Where does the suitcase go or ...

It is hardly worth telling about the advantages of optimizing any processes in an organization; many books and textbooks, good and different, have been written on this topic. But if the task you have to work on is to reorganize the transportation of more than 50 million pieces of baggage, then perhaps you would want to control everything as efficiently as possible, from the moment the passenger gives up his bag at the check-in desk before he takes it at the exit of the airport.

This task is associated with a huge number of processes, and hence the information that needs to be processed. The organization specializes in this area called Baggage Center of Excellence, located in Amsterdam. Optimization minds of IBM and KLM airlines converge in this company, helping to create baggage control systems around the world.


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This time, an extraordinary task was set before them: to increase the capacity of the luggage compartment of the 5th passenger airport in Europe - Schiphol , as its workload in the next 6 years will increase by 40%. In addition, the companies involved in this project are seriously concerned about the quality of services provided to the client. For example, you knew that for the existence of short transfers between planes (in a few minutes) it is extremely important to have a system whose task will be to quickly deliver baggage from one plane to another, while ensuring that not a single suitcase is left or lost. the road?

In order to meet all requirements, IBM helped design and build an intelligent system in the open space of the luggage compartment that is able to optimize the process of receiving, controlling and issuing each bag. Built on an area of ​​10,000 m ² , 21 km stretched inside it. transport conveyors leading to one of 9000 luggage racks and this system allows you to see each bag, its actual location - thanks to the use of RFID tags. 6 robots allow you to sort more than 140,000 bags daily, with a peak load of 200,000 units. per day.

The use of such technologies allows airlines to reduce their own costs for handling the baggage of their passengers, as a result of which they offer cheaper tickets, and for airport employees, it is more efficient to control the entire process. This is especially important in the case of Schiphol, since the airport has not been able to build additional terminals since the last terminal was built, so it was important to increase the efficiency of the existing system by upgrading its most important nodes.



PS To anyone who is interested in how IBM helped to create such a system, we provide two references to the software used in the development: IBM Rational and IBM Tivoli . Having passed through them, you can find out everything about process optimization at all levels and start using these technologies in your work.