Southwest Airlines Technology Failure

This assignment examines a case study of Southwest Airlines facing a major technological disruption. It delves into the problem identification process using brainstorming techniques to analyze the root causes of the system failure and its consequences, including flight cancellations and customer complaints. The document explores recommendations for managing such crises effectively in the airline industry.

Running head: INTEGRATED MANGEMENT PROJECT
Integrated Management Project
[Name of the Student]
[Name of the University]
[Author note]

1INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Discussion:.......................................................................................................................................2
Problem Analysis:........................................................................................................................2
Problem identification technique:................................................................................................2
Recommendations:......................................................................................................................3
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................4

2INTEGRATED MANAGEMENT PROJECT
Background of the company and sector:
Airline Industry is the company which is associated with the providing of air transport
services for the passengers and the freights. Airline industry generally makes use of aircraft for
the purpose of suppling all these services. Airlines vary in size from small too big. Southwest
Airlines Co. was founded in the year of 1967 on 15th March with headquarter situated in the state
of Dallas, Texas. This is the world largest low-cost carrier. This proposal is mainly regarding the
problem faced by this organization due to technical problems so as to use certain problem
identification techniques and recommend certain ways of avoiding this difficulty. The founder of
this organization “Herb Kelleher” firstly named it “Air Southwest” but later adopted its current
name in the year of 1971. It started its operations as intrastate airlines which wholly operated
within the state of Texas.
Identification of the problem:
Southwest Airlines had faced a sudden technology failure and all the website and other
services of the company were down for around 12 hours which initially lead to cancellation of
thousands of flights. Despite the response to the complaints, it seemed that the complaints of the
customers overwhelm the social media team of the company.
Problem identification tool and definition used for solving the problem:
The tools used over here so as to identify the problem is brainstorming. Brainstorming is
the ideal lateral thinking process so as to pool relevant ideas, data about the effects, and impacts
of the problem on the process. Along with this, the tool is also associated with providing of
suggestion and finding the possible root cause of the problem at the initial stage of the problem-
solving process. This brainstorming session is used for the extraction of the information and the

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facts as much as possible in a very short period of time. There are few rules or set of structures in
the brainstorming process which is associated with discussing of the problems at once which
help the problem-solving team to focus on the problem and avoid the going off the topic. It is
recommended that during the brainstorming session no ideas should be dismissed or criticized
and all the contributions of the team members should be appreciated. Everyone present in the
brainstorming session should contribute to the group effort and all the ideas are documented.
Southwest Airlines should form a team who would sit together so as to discuss the problems. The
first and essential work that is to be done by the team is finding out the main reason which is
responsible for the problem. Secondly, they should think of how this problem is to be solved and
thirdly they should think of how they can improve the existing system of the organization.
Brainstorming by the team is a simple process which would help in gathering various creative
solutions for the problems. It is to be made sure before the starting of the session that the person
who is leading the team has requested all the team members about bringing relevant information
which would be very much useful for the solving of the problems.