IT-625 Info Tech Project Management

Sri Deep Chowdary Amara

(0990365)

Denver Airport Saw the Future. But couldnt be the Example.

Behind every change thats planned we have hundreds of brains thinking, I am sure same
would be the case with the implementation of the automated luggage handling system at the
Denver Airport.
What was to be the worlds largest automated luggage system, became a tragic example of how
technology projects can go wrong. With the idea of making it one of the worlds fastest airport
with least turn round time by reducing the turnaround time by a minimum of 30 min ended up on
the worst side which was never expected. Airport with 88 airport gates in 3 concourses, 17 miles
of track, more than 5 miles of conveyer belts also including more than 3100 carts and 500 over
sized carts. Lets not forget the 13 million feet of wiring (cant even imagine how big that can
even be), more than 1000 motors and the longest conveyer belt running across the airport which
is more than a mile all of this multiplies as they put the ideas in to work which ended up as
failure.
After reading multiple reports on the reason for failure, I believe that the Idea of decreasing the
manpower and increasing the atomization was an amazing idea which needed lot of insight and
was missing while the blue print was designed. Every minute thing seemed to work perfectly
when the implementation started, as time went by things became worse. With the improper
demonstration of the system to the media things started to go from bad to worse as this attracted
the concentration of a lot investors.
The main reason for the failure can be considered as the underestimation of the complexity of the
project. As planned, the system was the most complex baggage system ever attempted. Ten times
larger than any other automated system, the increased size resulted in an exponential growth in
complexity. At the heart of the complexity lay an issue known as line balancing. To optimize
system performance, empty carts had to be distributed around the airport ready to pick up new
bags. With more than 100 pickup points (check in rows and arrival gates) each pickup needed to
be fed with enough empty carts to meet its needs. The algorithms necessary to anticipate where

IT-625 Info Tech Project Management

Sri Deep Chowdary Amara
(0990365)

empty carts should wait for new bags represented a nightmare in the mathematic modeling of
queue behaviors. Failure to anticipate the number of carts correctly would result in delays in
picking up bags that would undermine the systems performance goals
Failure to recognize the complexity and the risk involved contributed to the project being
initiated too late. The process of requesting bids for the design and construction of the system
was not initiated until summer of 1991. Based on the original project schedule, this left a little
over two years for the contracts to be signed and for the system to be designed, built, tested and
commissioned. Many of the projects subsequent problems were likely a result of (or exacerbated
by) shortcuts the team took and the mistakes they made as they tried to meet an impossible
schedule
There were million other things that did not as per the plan, not analyzing the complete big
picture led to the failure of such an amazing project. I am sure this can be considered how not to
proceed with the implementation of an idea without analyzing the Big Picture.