today we would like to give you some insights into two projects in the “operative” area of Lufthansa Passage (LHP). Our first projects led both of us to the core of Lufthansa’s daily business of bringing people safely from point A to B: Sophie currently works at the station in Frankfurt (ground services), while Dominic is doing his project in the Flight Operations department.
| Where we work |
Sophie: My daily duty stroke is to Terminal 1, the place where all activities of an airline come together and unfold to become what really is our product: flights! I am still fascinated by the atmosphere, the diversity of people coming from everywhere in the world only to transfer to even more exotic destinations, hasty business people, kids excited to experience their first flight… But what I like most about my project in the department “Passenger Services” is that I get to look behind the curtains and learn what it actually takes of an airline and its staff at check-in and gates to create just these moments.
Dominic: Lufthansa Passage’s “Flight Operations” department is located on the “Lufthansa Base” in Frankfurt which originally was home to most Lufthansa employees in this city. However, construction activities at the airport and changing needs have scattered Lufthansa all over the airport area or even further. “Our” building is used both for offices and for all crew preparations before flights. Each crewmember arrives here for the crew briefing before being taken to the aircraft. Feeling the “heartbeat” of our flight operations makes this place indeed very attractive to work in.
| What our projects are all about |
Sophie: Particularly, my ProTeam project takes place in the department of duty planning and personnel dispatching of the station FRA – namely the division, which creates duty schedules for more than 1,000 operative employees and dispatches the personnel accordingly. In cooperation with the Lean Department of the station, we launched the lean project “Shift Up!”, in which the whole department was put to test for optimizing potential of daily activities and routines. When I joined the team, the project was already up and running and partially right before practical implementation. In May, for instance, we introduced the “Service Island” in the staff area for employees to discuss their duty roster related issues. During the project, everybody – from top management to administrative and operative employees – was involved.
Dominic: Lufthansa is currently changing to become a more process-oriented company. As a result, there are several Lean Offices within our organisation, one of which I got to know during my first project. During this time, I had the opportunity to get to know various projects, but one particular topic in full depth: “Crewmeals”. There are basically two ways to ensure that our crews are fit to take care of our passengers and not starving on board: Either by ordering more food on board which means that our crew would have to eat what is being served or – and this is the way Lufthansa chose a few years ago – by letting them choose their menu and making sure that this meal is delivered to the aircraft before take-off. It takes not much imagination that this process is quite complex and we indeed identified various measures to optimise it.
A selection of Lufthansa Crewmeals
| What we actually do there |
Sophie: My tasks within the lean project are quite diversified, ranging from the “strategic sphere” to “practical implementation”. On the one hand, I am solely responsible for the creation of a KPI system to control and document the quality of our duty schedules and duty schedule planning. Moreover I am building up a Management Cockpit to facilitate planning and steering of activities, subject to a variety of different calculable parameters. On the other hand, I support in daily project activities like designing and conducting workshops or trainings, or ad-hoc-activities like finding the right setup for the “Service Island”. In fact, no day is like the other, and I am excited for everyday to come in my project at the station Frankfurt – if not only for the wanderlust-creating view from our offices to the exciting airfield (see picture below).
Dominic: My task was to take care of all figures and data. Some of the data (e.g. numbers of orders and cost aspects) was already available in our systems, some had to be generated first. Therefore, I conducted a survey among our crew members, talked to many pilots and flight attendants as well as representatives of LSG – our catering company. I was then assigned to co-moderate the actual lean-workshop and take care of the various data necessary to measure our process. And it was exactly this what made my project very special: Getting to know many – sometimes completely different – people that all work within Lufthansa Group. From the LSG driver who delivers the crewmeals, to senior pilots who are the customers of this product. And they all have ideas and inputs – we just have to make use of them!
Frankfurt Airport seen from the Lufthansa station
Through our projects we both got to know the “flying” part of Lufthansa. Regularly exchanging our experiences and thoughts we were able to put together the picture – because no aircraft would leave the runway without proper ground or flight operations. And this of course goes for our entire group – from the technicians to the caterer, the cargo handlers to the IT department: Everything is co-ordinated for one single event: Creating the best experience for our customers!
