Bag tagging has become a critical step in the process as it could lead to bottlenecks and therefore lines at the bag drop station. Redesigning the bag tags to better fit with self tagging is not enough to mitigate this concern. The whole process must be redesigned to lift constraints on the bag injection point – the real bottleneck in the process – to achieve a resource-efficient and customer friendly process. We argue that the ideal process is to separate tagging from bag drop to implement a so called two-step process.

A first option, airport self-tagging prior to drop off, would allow the passengers to print the bag tags on a kiosk at the airport and attach them to their luggage before arriving at the bag drop station. The printed bag tag attached by the passenger is the final one and the luggage is directly integrated at the bag drop station into the airport’s baggage handling system. 

HOME TAGGING: A TWO-STEP PROCESS

Another option would involve “home tagging” using a permanent RFID or bar coded tag including the passenger identification (frequent flyer number, etc.). The baggage is dropped by the passenger without any previous stop at the airport. The luggage is then processed “behind the scenes”: the permanent tag is read by an agent, allowing the system to identify the flight the passenger is on, agents then print the final bar coded bag tag, attach it and integrate the piece of luggage into the baggage handling system.

The major benefit of this process is reducing lines at the airport and providing an extremely fast and simple process for high value customers. On top of this, despite its apparent complexity, this second solution is extremely efficient as it breaks the process into individual steps performed by specialized agents: one for bag acceptance and reconciliation, the other one for tagging. This is the same principle that is implemented in the car industry and allows for extremely high productivity. 

Bruno Paganelli, IER Head of Self-Services and Systems Business Line, says: "This several step process is an application of lean techniques, which recommend alleviating constraints on the bottleneck. Our bottleneck is the check-in process bag injection point. Many of our customers are concerned about passengers preferring a one-step process (tagging and drop off at one point) but this is because the wrong question was asked. Passengers should be asked “do you prefer a one-step process with a 10 min line at the bag injection point or a 2 step process with no line?” A vast majority of passengers then opts for the secure route: no waiting means no uncertainty." 

SELF-TAGGING AT AIR NEW ZEALAND: A SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCE

In November 2008, Air New Zealand inaugurated a new check-in process for its domestic flights, including IER self-check-in kiosks equipped with scales enabling passengers to weigh their pieces of luggage, print their bag tags and a drop the bags at the direct-to-conveyor belt drop zone, to name but a few of the technological enhancements included in this new passenger process. Passengers seem to perform extremely well with self-tagging. As per Air New Zealand CEO Rob Fyfe(1): “In fact, if anything, moving to self-service has improved our performance. And it’s very unusual for us to see any queues forming anywhere at the airport. For the passenger, it means less hassle, a shorter journey and an improved experience, and for us it means a competitive advantage”.

(1) Airlines International, Issue 23, ANZ CEO Interview.