NWA and the detroit Snowstorm
2 SUMMARY NORTHWEST AIRLINES AND THE DETROIT SNOWSTORM 1 3. ... 1 ACTION PLAN 45 2 Summary Northwest Airlines and the Detroit Snowstorm DTW is operated by the Wayne County Department of Airports ("WCDA") and is the largest of NWA’s three major air travel hubs. NWA’s flight operations at DTW are typical of any major airlines at one of its hub airports. Several times each day, large numbers, or "banks," of NWA aircraft flying domestic and international routes arrive within a short period of time and deplane their passengers, many of whom board NWA connecting flights for their ultimate destinations. ... NWA’s Operations Planning NWA’s daily operations are planned and controlled by the groups that comprise Systems Operations Control ("SOC"). ... During a snowstorm, the SOC Operations Planners receive data from each of these departments and from the airports served by NWA, and are responsible for monitoring and coordinating NWA’s response to schedule problems and any other potential problems. Friday, January 1 A description of the January 2 snowstorm, its impact on the airport and NWA’s operations, and NWA’s response to it must begin with NWA’s planning for the storm on January 1. At noon on that day, NWA’s meteorologists predicted that light snow would begin falling at DTW on Saturday morning, with accumulations of one to three inches possible. ... NWA’s meteorologists issued a less severe weather forecast for DTW on Friday night, but NWA did not change its flight-thinning plan. Saturday, January 2 The snowfall at DTW on Saturday morning was much as NWA’s meteorologists had originally predicted, and NWA experienced no major operational problems that morning. ... , NWA’s meteorologists predicted a snowfall rate that afternoon of up to two inches per hour. ... NWA, however, did not cancel its flights. ... on Saturday, the NWA SOC Director, located at NWA headquarters in Minneapolis, was asked by the NWA Control Center Manager at DTW to further trim afternoon arrivals in light of deteriorating weather conditions in Detroit. One half hour later, NWA’s Chief Dispatcher, also located at NWA headquarters in Minneapolis, suggested that, while the deteriorating weather conditions were still above legal minimums for NWA’s aircraft operations, the conditions were bad enough to justify a shutdown of NWA’s operations. ... Given that conditions were still above legal minimums, however, the SOC Director decided that NWA’s operations at Detroit should continue, although he did reduce the number of arrivals from 39 to 25 per bank. ... , approximately 5 inches of snow covered the areas around NWA’s gates. ... , the NWA Control Center Manager at DTW advised the SOC Director that more arrival thinning was required because they only had sufficient gate availability for 13 more flights. ... The last NWA arrival of the day landed at 4:46 p. ... According to NWA, the aircraft de-icing pad was not plowed. ... , the ground stop halting all NWA flights bound for DTW was extended to 8:00 p. ... , but NWA hoped that departures would continue, freeing gates currently in use. ... , however, the NWA Control Center Manager at DTW asked the SOC Director to shut down NWA’s DTW operations until at least noon on Sunday. ... , a dozen NWA aircraft were still queued for pre-takeoff remote de-icing when de-icing crews working one of those aircraft found that ice was reforming before they could complete de-icing the aircraft. ... All NWA flights to and from DTW were cancelled for the rest of the night. ... After passengers were deplaned, NWA had to move many of its aircraft to clear gates for additional aircraft. ... NWA would normally store its baggage carts overnight at empty gates, but because on Saturday night virtually every gate was occupied by aircraft, NWA moved many of its baggage carts to the alley between piers C and D. ... As the storm increased in intensity, 28 NWA flights scheduled to depart from DTW experienced ground delays because of snow accumulation at the remote de-icing facility and the inability to de-ice. As noted above, some of these flights were ultimately cancelled and forced to return to the terminal, thus adding to NWA’s ground delays. These NWA departure delays are summarized as follows: Sunday, January 3 At 3:00 a. ... Alley entrances had been plowed, as had alleys used by other airlines serving DTW, but several NWA alleys could not be plowed because they were clogged with parked aircraft and baggage carts. NWA Maintenance, which was nearly 100% staffed, committed to tow the aircraft from the alleys by 10:00 a. ... Maintenance informed the NWA Control Center Manager that they would "do what we can" about moving the aircraft parked in the alleys. ... (It should be noted that the SOC Director could not recall a conversation with NWA DTW personnel at 10:40 a. ... ") At approximately noon on Sunday, when the first NWA departures from DTW were to have resumed, the SOC Director became concerned that no aircraft were leaving the gates. Over the next hour, he was first told by NWA’s Detroit control center that the effort to launch departures "is going, but really slow" and then, twenty minutes later, told that the "aircraft aren’t going anywhere. ... on Sunday, 11 NWA flights arrived at DTW. ... , no NWA flight had departed DTW. ... on Sunday, NWA’s various automated crew communication and scheduling systems were becoming overloaded by the high volume of calls from delayed or stranded flight crew members, creating additional impediments to getting proper crews to flights waiting to depart DTW. Meanwhile, some arriving NWA aircraft were having difficulties negotiating taxiways. ... , 23 more NWA flights had landed. ... NWA was able to arrange remote lavatory servicing for three aircraft. ... on Sunday, NWA cancelled all flights to DTW for the rest of the evening with the exception of three DTW-bound flights that had been diverted to Minneapolis. ... Of the arrivals, only 39 were NWA flights. ... Northwest had no emergency plan for Detroit 2. A lack of clear and coordinated communications between Northwest’s operations planners in Minneapolis and Northwest’s Detroit terminal could not accommodate even the limited number of arrivals scheduled for Sunday. ... NWA officials conceded that a big part of the problem was that an insufficient number of the airline’s own workers showed up to help move planes away from the gate. ... NWA said only half its Detroit workers made it in on Sunday because of the snow. ... Northwest officials conceded they made a mistake in bringing the 30 flights into Detroit, instead of holding them on the ground or diverting them to airports outside the Snow Belt. ... Northwest’s Detroit employees failed to communicate the overall severity and implications of the problems they faced throughout the day 7. ... It was NWA’s ultimate judgment, including that of a veteran NWA de-icing manager, that it was too cold, windy, and icy on Sunday to safely deplane passengers in this manner. ... NWA considered and rejected twice using the integrated stairs on some of it aircraft to deplane passengers away from the gates into waiting car rental company buses. ... Several NWA alleys could not be plowed because they were clogged with parked aircraft and baggage carts. ... The SOC Director decided that NWA’s operations at Detroit should continue, although he did reduce the number of arrivals from 39 to 25 per bank. ... Northwest failed to anticipate the severity of the flight crew shortage at Detroit on Sunday. ... NWA Chief Dispatcher located at NWA headquarters in Minneapolis suggested that the conditions were bad enough to justify a shutdown of NWA’s operations. ... Without sufficient crews, Northwest could not launch enough aircraft from Detroit to free sufficient gates to deplane passengers on incoming flights in a timely manner. ... NWA’s daily operations are planned and controlled by the groups that comprise Systems Operations Control (SOC). ... None of the other airlines serving Detroit experienced ground delays approaching the magnitude of Northwest’s delays. ... DTW is operated by the Wayne County Department of Airports and is the largest of NWA’s three major hubs. ... The banks of aircraft have use of 60 NWA gates at DTW, although not all of these gates can accommodate all seven aircraft types flown by NWA. ... 28 NWA flights scheduled to depart from DTW experienced ground delays because of snow accumulation at the remote de-icing facility and the inability to de-ice. ... By 2:00 pm on Sunday, NWA’s various automated crew communications and scheduling systems were becoming overloaded by the high volume of calls from delayed or stranded flight crew members, creating additional impediments to getting proper crews to flights waiting to depart DTW. ... NWA’s overall Sunday staffing at DTW was less than 50% in the morning, increasing to about 66% through the afternoon 43. ... Many passengers stated that when they finally deplaned and sought out their baggage on Sunday night, there were few, if any, NWA personnel to be found in a terminal environment that was characterized as ‘a zoo’ lacking any organization whatsoever. ... Many NWA managers interviewed by the review team unequivocally agreed that ground delays of the length experienced on the first weekend of January are unacceptable from a customer service standpoint 49. NWA understandably rejected the use of relatively unstable maintenance stairs, the only type of mobile stairs they owned, but apparently did not consider borrowing the appropriate mobile passenger stairs from another airline. ... The areas between the piers housing NWA’s gates known as ‘alleys’ are among the narrowest at any U. ... Even in good weather conditions, aircraft congestion in these alleys can cause arrival and departure delays for NWA. ... • Flight 1892 needed only enough food, drinks and ice for the 2-hour hop from Tampa to Detroit. ... Structure NWA Northwest Airlines is too big to make use of the simple structure. Employing around 4,000 people it is for NWA impossible to have just one person who leads the company. The structure of NWA could be thought of as a functional structure, it is concentrating on the primary activities which have to be undertaken. NWA has different departments, i. ... But the multidivisional structure is also applicable for NWA. ... NWA has different departments that are focused on their specialize, but divisions like finance and marketing are more focused on the overall company. ... Team-based and project-based structures can also be found in the NWA structure, an example of a team within NWA is the maintenance team, and an example for the project based structure can be a team who works on a project to improve the internal communication channels. As can be concluded there is not one structure that fits NWA perfectly, but there are several structure applicable on this large company. ... Self-control (personal behavior and motivation) Processes NWA Processes of self-control achieve the integration of knowledge and co-ordination of activities by the direct interaction of individuals without supervision. The strategic decisions of NWA are taken by the top management, so top-down. Direct supervision is needed during the major changes NWA has to make. ... Performance targets relate to the outputs of NWA. NWA wants to ensure that corporate objectives are achieved. Social and cultural processes are very important for NWA, these are particularly important in organizations facing complex and dynamic environments. The fostering of innovation is crucial to survival and success, for NWA it is very important to be and remain very innovative. ... Social processes are also very important for NWA in the way of collaboration with other companies. Working more closely together with for example the snow removal team would have prevented or at least have minimized the waiting hours in the plane during the snowstorm. Top management of NWA does not encourage their employees to take control themselves. During the snowstorm different options were given by ground personnel and pilots but all rejected by management. ... The top management of NWA is concerned with shaping the behavior in business units and with shaping the context within which managers are operating. ... Obviously, NWA divides all the responsibilities by strategic control. ... At NWA a part of the organization’s work is delivered by a network of independent operators. So NWA is depending on different networks. During the snowstorm some of these networks broke down. ... de) The top management of NWA has a lot of power while its staff has none. ... So in this point of view NWA has a simple structure; the managers have the power. But, NWA is a large company so can almost not have this structure, while this structure only applies to small companies. NWA has a very centralized form of structure, so the idea of NWA as a missionary structure will be dropped immediately. The most suitable structure for NWA would be machine bureaucracy. ... A lot of things within NWA are standardized, for example the ticket service, the baggage control et cetera. ... This became clear during the Detroit snowstorm. ... nwa. ... An example is that John Dasburg did not know about the crisis in Detroit. ... They only forgot one thing and that is training for crises like the snowstorm. ... In the case of the snowstorm, there was not much, because the flight crew had many options, but the organization did not want to know of it. ... nwa. ... Northwest has hubs in Detroit, Amsterdam, Minneapolis/St. ... Pilot bases are in Anchorage, Detroit, Honolulu, Memphis and Minneapolis. The Flight Attendant Bases is, in the United States: Boston, Detroit, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis/St. ... Another thing, which came across in the snowstorm, was, that the pilots gave options about the crisis, but ground control denied these solutions. ... nwa. ... nwa. ... This was not done properly at the snowstorm. ... This was not the case in the Detroit snowstorm. ... nwa. ... NWA employs about 40. ... From time to time, NWA singles out remarkable individuals within the company that not only make NWA’s world better, but also the world of others. In crisis time employees are very important for NWA, they are representing the company and have direct contact with the customers. After the snow storm crisis many NWA employees received high praise from their customers and management for their exceptional efforts in assisting travelers during and after the snowstorm. Even some of the angriest complaint letters received by NWA from passengers who experienced hours long ground delays complimented the fine performance of the flight crews on those aircrafts. ... NWA employs around 40. ... They are all trained according to the high standards of NWA. On the Sunday of the snowstorm, crews that were able to make it to the airport were not necessarily qualified on the types of aircraft that were scheduled to depart. So the NWA crews are not versatile. ... The culture of NWA is one of hard working, making big efforts and being proud of working for the company. During the snowstorm crisis in 1999 the destiny of NWA was controlled by its crew. When they failed to keep the customers satisfied and limit the problems NWA would have lost face. The culture of NWA prevented the crisis to get worse. ... NWA’s culture should be seen as strength rather than a weakness 7. ... Middle line managers of NWA should only concentrate on their role as role model, mentor of coach for their staff. Middle line managers should encourage their employees to come up with ideas ( so bottom-up), and to accomplish the objectives given by the NWA management. ... 4 Northwest’s information management Northwest’s nwa.com is Highest Ranked Web Site in Survey Northwest Airlines announced on October the 20th that its nwa. ... On a ten-point scale with ten being the best, Northwest’s nwa. ... “We are honored that nwa. ... “From the most developed Internet-based self-service check-in program to proactive flight notification, nwa. ... ” Northwest’s nwa. ... NWA moves its customers towards self-service. NWA’s websites replaces face-to-face selling. ... NWA provides its customers with a more personalized experience and direct key information. ... NWA saves a lot of money by informing the customers, or potential customers through the internet. In this way NWA needs fewer employees at the customer service department. ... For these customers NWA needs to make sure that they also continue using the traditional way of providing information; by face-to-face or telephone contact. The website of NWA does not only provide customers with information but customers can also change their reservations when they have an e-ticket, check-in for their domestic or international flight, including their return trip up to 36 hours in advance and apply for ticket refunding. ... For NWA not only providing information to external stakeholders, but also internal information provision is very important. ... Clear communication would have prevented the snowstorm turning into a disaster. ... - Supplier-dominated innovation, - Scale-intensive innovation - Information-intensive innovation - Science-based innovation NWA is depending on several types of innovation, namely supplier-dominated innovation, information-intensive innovation and science-based innovation. NWA is trying to be innovative in every part of the company. ... An important strategic decision for NWA is how technology is developed or acquired. ... Acquiring new technologies can be done through: - in house development - alliances - acquisition of current players or rights NWA will acquire its technologies mostly by using alliances. ... NWA needs to have a creative climate where innovation is fostered, communication is extensive and where there is a culture of a learning organizations to gain advantage through technology. ... As mentioned above the things that went wrong during the snowstorm were due to this hierarchy and bureaucracy All of the things happened during the snowstorm reflect that NWA is a sort of the learning organization. ... As what happened with the snowstorm the management of NWA recognized that they cannot plan everything. ... 1 Observation Management (also known as "Walking Around And Listening) Observation management is far out the most suitable management style for NWA, because the importance between the different management levels shouldn’t be that big. ... 2 Coaching and Development Management May be it’s a good thing for NWA’s employees to also implement some coaching and develop management. ... 3 Crisis Management If NWA will implement the crisis management they will learn from their mistakes and take in to action what went wrong the last several years. ... If flight 1829 was a normal one without a snowstorm in Detroit, nothing would have happen. ... For a big part in this case, this is the airplane and the airport of Detroit of flight 1829. The passengers sat here for more then 6 hours waiting to dock in Detroit. ... The check-in computer collapsed and there was a snowstorm coming up in Detroit, the place where the plane was going. When the plane eventually departed, the airport of Detroit was closed and the plane had to go to the airport of Tampa. The next day, the plane would go further to Detroit and all the passengers got vouchers for a hotel. ... Eventually, the plane departed to Detroit, but in the middle of the flight, the communicators of the Detroit airport told the pilots of flight 1829, extensive ground delays would happen. ... At the arrival at 2:45 in Detroit, the pilots of the flight thought it was not that bad, because a couple of gates were free, but the air traffic controllers told the crew to wait to dock. ... A lot of them could not go to the airport in Detroit, because of the bad wetter conditions. ... The Detroit airport is also to blame, because they had a lack of equipment to get passengers of the plane, there was done bad snow removal by WCDA and they lied about the functional problems of the airport. ... More equipment in Detroit 6. ... One person should be assigned to be the central person during the crisis Change the organizational structure – Advantages and disadvantages The organizational structure of Northwest Airlines was failing during the snowstorm in January 1999. ... The employees of Northwest Airlines didn’t know what to do, and how to handle they couldn’t give the right information nor orders to the employees of Detroit Airport. ... Many flights should not have been sent to the Detroit airport because gates were not available to unload passengers. Concluded can be that command center managers failed to heed the advice of flight dispatchers, and the airline lacked a sufficient plan to respond to the chaos created by the snowstorm. When the Detroit airport lost power in mid-August 2003, Northwests leaders had better communication and decision-making systems to deal with a crisis. ... In the 1999 snowstorm, some passengers were stuck on planes for more than eight hours. ... Saturdays ground delays were largely a result of the decision by Northwests operations planners in Minneapolis, who were responsible for dispatching aircraft to and from Detroit, to continue limited operations at Detroit well after other airlines had cancelled their flights for the day because of the snowstorm.