Every business is interested in improved efficiency of one form or another; whether manifested in the form of shorter wait times for customers, improved product quality, or faster, cheaper order-to-delivery processes.
Projects range from modification of troubled existing systems to running scenarios that impacted design choices for yet-to-be-built systems and venues.
Our approach combines analysis, lean principles, creative thinking, and technology.
Passenger Flow - Worlds' Largest Cruise Ship
Designed a “people flow” system to efficiently, and pleasantly, guide and transport more than 6,000 passengers on/off the world’s largest cruise ship while in port.
Management required minimal “cross traffic” of passengers through a main crew thoroughfare located on the entry deck, restricting passenger access to only 50% of the elevators.
An integrated solution comprised of single-deck escalators (providing immediate access to 100% of the elevators), new elevator “signaling” and program “modes,” and a 64-screen system of dynamic (responding to changing needs) LCD guest guidance screens was used to direct and transport the heavy guest flow elegantly off and onto the ship.
Cruise Ship Terminal Design - Fort Lauderdale, FL
Influenced the design/pre-construction phase of the terminal planned for the debarking of (and subsequent embarking of) over 6,000 passengers each week during the “turnaround day” of the world’s largest cruise ships.
Exterior - Advised on traffic flow of busses, taxis, private vehicles, pedestrians, and porter luggage activity.
Interior - Worked with terminal design committee and architects; pushed (and was successful) for “scale-reducing scheme” of four separate “check-in desk pod areas,” instead of the originally planned, single, open, enormous room with a single, long line of 90 check-in desks.
Luggage Handling (curb-to-ship):
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Designed/proposed low-cost, efficient conveyor belt system to quickly and efficiently transport the passengers’ luggage from the multiple curbside drop-off points, through the pier-side Security process, through the “destination sorting” process, and ultimately into the large luggage carts (ready for transit onto the ship)
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Proposal reduced curb-to-ship luggage transit time by more than 60%, and was forecasted to save 40% ($5.2M) annually in ongoing porter/stevedore manpower costs
Reengineer "Curb-to-Ship" Check-in Process -
Global Application
Original project scope: create a “priority check-in” experience (post-Security checkpoint to processing by check-in agent) for one category of the client’s Loyalty (repeat cruisers) program.
Reorganized passenger flow and some operational approaches. Created not only the “priority experience” for the originally-targeted group, but also dramatically improved the overall experience of ALL passenger groups. We expanded the “process rework” from that of only the “check-in” portion of the experience, to that of the complete “curb-to-ship” experience.
Reduced average elapsed time for “curb-to-ship” (during peak period) by as much as 1-hour and 34-minutes.
Accompanying these dramatic time reductions were substantial increases of up to 38 points in Pier Check-in ratings (it should be noted that in this environment an increase of a single point was cause for celebration).
Additional benefits:
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Increased Onboard Revenue - Earlier boarding times resulted in increased onboard revenue in bars, specialty food outlets, and shore excursions
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Cost Savings - Due to the effectiveness of the newly designed directional signage, many terminal-staff positions were eliminated (no more “human signs” needed), which not only paid for the new “priority stream” signage program, but generated an additional annual savings ($400k/year) as well
Garden Cafe - Wait Times & Congestion
The cafe was:
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Extremely popular during peak periods and was struggling to meet customer demand
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Primarily “self-service” between various food and service "stations"
Identified sources of confusion, crowding, and wait times in all areas of the venue operation.
Reengineered the preparation processes at several of the more popular food stations, resulting in shorter “transaction times”:
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Bagel Bar - reduced by 62%
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Salad Bar - reduced by 60%
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Signature Sandwich - reduced by 78%
These changes dramatically reduced customer waiting times, which in turn reduced/eliminated the “long lines” complaints.
Defined (and designed) new signage, driving faster customer navigation and decision-making.
Identified and implemented many changes to physical interior layout (e.g., beverage stations, seating/furniture, bussing stations).
Luggage Handling/Delivery
A cruise ship “turns,” or exchanges passengers from the previous cruise with the passengers from the next cruise, all in the course of just a few hours.
In addition to provisions and other supplies loading, the ship’s crew must also contend with the collection and delivery of up to 15,000 of pieces of luggage going “each way” (leaving with the previous passengers, and arriving with the new passengers).
We reengineered the entire flow of the luggage “curb-to-ship” delivery process, reducing the average total time by over 46% for the typical 15,000 luggage pieces.
The new process touched every step in the sequence:
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New luggage tags were designed to decrease pier-side sorting time
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Special elevator programming modes were developed, and the new “priority keys” issued to crew members could be “turned on and off” remotely, thus eliminating the “assigning and collecting” process each week
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The process and sequence for loading luggage carts onto the ship was reengineered, resulting in maximum transit speed through the crowded onboard areas
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The new luggage tag design was also used by the onboard delivery crew, allowing them to sort, group, and dispatch “like-destination” luggage much more quickly to the passenger cabins
