MBA Consulting Project

Jakarta Blog: March 23 – Ahmed Ibrahim, Annie Sumi Nam, Chanda Sperry

We woke up to a beautifully sunny day where the weather was supposed to be 26 degrees Celsius (79 degrees Fahrenheit). We are staying on the outskirts of Jakarta in the city of Tangerang, about 12 kilometers (7.5 miles) from the Soekarna Hatta airport. After a nice breakfast briefing with School of Business Dean Sandeep Krishnamurthy, the Lion Air shuttle picked us up early in the morning to head to the headquarters in Bandara Mas. The streets include a flurry of activities: cars, motorcycles, street vendors, without public transportation. Common vehicle colors are black, silver and white. The cars are primarily Japanese and customized for Indonesian road conditions.

We arrived at the training center where Andy, Lion Air’s PR manager, met us at the door. Our Indonesian cultural training warned all of the UW Bothell men that they should wait for a woman to extend her hand first. The women in our group did not have to extend their hands first for welcoming handshakes. Although each party made reciprocal efforts to learn about each other, we realized that globalization has started to neutralize cultural differences in communication.

After a quick meet and greet, we started our tour at Lion Air Training Center. The tour began at the computer-based training lab where pilots were completing their regular and mandatory training. Next came a stationary simulation lab where pilots are exposed to a myriad of situations that they may not face in years of flying.

Then Chanda crashed a plane. While attempting a landing in the ATR 72-500, a twin-engine turboprop flight simulator, Captain Soggyi and some members of the UW Bothell group, located outside, heard a collective scream and boom. The Captain’s eyes widened and he called out “don’t forget to insert another coin!”

Next, we were on to the Integrated Operation Control Center, where they were monitoring flight activity and planning actions to mitigate delays.

Once we were back in the meeting room, Bapak Bambang, the Planning Development Manager for Airport Operations and Services, shared Lion Air’s vision in working with UW Bothell: “improve predictability, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the turnaround process.”

One of the primary values of management consulting is the ability to present a comparative competitor study. The UW Bothell group stayed up the evening before studying several aspirational airlines, such as Alaska Airlines and Southwest Airlines. Finding data on gate turnaround time for local airlines was challenging. There was a debate around the relevance of studying aspirational airlines in the U.S. and Europe, since the context is different in these regions. The group decided to present the result of our study to the client, highlighting similarities as well as differences among them.

Management consultants select appropriate tools to help visualize concepts and ensure that everyone is on the same page. We started with a fishbone diagram: the devil is in the details to ensure agreement on factors impacting aircraft turnaround time efficiency. From the fishbone, we built conceptual models. We were impressed by the volume of data collected by Lion Air to help us unlock some useful insights. Because of this meticulous data collection, we were able to quickly provide preliminary assessments, including a Pareto chart of the top 20 percent factors impacting 80 percent of turnaround time improvement opportunities. We may have entered as two separate entities, but successfully came out as one big family.