RICHARD BORGE

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105
The hidden value in
irline operations present a striking dichotomy. Each day, the airlines
achieve the remarkable by safely moving nearly ve million people
more than 40 million air miles around the world. Often, however, they fail
to deliver on the ordinary. Once the aircraft land, all too many of them taxi
to a jetway and waitperhaps for a ground crew to arrive and open a door
or for the end of the traffic caused by another planes maintenance delay.
Even standout, low-cost performers lose bags, keep valuable employees idle,
depart late, and have billions of dollars in chronically underutilized aircraft
and other hugely expensive assets.
These extremes coexist because airlines have historically focused on safety,
aircraft technology, speed, geographic reach, and in-ight service attributes;
on distinctive regulatory constraints and labor issues; and on the unpre-
dictability imposed by weather and rapidly shifting demand. At the same
time, issues such as route structures, excess capacity, pricing, and yield man-
agement compete with operations for the airlines attention.
1
As a result, the
airlines havent given their operations factorylike, industrial-engineering
Stephen J. Doig, Adam Howard, and Ronald C. Ritter
In other process-, labor-, and capital-intensive industries,
superb operators win. Why should airlines be different?
A
1
For a survey of the industrys overall challenges, see Peter R. Costa, Doug S. Harned, and Jerrold T.
Lundquist, Rethinking the aviation industry, The McKinsey Quarterly, 2002 special edition: Risk and
resilience, pp. 88100 (www.mckinseyquarterly.com/links/7637).
airlineoperations
Q4_AirlineOps_v5 9/3/03 2:49 PM Page 105
scrutiny. Great operators in other heavy industries have worked through
these challenges to deliver low costs, high quality, and satised customers.
Yet up to 45 percent of an airlines cost structure consists of maintenance,
ground handling, in-ight services, call centers, and aircraft acquisitions
(which are inuenced by operational variables like aircraft downtime). One
hundred years after the rst powered ight, its time to start looking at the
airlines as mature industrial companies and to apply proven manufacturing
practices that can streamline their process-intensive activities. At stake is an
opportunity to reduce overall costs dramatically by using labor, materials,
and assets more efficiently, to
enhance the reliability of service,
and to strengthen ight safety.
Our recent work in the trenches
of maintenance and other operations
at several airlines has shown us that
they can simultaneously make breakthroughs in cost and quality while con-
tinually improving their performance in both areasan achievement known
as the rst paradox of Toyota Motors lean-production system. Lean
approaches, adopted by numerous industrial and service companies (includ-
ing many that are heavily unionized and some, like hospitals and medical-
device manufacturers, that are highly regulated), are well suited to the
airlines challenges. As lean techniques eliminate waste, they also root out
the nonstandardized work times, variable team structures, and highly asyn-
chronous work ows that many airline executives now view as unavoidable.
The lean approaches of pioneering airlines have begun with the maintenance
shop, which functions very much as a disassembly-assembly factory and
displays a striking degree of waste and variability. Impressive maintenance
results30 to 50 percent improvements in aircraft and component turn-
around times and 25 to 50 percent improvements in productivity (Exhib-
it 1)are encouraging signs for the airlines other operational choke points,
such as baggage handling, passenger loading, and customer service. Apply-
ing the philosophy and methods of the lean approach also creates new
opportunities for outsourcing and insourcing.
In any industry, companies that adopt lean techniques face difficulties, such
as getting senior management committed to the effort, developing the talent
pool to lead it, and avoiding the pick-and-choose lean-tool-kit approach,
which in the end fails to address the root causes of problems. Yet precisely
because the lean journey is difficult, the gains won by airlines that persevere
with it are more likely to be truly differentiating and sustainable than those
resulting from more imitable tactics, such as extracting wage concessions or
106 THE McKI NSEY QUARTERLY 2003 NUMBER 4
One hundred years after the first
powered flight, its time to see the
airlines as mature companies
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cutting service. As the industry struggles through the most severe downturn
in its history, now is the time to begin.
From Camry to cockpit
When airline executives talk operations, more often than not they focus on
the features that distinguish their industry from others. Yet an airline orders
materials just as a factory does, and it sequences work, deploys workers to
specialized tasks, commits itself to quality levels, and at regular intervals
turns out the equivalent of productsserviced and airworthy aircraft.
Conversely, like airlines, factories face variability when large orders roll in
unexpectedly, equipment breaks down, or snowstorms interrupt supplies.
For all these reasons, the factory oors of strong operators hold important
lessons for airlines. Toyotas lean-production system is legendary: the com-
panys cars routinely win quality awards, its capital efficiency is extraordi-
nary, and a lot of its plants have breakeven points at 30 to 40 percent of
capacity. Many close cousins of the companies in the airline industry
Airbus UK, Boeing, Bombardier, Lockheed Martin, Pratt & Whitney, Sikor-
sky Aircrafthave strategic lean programs in place.
Underlying lean techniques are four principles: the elimination of waste, the
control of variability, exibility, and the full utilization of human talent.
107 T HE HI DDE N VALUE I N AI RL I NE OPE R AT I ONS
E X H I B I T 1
The lean machine
1
Disguised example.
2
Aircraft undergo multiple A-checks, whose type and sequence depend on the aircrafts particular maintenance program.
More extensive:
A-7 check
2
Type of maintenance
1
Scheduled
Historical
average
Using lean
techniques
163
100
94
100
100 100
Labor, person-
hours
Less extensive:
A-1 check
2
Labor, person-
hours
Turnaround time,
hours
33% from
scheduled hours
37% from
average hours
61% from
scheduled hours
37% from
average hours
63
57
43% from both
scheduled and
average hours
Index: historical average = 100
63
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These principles have enormous relevance for organizations concerned with
safety, customer service, and unpredictable events such as weather. Compa-
nies that embrace lean really begin to see things differently. Our work with
several international carriers and with a European third-party maintenance
provider has provided a glimpse into this tremendous opportunity.
In spite of the strong cost-cutting efforts of the airlines, they still harbor
large amounts of what lean practitioners dene as waste: anything that
doesnt add value for end customers. Waste starts with the utilization of air-
craft and other kinds of infrastructure, which often falls below 50 percent.
Passengers see a part of this problem in the form of empty gates, avoidable
tarmac delays, and idle planes. Behind the scenes things really get interesting:
engines worth $20 million languish on 40-day journeys through overhaul
lines; cavernous hangars suffer from chaotic layouts; awkwardly choreo-
graphed hangar dances feature aircraft worth as much as $150 million.
Valuable and highly skilled employees routinely spend a large part of their
time on low-value activities or just plain waiting (Exhibit 2). The arriving
traveler watches in frustration as a baggage carousel remains empty for 30
minutes because of a lack of handlers. Dozens of stranded travelers fume
while a single clerk processes them. In maintenance hangars, mechanics
spend far more time chasing parts than repairing aircraft. Moreover, airlines
struggle to tailor the level of staffing or the pace of work to their service
demands efficientlydespite the predictability of many tasks,
such as the removal of wheels. In some maintenance shops,
20 to 30 percent of the mechanics time is spent in the
break area; in others, actual clocked person-hours are
30 percent lower than scheduled hours.
Standard operating procedures exist, but the airlines
generally focus on what regulators such as the US Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA) require them to do, not on
how to do it efficiently. Thick manuals outline tasks but without
standardizing sequences, processing times, or best practices. Passengers
experience this problem rsthand in the form of check-in and loading proce-
dures that vary from airport to airport or even gate to gate. The absence of
operating standards often breeds inefficiency in spite of workers best efforts
to carry out required tasks and meet regulatory standards. Weve seen two
mechanics using different toolsone half as effective as the otherto
remove a panel from the underside of a fuselage.
The suitability of lean techniques to meet these and other challenges presents
the airlines with a ray of hope. What exactly would a lean airline operation
look like and deliver?
108 THE McKI NSEY QUARTERLY 2003 NUMBER 4
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109 T HE HI DDE N VALUE I N AI RL I NE OPE R AT I ONS
E X H I B I T 2
Wasted time
1
Percentage of time spent by activity (disguised example)
1
Aircraft undergo multiple A-checks, whose type and sequence depend on the aircrafts particular maintenance program.
2
Includes nonvalue-adding activities such as time spent waiting.
A-1 check
1
(airframe)
Prepare tools,
equipment
43
47
4
5
Other
2 Repair tools
Interact with
other functions
Perform job
Landing-gear subassembly (machining T-bolt)
100% = ~30 scheduled person-hours 100% = 47 scheduled workdays
Prepare
machine
Perform job
Time spent
waiting
6
90
4
2
Kanban cards facilitate the smooth ordering and tracking of parts. Fast changeover refers to the
rapid exchange of stamping dies and other equipment (the single-minute exchange). Standard
work procedures specify the sequence of tasks, the completion times (down to the second), and the
methods for a job. Hoshin kanri is the systematic cascading of policies and performance metrics all
the way to the front line.
A view from the trenches
When organizations implement the lean approach, they bring to life its core
principles through a distinctive operating system, management infrastruc-
ture, and mind-set. Getting these humming takes time. Toyota embarked
on its journey 50 years ago and only in the 1970s reached a stage we would
recognize as lean, made possible by its well-known suite of specic, practical
tools, such as kanban, fast changeover, standard work, and hoshin
kanri.
2
Airlines are just getting started. The pioneers are focusing rst on
maintenance, generally the second-largest operating expense after fuel.
Maintenance has dramatic ripple effects on other operations through its abil-
ityor inabilityto service aircraft on time.
The maintenance cornerstone
The aim of maintenance, of course, is to ensure an aircrafts lifetime airwor-
thiness and safety through the inspection, disassembling, and rebuilding of
aircraft structures (wings, fuselage, tail, and cabin, for example) and systems
(including avionics, hydraulics, and electronics). Maintenance ranges from
quick turnaround transit checks between ights to overnight A-checks
every 500 ying hours to heavy operations that can resemble a Boeing or
Airbus assembly line. These are the major C-checks and D-checks
generally conducted every 18 months and ve years, respectivelywhich
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can take the aircraft out of commission for days, weeks, even months.
National regulators control all maintenance standards and the technical
skills required to meet them.
To illustrate the application of lean techniques, well look closely at a single
operationthe A-check, analogous in role (but not complexity) to servicing
a car. Picture the scene: an aircraft pulls into a hangar late at night. Sched-
ulers job-card the list of tasks to be performed and coordinate tooling,
spare parts, and staffing. Engineers dene the person-hour workloads.
Supporting departments and workshops, such as materials management and
avionics, provide parts. As if the number of parties involved didnt generate
enough complexity, many nonroutine issues are created by cracks, leaks,
system faults, and extraneous damage (for instance, engine damage from
bird strikes). The goal is to wade through the surprises and get the plane on
the ight line by morning.
A new operating system. Adopting a lean operating system rst requires an
organization to search for order in the demand patterns of its customer
(in this case, ight operations). When this discipline is applied to the mainte-
nance shop, only a third of all A-check activities turn out to be nonroutine.
Of the nonroutine work, nearly a quarter is accounted for by wing mainte-
nance, which overwhelmingly involves just four areas (Exhibit 3). Standard
110 THE McKI NSEY QUARTERLY 2003 NUMBER 4
E X H I B I T 3
Expecting the unexpected
Demand patterns associated with A-1 check activities,
1
percent
1
Disguised examples; aircraft undergo multiple A-checks, whose type and sequence depend on the aircrafts particular maintenance program.
2
Radio, electrical, and instrumentation.
Nonroutine
100% = 50 person-hours
100% = 264 defect reports
35 65 Routine
Wings
REI
2
Cabin
Cockpit
Engines
Wheel wells
Other
22
15
12
8
7
7
29
Seals
Bulbs
Cleaning
Screws
Other
8
24
16
16
36
100% = 1,200 defect reports
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preparations for them transform nearly 20 percent of all nonroutine A-check
tasks into routine ones. A better system for replacing lightbulbs makes
almost 5 percent of all currently unpredictable A-check operations routine.
Most maintenance organizations already know that nonroutine work is clus-
tered, but few have reliable records or analyses to make sense of the patterns.
Such knowledge helps an operator create standard tasks and workplace
designs. Drawing on the collective expertise of its mechanics, it could
develop standard work routines, making use of enhanced tools and xtures,
that would substantially increase the
efficiency of their wrench time.
During A-checks, for instance, they
sometimes lubricate parts using a
two-person, hand-pumped grease
gun while a hydraulic model that
allows one person to do the job sits
idly in a corner. Arraying such tools
at the ready in a highly organized work space can yield large efficiencies.
Pre-staging parts such as replacement lters eliminates a source of error by
ensuring that they wont be overlooked. Mechanics become surgeons, with
all their equipment and tooling arranged carefully ahead of time and reliable
procedures in place to deal with surprises. Simply by eliminating ongoing
searches for parts, tools, and paperwork, a carrier may improve the produc-
tivity of its repair operations by more than 30 percent.
Standardization progresses as operators determine the actual time needed for
each task, along with the sources of variation. Rather than stepping away to
nd a tool, mechanics stay by the aircraft and visually signal their tool and
part requirements. As they work, they note any aw in the process and per-
fect it for the future.
Well-dened, standard work practices make more rigorous scheduling possi-
ble. Standard completion times and best-quality sequences help operators
divide and balance their workloads so that they can choreograph aircraft
movements during nightly A-checks. (In a carefully scheduled lean system,
everyone knows that a 767 will come through the door at a certain time and
will exit, say, two hours and 40 minutes later.) That level of scheduling rigor
helps companies match their staffing levels with work sequences more accu-
rately. Meanwhile, demand-based materials replenishmentmade possible
by kanban signals that directly link upstream activities to actual usage
locks in replacement parts and minimizes surprises.
Improved information ows and standard job practices combine to make
schedules more stable and introduce an operating pace, formerly a novelty
111 T HE HI DDE N VALUE I N AI RL I NE OPE R AT I ONS
Mechanics become surgeons,
with all of their equipment and
tooling arranged ahead of time and
procedures in place for surprises
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for repair operations. Keeping the front line informed is vital, particularly in
maintenance shops where aircraft move slowly and no formal assembly line
provides rhythm and discipline. In a lean A-check, marks on the hangar oor
inform the tug operator and the mechanics where a plane will stop, equip-
ment will be kept, and workers will be deployed. Performance-management
boards close to the aircraft convey the status of each task and thus help the
team utilize resources efficiently and in real time. Workers use these boards,
a visual form of communication involving the whole team, to transfer infor-
mation on progress rapidly. Through visual card displays, mechanics can see
the pace of a job and learn the job sequence of the turnaround. The team
counts its time-to-completion visually. When the check is done, the team
draws on the boards performance data to see how it could improve.
Management and mind-set. In most successful transformations, the CEO,
the COO, and the division president not only talk about lean but also go on
waste walks to check out the reality of the maintenance shops. The presi-
dent of one commercial maintenance operation overhauling military planes
kick-started a struggling lean program by holding short daily meetings on
the hangar oor. Productivity rose by 50 percent within 18 months because
the whole organizationfrom frontline workers to previously skeptical
managerscame to recognize the importance of continual improvement.
In another case, we saw dramatic improvements in turnaround times when
A-check teams learned from senior management that hitting a set of objec-
tives would help secure insourcing business.
But its in the trenches that lean efforts succeed or fail. Frontline mainte-
nance supervisors leave their desks for stand-up roles with their teams.
Supervisors view themselves as planners, problem solvers, and coaches
responsible for creating an environment in which mechanics
talk candidly about waste and variability. An important
effect is that workers typically become more aware of
results, more engaged, and less adversarial.
Today, most airlines lack operating managers with
industrial-engineering or manufacturing backgrounds
and promote mostly from within. While some lean talent
should be developed organically, jump-starting a lean trans-
formation often requires bringing in fresh blood from related
industries (such as aircraft manufacturing) to create and launch a disciplined
program. Over time, a core team will emerge to train and support an ever-
expanding circle of lean acionados. Boeing has a very substantial number of
top-talent people in its Lean Enterprise Group. Alcoa has some of its best
operations people, reporting to senior operating leaders, developing a lean
Alcoa production system.
112 THE McKI NSEY QUARTERLY 2003 NUMBER 4
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Extending lean
Not every airline needs to overhaul engines. Those that do so distinctively,
however, may be able to build a substantial revenue stream servicing planes
for other carriers. Such an effort shouldnt be a knee-jerk reaction to the
freeing up of hangar space as lean-maintenance programs gain traction.
A critical question for any carrier is whether it has the skills and scale to
cover the full range of maintenance needsincluding structures, avionics,
hydraulics, engines, and electronicsduring heavy, light, and transit checks.
Airlines with capability gaps may do better to specialize and, if the holes are
large enough, to let more natural owners of maintenance services meet many
of their needs while they shutter excess hangar capacity. For maintenance-
business builders, on the other hand, lean-oriented hangars designed with a
true assembly line work ow in mind may be worthwhile.
When operations leaders take their newfound lean vision beyond mainte-
nance, they see additional opportunities. Consider ground operations.
Aircraft worth $100 million or more routinely sit idle at gates. Turnaround
times between ights typically vary by upward of 30 percent. Lean techniques
cut hours to minutes with a changeover system that mimics the A-check.
The process is disciplined to the standard: one person is responsible for the
113 T HE HI DDE N VALUE I N AI RL I NE OPE R AT I ONS
E X H I B I T 4
Eliminating delays
1
For Airbus A320 single-aisle medium-range airliner (disguised example).
2
Assumes rudimentary application of lean techniques; further reductions may be possible.
3
Initial steps (attaching boarding ramp, opening aircraft door, and waiting for first passenger to deplane) cant be significantly reduced.
7. Agent ready at aircraft to
close door
Wait for cleaning crew to board aircraft
Wait for transmission to gate of cabin
crews approval to board
Wait for first passenger to board
Load passengers
Wait for passenger information list
Unload passengers
3
Clean airplane
Close aircraft door
Detach boarding ramp
Total time (including initial steps
3
)
Turnaround time between flights
1
Average num-
ber of minutes
per step
Best practice: mini-
mum number of
minutes per step
2
1. Stricter controls on carry-on bags,
fewer passengers moving back in
aisle to find bag
2. Cleaning crew in position ahead
of time
3. Standardized work flow, timing,
and methods, such as cleaning
supplies in prearranged kits
4. Visual signal from cabin crew to
agent when plane is ready to board
for example, light flashing at top
of ramp
5. Active management of overhead
storage bins by flight attendants
6. Passenger information list delivered
by agent following last passenger
to board
Lean techniques
0:24
11:48
6:14
4:11
19:32
1:58
4:06
1:39
52:18
0:57
0:18
9:40
4:38
0
16:00
0:13
0
0:43
33:11
0:09
Q4_AirlineOps_v5 9/3/03 2:49 PM Page 113
job; each function is in place and ready to go before the plane arrives; pas-
sengers are briefed prior to boarding; ight attendants help stow carry-on
baggage to speed seating. We have seen turnaround times at two internation-
ally based carriers reduced by 20 to 40 percent in this way (Exhibit 4, on the
previous page).
Baggage handling is another lean candidate. Most business travelers would
now rather lug a 20-pound bag through a mile of airport walkways and
security checks than put up with the
current system. But just as in main-
tenance, lean techniques can reorga-
nize work ows, standardize tasks,
and improve visibility. At most air-
ports, there is no physical reason
airlines cant deliver baggage with
100 percent accuracy in the time it takes a passenger to walk to the baggage
claimand would that systemically speed up boarding!
Lean techniques can also help customer service. A lean check-in system
would lift throughput by segmenting passengers: most would be handled
routinely, the rest by special-service agents. It would also carefully match
staffing to passenger-arrival rates, standardize best practices, and monitor
processing times. (A casual review of an airport check-in counter reveals that
process times vary among agents by more than 50 percent.) In addition, such
a system would systematically eliminate the root causes of slowdowns and
supply a well-rehearsed set of protocols to deal with uncontrollable events,
such as weather-driven cancellations.
The journey to great operations
The idea of 25 to 50 percent improvement opportunities is enticing, but air-
lines shouldnt underestimate the magnitude of the task; truly lean compa-
nies like Toyota are rare for good reason. Projects and events that arent
inspired by broader transformation goals lead to what we saw at one airline:
a maintenance shop that dramatically reduced the number of tools it needed
but didnt know how that achievement affected turnaround times or aircraft
utilization rates. Far better to determine how many more hours an airline
must keep its planes in the air, to identify the bottlenecks (perhaps in the
C-check) to achieving that level of performance, and to design a lean system
around the bottlenecks (say, the removal of seats).
Even with the right goals in place, adopting individual lean techniques wont
get airlines far unless they tackle more difficult issues, such as standardizing
their work and changing the role of their frontline supervisors. Underpin-
114 THE McKI NSEY QUARTERLY 2003 NUMBER 4
Passengers would rather lug their
bags through airports than put up
with the current baggage system
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115 T HE HI DDE N VALUE I N AI RL I NE OPE R AT I ONS
ning such efforts is a commitment from the top to a cultural change empha-
sizing, above all, the identication of waste, rigorous problem solving by the
front line, and a focus on fully utilizing aircraft and other assets. In our
experience, two things are central to achieving this mind-set shift: a trial
that serves as proof of concept for the complete system and the rigorous
development of lean skills among middle managers.
Yet these difficulties come with a silver lining: the potential for successful
lean practitioners to achieve truly distinctive cost and quality structures.
When airlines make cuts, they typically focus on reducing wage, food, and
other supply costs that they can easily controland that competitors can
easily match. As deep as recent cost-reduction efforts in the United States
and Europe have been, an airline that fully embraced lean operations could
slash its overall costs by a further 5 to 10 percent. And even as competitors
contend with the expiration of temporary labor concessions, lean operators
will extend their edge through continual improvement. In other process-,
labor-, and capital-intensive industries, the superb operators win. In the air-
line industry, the pendant is still up for grabs.
Airlines arent unique; they can embark on the same lean journey that has
taken operational leaders in other industries to great heights. It wont be
easy, but it will differentiate the determined few that persevere.
Stephen Doig is an associate principal in McKinseys Minneapolis office; Adam Howard is a con-
sultant in the Tel Aviv office; Ron Ritter is an associate principal in the Orange County office.
Copyright 2003 McKinsey & Company. All rights reserved.
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