This dimension helps towards representing towards the extent up to which the customers would
be familiar with the kind of new technology or system. Novelty helps in realizing the fact that the
customer and the requirements of the project needs to remain upfront. The platform products are
defined as new generation of the existing lines of product (Baghizadeh, Cecez-Kecmanovic &
Schlagwein, 2019). The new technologies and developed products help towards the replacement
of previous technology or products. The breakthrough products help towards bringing in a new-
to-world products. These further help in transferring towards a new concept that would not have
been seen by customer before.
In this case, it had been seen that the new technology of automated baggage systems at
the Denver Airport had been proposed for a new strategy (Felder & Thomas, 2018). However, in
the case of the Denver airport, there was a certain delay for the setting of a good form of strategy
for the running of the airport construction project.
2. Technology – The concerned dimensions primarily concerns towards the different
kind of technical activities included within a project. These include the design, development,
testing and future prototyping of projects. These might range from low-technology projects to
high-technology projects. Technology uncertainty has a major impact over the design and testing
aspects (Jonas, Goetz & Brady, 2019). It would also determine the interaction and

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communication. The dimension of technology helps in defining a certain form of technical
competence, which would be in high need by the project manager and the team members.
In relation to the concerned project, it can be discussed that the technology, which was
being implemented at the Denver Airport required a certain kind of correspondence towards the
shifting of organizational responsibilities (Becker et al., 2015). During the project, there was a
certain failure in estimating towards the major shift of technology. Hence, this had represented a
failure at the start of the Denver construction project.
3. Complexity – The dimension helped in representing towards the system scope for a
concerned project. This would affect the organizational structure and desired formality of project
management. The complexity within the product could be further classified in several levels. The
project complexity is primarily in relation to the scope of the system. This further would affect
the project and the formality aspects of project management (Crystal, 2017). The various levels
of complexity, which are primarily used for distinguishing among the various practices of project
management are: system, array and assembly.
The project managers and other primary stakeholders within the project had
underestimated the amount of complexity that was carried with the project. Hence, they had
majorly ignored the information that could have been leading towards the correction of taking
decisions towards the project.
4. Pace – The defined dimension helps in representing the importance of the schedule
and timeframe of a certain project. The various procedures within the project are structured in
such a manner that the top management within an organization would be majorly involved
towards the providing of approval of major project milestones. Various time-critical projects are
considered as endeavours, which are primarily centred towards a specific window (Podemska-
Mikluch & Wagner, 2017). Any kind of delay with the miss of the project management would
lead towards the failure aspect of the project. Hence, the organizational structure would need to
be project-based and thus the personnel within the project should be selected in a specific
manner.
In the case of the Denver International Airport (DIA), the Boeing Airport Equipment
Automated Systems (BAE) had committed towards delivering of the completed automated
baggage system under a fixed schedule, budget and arrangement of scope. Thus, the decision
towards the commitment for schedule, budget and scope had transferred considerable kind of
risks onto BAE. The move had indicated that the higher management at BAE had failed towards
recognizing the risk levels (Cole, 2017). A certain level of awareness towards the higher
management would have led them to take appropriate steps for limiting the risks. It would also
lead them to limit the project scope that would have been achievable in the available time.
2.2 Theme used for Project Analysis
This section of the report would focus on the theme of ‘Implementation of Complex
Projects’. In the present scenarios in which projects are developed, there are a broad range of
changing faces that affects projects. These account for many kind of unexpected risks that
accumulate over the project. Most of the project failures happen due to unknown risks that
should not have happened to the project scenarios. In this context, the theory of ‘Managing the
Unexpected’ would have helped in determining that the Denver case can be considered as a

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failure. Based on considering the theory, it could be understood the complexity, which was being
faced during the building of the automated baggage handling system was highly underestimated.
The major delay of the project happened due to the delay towards the airport opening by 16
months. This resulted in a cost of $1.1 million on an everyday basis.
However, with the application of this theory, the estimations that need to be taken during
the initial stages of a project could be made appropriately. Making of estimations would help in
determining both known and unknown risks towards the concerned project. This is considered as
the major kind of skill for determining the unexpected changes put on towards a project and
tackle them accordingly with available resources (Keskin, Ozorhon & Koseoglu, 2019).
Management of the unexpected risks need to be made since this would help in taking appropriate
measures in proper time so that risks could be handled accordingly.
The project managers who would be working on international projects such as within the
Denver International Airport (DIA) should be capable of developing appropriate skills for
stepping up with the challenges that are faced by projects. The project managers should develop
their interpersonal skills that would majorly help them for meeting up to the demands of the
industry (Russell, 2019). The development of foundational skills with the increase over the
business strategy and leadership skills within the global marketplace have been becoming highly
complex in nature. Thus, every project manager should have a keen understanding over the
development of their personal growth. This could be made possible with the help of developing a
training plan based on the dependency of the project case. Management of complex projects
would be a major requirement and thus would be dependent on the future of most organizations.
There are a huge number of ways in which the project manager could prepare themselves
for the management of complex project through the process of monitoring over the advanced
form of training (Lane, Eleyan & Snaith, 2019). Having a strong knowledge over the most
important skills would be helpful for attaining the maximum of competencies and thus lead
different projects accordingly. The complexity in various projects would be able to bring about
many kind of changes towards concerned organization (Suh, 2016). The changes that would be
brought in within the organization would help in changing the business processes, organizational
structures, corporate governance, communication methods, culture, project methodologies and
many others. In order to resolve the various problems arising in complex projects proposed by
organizations, the project management procedure within the organization should be changed and
new processes should be adapted accordingly (Chong-Leng Goh, Yun Zuo & Pan, 2016).
Change management processes within the organizational context should be practiced to a great
extent. This would be mainly due to the reason that in complex projects, certain events might be
incurred, which might be detrimental towards the project outcomes. Unexpected situations might
arise within projects and thus the project manager should be able to tackle them accordingly.
In the case of the concerned project for the development of an improved and automated
baggage system at Denver International Airport, the primary aspects, which were leading
towards the failure of the project were being led because of the improper approaches made
within the project (Kurnia, Linden & Huang, 2019). There was a major underestimation of the
involved complexity of project management at the airport construction aspects. The to-be
designed system was considered to be one of the most complex projects that had been attempted.
Hence, the project managers who were responsible for the project had primarily failed to
recognize the involved risks and the imminent complexities that lay ahead in the path of the

5DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
project (Wagner, 2016). Underestimating of the major components involved within the project
had led to the underestimation of the involved efforts towards the project. Thus, the project
managers were not able to manage the unexpected situations that could arise from the
mismanagement of project scope and less understanding of the complexities that could be
involved within the project.
3. Conclusion
The discussion in the above report had majorly focused on the case of the failed aspects
of the project initiated at the Denver International Airport. The report thus helps in analysing the
areas in which the project had lacked certain importance and low management of project
management skills. In the initial part of the discussion, the analysis is focused over the
understanding of the project case and the primary aspects that had been formed within the
project, which had led towards the failure of the international based project. The next part of the
discussion proceeds with the discussion of the project based on the analysis of the diamond
model. This model has thus presented the four different dimensions that needs to be considered
in relevance to the project and then a proper understanding was framed towards the analysis of
the project aspects linked with the dimensions. This model further led to the identification of
benefits that could be incurred with the project and the ways in which the people would be
accepting the project. The next part of discussion further emphasized on the understanding of the
theme focusing on the implementation of complex projects in organizations. In the present times,
projects often face different kind of complexities and hence project managers would have to
think of enhancing their skills to adapt to the changing needs of the project.

6DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
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Appendix
The project considered in this scenario is for the Denver International Airport (DIA) in
which the capacity of the airport would be increased. Within the component of the project plan,
the baggage handling system at the airport was a core component. The airport officials had
majorly planned for this facility since the automated baggage facility would be able to reduce a
considerable amount of time for the passengers. Thus, the main characteristic of the new system
would be focusing on faster turnaround as this facility would lead towards efficiency in business
operations. This could also be considered as a major cornerstone for the DIA in order to gain a
competitive advantage.
The large form of rising airport capacity during 1990 at the Denver city had led the
airport officials to decide over the construction of a new state of the art airport that would raise
the position of the Denver airport and convert it into a major kind of air transportation hub. The
airport hub would cover a land span of 140 Km2, while the airport would be enable with the
capability of carrying more than 50 million passengers on an annual basis. In spite of the good
kind of intentions as proposed for the project, there were major kind of underestimation over the
plan, which resulted in rising cases of problems and public humiliation. Due to the rising cases of
problems, the opening ceremony of the airport had been delayed by 16 full months.
In consideration of the broader terms of the project failure, it could be discussed and
analysed that another reason of the project failure was based on linking the overall strategy of the
airport with the building of the baggage system. The BAE had taken responsibility to design the
project based on considering of the limited scope and poor project management capabilities.
Various reports had indicated over the fact that the decision to proceed over the project were
mainly because of the certain communication between the BAE Senior Management Team and
Chief Engineer of the airport. In the case of DIA, BAE had committed for the delivery of the
entire project within a fixed kind of project schedule, scope and arrangement of budgets. Thus,
the decision for delivering the project under a fixed commitment had led considerable amount of
risks on BAE. The move towards the made commitment had indicated the fact that the people in
the higher managerial structure of BAE had failed to recognize the level of risks that were being
incurred by them.
With the ongoing development works that were being made over the project, there were
certain kind of technical problems that were encountered. However, no kind of allowances were
made for encountering and resisting the technical challenges that were being faced by the
project. The electrical system at the airport majorly suffered significant number of power
fluctuations that led to the crashing of the system and stoppage of development work. One of the
primary resolution to the problem focused on the development of required filters to be made
within the electrical power system for the elimination of surges. Thus, the delivery and further
installation of filters had taken several months, which delayed the entire work on the project.
From the understanding of the project case, it could be considered that the outcomes of
the Denver case project turned out to be a major failure for the entire team. The project was
considered to be 16 months behind the planned schedule and the budget for the project had been
raised to $2 billion. The airport-wide computerized baggage handling system had been entirely

9DENVER INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT BAGGAGE HANDLING SYSTEM
abandoned and thus a manual system had to be put in place. This new system was designed
around the conveyor belts while tugs and carts were also put in place.
After the completion of the project, it was considered that there were major differences in
terms of outcomes. The anticipated date of completion for the baggage handling system to be put
in the Denver International Airport was estimated at 31st October 1993. However, the redesigned
system had finally been put in action on 28th February 1995 after the opening of the airport was
delayed four times. As per the conception of the system design, the designers had made
significant number of large changes within the baggage system. Upon the completion of the
project, it could also be discussed that both the airlines and the Denver airport had suffered
tremendous losses due to the automated form of baggage handling system since the project was
not delivered with efficiency, cost-effective manner and expected productivity. The original
price of the system, which was expected at $193 million while the price of the new system had
been increased to $311 million. Hence, this was considered as a major form of difference that
was formed between the expected and real outcomes formed after completion.
In the initial stages, a master plan was formed in 1980s, in which a plan was set for the
construction of the DIA. In 1991, the DIA Project Management Team had approached BAE
Automated System for the purpose of the building for the baggage handling system at the DIA.
Thus, they proposed to design the most complex form of baggage handling system. In April
1992, a prototype was designed for the to-be proposed system. Thus, the Denver officials had set
for a $175.6 million contract for the building of the automated baggage handling system at the
airport.
The construction of the Denver International Airport, was proceeded without a single
contract signage between DIA, United and Continental. The United and Continental are
considered as the two airlines, which were the primary stakeholders within the project and thus
they had the maximum chances for controlling almost 80% of the flights within the Denver
Airport. The United Airlines had initially proceed with their major plans for engaging BAE
within the Denver airport. On the other hand, Continental Airlines had not made any form of
arrangements while not addressing the major portions of the Denver Airport.