Managing Southwest's capacty has been somewhat simpified by strate- gic decisions made early on in the company's life. First, the company's fleet of airoraft is al Boeing 737's. This single decision impacts all areas of operations- from crew training to aircraft maintenance. The single-plane configuration Inbound and outbound flights are coordinated by the supervisors be- tween Southwest's 64 airport stations through the company's Operations Terminal Information System (OTIS). Each local supenvisor is able to keep track of their fights and manage any delays or problems that may have crept into the system by keeping in touch with headquarters in Dallas for system- abo provides Southwest with crew scheduling fiexibility. Since pilbts and flight wide issues that may impact a local station, along with using the OTIS infor- mation coming from stations sending fights their way. Just what, exactly, does it take to tum around an aircraft? in-bound flight 3155 from Phoenix to Dallas' Love Fieid is a good example. In Phoenix, the operations coordinators and ground operations team push back the plane as scheduled at 9:50 AM. The fight is scheduled to arie at 3:35 P.M. in Dallas. The Phoenix team enters into OTIS the information the ground operations team will need in Dallas, such as wheelchairs, gatechecked baggage, cargo bin kocator data, and other data needed to close out the fight on their end. This action lets the Dalas station know what to expect when the plane lands. n Dallas, the local ground operations coordinators have been monitor- ing all 110 inbound flights and now see Phoenix flight 3155 in the system, scheduled for an on-time arial. When the pilct calls "in-range" as it nears Dallas, the ground crew prepares for action. As the plane is guidad to is "stop mark at the gate, the lead agent wats for company executives know that continued improvement is necessary if the the captain's signal that the engines have been tuned off and brakes set. within just 10 seconds, the provisioning truck puls up to open the back door for restock- ing supplies such as dirks and snacks. The wating ftuel truck exdends its hose to reached. For example, the Department of Transportation (DOT) tracks on- the undarwing comection, and in less than 2 minutes, picks up refueling instuc- tions and starts to bad fuel. As soon as the aircrat is in position, the operations team steers the jetway into position and looks it against the airoraft. The dor is opened, the in-fight crew is greeted, and passengars stat to deplane. Outside, less than 40 seconds after engine shutdown, baggage is roll- ing off the plane and gets placed onto the first cart. Any transfer bags get sent to their next destination, and gate-checked bags are delivered to the top of the jetway stairs for passenger pick-up. While passengers make their way out of the plane, the in-fight cew helps dean up and prepare thte cabin for the next fligh. If all goes well, the last pas- senger will leave the plane after only 8 minutes. By this time, passengers waiting to board have already lined up in their designated positions for boarding. The gate agent confirms that the plane is ready for passenger boarding, and cals for the first group to tum in their boarding passes and file down the jetway. At the completion of boarding, the operations agent checks the fuel in- voice, cargo bin koading schedule with actual bag counts in their bins from the baggage agents, and a lavatory service record confirming that cleaning has taken place. Final paperwork is given to the captain. The door to the air- craft is closed, and the jetway is retracted. Thirty seconds later, the plane is pushed back and the operations agent gives a traditional salute to the captain to send the flight on its way. Total elapsed time: less than 25 minutes. crews can be deployed across the entire fleet, there are no constraints with regard to training and certification pegged to specific aircraft types. The way Southwest has streamined its operations for tight turnarounds means it must maintain a high capacity cushion to accommodate variability in its daily operations. Anything from weather delays to unexpected mainte- nance issues at the gate can slow down the flow of operations to a crawl. To handle these unplanned but anticipated challenges, Southwest buikds into its schedules enough cushion to manage these delays yet not so much that employees and planes are idle. Additionally, the company encourages dis- cussion to keep on top of what's working and where improvements can be made. Ifa problem is noted at a downstream station, say bags were not prop- erly loaded, this information quickly travels back up to the originating station for correction so that it does not happen again. Even with the tightly managed operations Southwest Airlines enjoys, company is to remain profitable into the future. Company executives know when they have achieved their goals when internal and external metrics are time departures, customer complaints, and mishandled baggage for all air- lines. The company sets targets for achievement on these dimensions and lets employees know on a monthly basis how the company is doing against those metrics and the rest of the industry. Regular communication with all employees is delivered via meetings, posters, and newsletters. Rewards such as prizes and profit sharing are given for successful achievement. As for the future, Bob Jordan, Southwest's Executive Vice President for Strategy and Planning, puts it this way: "We make money when our planes are in the air, not on the ground. If we can save one minute off every turn system-wide, that's like putting five additional planes in the air. fa single plane generates annual revenue of $25 milion, there's $125 million in profit potential from those time savings" QUESTIONS 1. How can capacity and utilization be measured at an airine such as Southwest Airlines? 2. Which factors can adversely impact turn-around times at Southwest Airlines? 3. How does Southwest Airlines know they are achieving their goals? 4. What are the important long-term issues relevant for managing