The History Of Baggage Handling Systems

The History Of Baggage Handling Systems What was to be the worlds largest automated airport baggage handling system, became a classic story in how technology projects can go wrong. Faced with the need for greater airport capacity, the city of Denver elected to construct a new state of the art airport that would cement Denvers position as an air transportation hub. Denvers new international airport was to be the pride of the Rockies, a wonder of modern engineering  [1]  . It was almost twice the size of Manhattan and about 10 times the breadth of Heathrow. The airport can handle the landing of three jet planes simultaneously even in bad weather. The airports baggage-handling system was even more impressive than its girth. The coal-mine like cars ran along 21 miles of steel track. 4,000 tele-cars routed and delivered luggage between the counters, gates and claim areas of 20 different airlines  [2]  . A CNS of some 100 computers connected to one another and to 5,000 surveillance cameras, 400 wireless receivers and 56 bar-code scanners coordinated the safe and timely arrival of every baggage. At least that was the plan. The airports baggage handling system was a critical component in the plan. By automating the baggage handling, aircraft turnaround time was to be reduced to as little as 30 minutes. Faster turnaround meant more efficient operations and was a cornerstone of the airports competitive advantage. Despite such noble intentions the plan promptly thawed as inefficient estimation of the complexity of the project resulted in swelling problems and public mortification for everyone involved. The inauguration of the airport got delayed by 16 months because of the problem. Expenditure to maintain the empty airport and interest charges on construction loans cost the city of Denver $1.1M per day throughout the delay. Of the numerous awkward gaffes along the way one was an unplanned demonstration of the whole system to the media. It elucidated how the system crushed bags, expelled content and how two carts moving at high speed retorted when they bumped into each other. When opening day finally arrived, the system was just a silhouette of the actual plan. Rather than computerizing all 3 concourses into one stand-alone system, it was used only in one concourse, by a one airline and only for flights which were outbound. Rest of the baggage handling was implemented using standard conveyor belts and a tug and trolley system that was entirely manually operated. This was hurriedly built when it became absolutely clear that the automated baggage handling system was never going to achieve its purpose. Although the offcuts of the system survived for 10 years, the system never worked properly and in August 2005, United Airlines announced that they would forsake the system completely. The maintenance costs of $1 million per month considerably exceeded the monthly cost of a manual tug and trolley system. BASIC MODE OF FAILURE Like all other failures the problems can be observed from numerous vantage points. In its humblest form, the Denver International Airport (DIA) project botched because the key decision makers could not analyze the complexity of the project with perfection. As intended, the system was one of the most complex baggage system ever endeavored. There was an exponential growth in the complexity of the project as it was almost ten times larger than any other baggage system. The heart of the complexity was a problem related to what is known as line balancing in project management terms. To adjust system performance, empty carts had to be circulated around the airport ready to carry fresh baggage. With more than 100 pickup points, the algorithms necessary to anticipate where the empty carts should wait for new bags epitomized a hideous dream in the mathematical aspect queuing theory. This failure in anticipating the number of empty carts required led to a delay in the picking up of baggage an as a result of which the system performance slide downhill. One of the main reasons of delayed initiation of the project was failure to recognize the complexity and the risk involved. Based on the original project schedule, this delay left a little over two years for the service agreements to be signed and for the system to be designed, developed, tested and implemented. The closest analogous projects although much smaller and simpler, took two years to implement. Given the dramatic increase in terms of size and complexity, implementation the Denver system in two years was an unmanageable task. As a result of the erroneous estimation of the complexity of the baggage system, the efforts required were also underestimated. That meant that without comprehending it, the Project Management team had calculated the baggage system as the critical path of the whole airport project. To meet the airports scheduled opening date, the project needed to be accomplished in just two years. This obviously was inadequate time and that miscalculation resulted in the project being exposed to gigantic levels of schedule stress. The other succeeding problems were most likely a result of (or aggravated by) shortcuts opted by the team and the mistakes committed by them as they desperately tried to meet the schedule. KEY DECISIONS THAT LED TO DISASTER Till now what has been discussed has made the basic mode of failure pretty clear. But to reach the heart of the problem and what could have been done to differently, we need to understand how the important decisions were made which eventually hampered the whole project. Project failures typically involve a number of faulty decisions, but within those many mistakes, some specific key decisions are the generators of the sequence of proceedings that eventually lead to catastrophe. Key Decision 1 An alteration in tactics At the beginning of a project strategic decisions are made that set the projects track. In the case of DIA, a tactical blunder was made that caused flip-flop to be made part way through the project. Before requesting for bids for an integrated system in the middle of 1991, the DIAs Project Management team had expected that individual airlines would take care of their own baggage handling activities. In 1991, the DIAs Project Management team altered their strategy and realized that an integrated baggage handling system needed to be built. This forced them to take back the responsibility from the individual airlines and carry out the whole project themselves. This alteration of strategy arrived only about two years prior to the airports scheduled inauguration date. This timing of the decision played a major part behind the unnecessary schedule stress that the project was exposed to. Although the decision made sense in the way that only one integrated system would be there with the entire responsibility on the DIA authorities, the timing of the decision was not proper. This led to a delay in start of the integration project. They got two years less time to finish it. The significant point that the airports Project Management team failed to see was that the change in technology required an analogous change in the organizational accountabilities. The failure to identify that change signifies a planning failure that happened during the start of the project. Overall, the mistake made was a failure to associate the airports overall business strategy (the aim of having one of the worlds most competent airports) with the sub-strategy of building the baggage system. Key Decision 2 The decision to continue What is even more surprising is that in spite of knowing that there was insufficient time, both DIAs Project Management team and BAE wanted to go ahead with the full-scale project. Before entering into the BAE contract, there were at least three clear suggestions that the project was not feasible in two years time: Breier Neidle Patrone Associates report clearly showed that the complexity was too much for the system to be built efficaciously. The three bids received pointed out that none of the vendors could have developed the system in time before the opening date. Munich Airport warned that a much simpler version made for them took about two years to be built and around another 6 months to get rid of the bugs. BAE initially did not choose to bid for the project, but the Chief Engineer of DIA directly talked with them and managed to convince them by stating the amount of prestige that was involved with such a large scale project. Many from inside the BAE raised their concern regarding the complexity of the system to be developed and the lack of time. But all the expert advice was ignored and they went ahead with the project with a development time of 2 years. Many factors may have led them into that trap and likely issues that may have influenced the decision making. Other than the Chief Engineers perspective and BAEs interests there were other factors or beliefs which made the whole project start. Both sides would have acknowledged that they were working within a constricted timeframe and the pressure to move rapidly might have caused them to put due-diligence to one side. The inherent belief that such a large airport would not function effectively without an automated system. As a matter of fact, the airport is functioning effectively with a manual system in place. Key Decision 3 The timeline, budget and scope Deciding on the timeline, budget and scope of the project is a critical issue and even more critical is committing on them to your customer. BAE did exactly that to the DIAs project management team. The decision to give a firm promise to scope, schedule and budget transmitted substantial risk onto BAEs shoulders. This clearly shows that the top management of BAE was not at all aware of the amount of risk that they were handling. BAE and the DIAs Project Management team made an additional mistake during the consultations. They excluded the airlines (who were key stakeholders) from the negotiations. Excluding stakeholders from discussions of key project decisions is always a trailing strategy. Key Decision 4 Acknowledgement of the alteration requests BAE and DIAs Project management team could not escape from the stakeholders pressures. Although they decided during negotiations that no change requests would be entertained, they had to accept them as the pressure was on them to meet the stakeholder needs. The stakeholders in this case being the airlines, which they ignored during the original negotiations. Some of these requests forced them to make significant changes in portions where they thought work was already completed. Incorporating these changes had other troubling repercussions. They failed to realize the effect these changes might have and how they would increase the complexity of the whole system. Although some people thought about the effects, their voices did not seem to have reached the higher decision making authorities. There was big communication disarray. Key Decision 5 Treading an alternate path A public demonstration of the project was given to the press sometime in 1994 and it was a major embarrassment. It exposed all the flaws of the project and the Mayor immediately ordered for an external consultant to be hired. Mattias Franz of Logplan Consulting of Germany was asked to look into the matter  [3]  . Based on his report, the Mayor scraped the project and ordered for the building of a manual trolley system at an additional expenditure of about $50M USD  [4]  . Although the Mayor took a very intelligent decision, it revealed another major flaw with the project. By the time the Mayor took action, the project was already 6 months behind schedule and had missed a number of opening dates. The missed opening dates and the tragic demo indicate that those at the top echelon actually had almost no clue about the true status of the project. A project of such size and complexity should always have an external consultant or expert looking after it throughout the whole developmental and implementation phase. Some other failure facts While the inefficient estimation of complexity, absence of planning, fruitless communications and lowly management oversight drove the catastrophe, the project underwent many other difficulties that multiplied the problems. Some of those issues were inevitable, but others were most probably a consequence of the time crunch the project was facing. Among the additional issues that impacted the project; Failure of Risk Management Throughout its developmental and implementation phases the project faced a number of technical problems for which they had not accounted for. These things aggravated their already haphazard situation. Such problems were likely foreseeable had the team a little bit more attentive on risk management activities. Again possibly as a result of the time crunch under which they were working, suitable risk management tactics seem not to have been developed. Change in Leadership In 1992 The Chief Engineer died. He was the systems de facto guarantor and his death left the project deprived of much required leadership. According to reports, his interim replacement lacked the in-depth engineering knowledge essential to understand the system. The replacement manager also had to take care of his previous duties and it stretched him to the limits. Issues with Architecture and Design A number of reports specify that the there was an inherent problem with the design that was chosen. It was unnecessarily complicated and prone to bugs. Some of the issues were: There were more than 100 individual PCs in the system. They were all networked together. If any one of the PC failed, there could have been an outage, as there was no automatic backup taken of the data. As the nature of the design recommended a distributed structure, (with PCs scattered around the different areas), it added to the trouble of solving problems when they came up, The worst thing about the system was its inability to detect jams. So, whenever a jam occurred, it kept piling on more and more baggage and thereby worsening it. Again time crunch could have been a reason for the design problems. In such a situation people settle for the first design or solution they can think of. That is exactly what would likely have happened. In addition time crunch often forces teams to concentrate on the happy path design without spending time on devising strategies to counter the problem or make the system fault tolerant. Conclusion The DIA catastrophe is a prototype for failure a lot of other IT implementation projects have followed. As with so many other failures, DIA suffered from; The inefficient estimation of complexity An absence of proper planning resulting in consequent alterations in strategy Extreme schedule pressure Absence of due diligence Committing to public and customer in the face of enormous risks and uncertainty Inefficient management of stakeholders Communication gaps and collapses Design not failsafe Inefficient risk management Failure to understand the repercussions of change requests Absence of management oversight While the above facts denote contributors to the letdown, there is one single problem that existed in the center of it all. For a project to be successful people need to make effective decisions and that requires a number of elements. The main two elements are expertise and knowledge. None of the teams involved in developing the DIAs baggage handling system had prior experience of a developing and implementing system of this magnitude. That lack of knowledge, along with the fact that advice from experts was habitually ignored, is the epicenter of the fiasco. The original planning decisions i.e. to go ahead with a single airport wide integrated system (in spite of being too late to do so) and the firms votive commitments to scope, timeline and budget all represented decisions that were made by people who did not possess the required knowledge. The miscalculations resulting from those choices were the sparks that kindled the fire. Often we have to face situations which we have never faced before and do not know how to proceed without risks. The success or failure of such a situation depends on the way we react to it. The step should ideally be recognizing the situation and its nitty-gritties, but the whole DIA project management team and BAE managers failed to do so. Had they acknowledged their absence of knowledge and the ambiguity they were facing, measures could have been taken to reduce the uncertainty. One of them could have been taking suggestions from experts who had some kind of previous experience in that kind of projects. The cheerful side of the story is that in Feb 1995 DIA did ultimately open and in spite of using a large manual trolley based system, proved to be a great success  [5]  . The apprehensions of a manual system being too slow for and airport like DIA and would result in increase in the turnaround time of the aircrafts, was never proved.

Promote communication in health and social care setting Essay

  Identify the different reasons why people communicate when working in a care setting communication is a key factor, you need to be able to communicate with a wide range of people such as service users, families and/or carers, other members or staff and management, you will also have to come into contact with other professional from time to time such as; doctors, nurses and social workers. Communication is the basis of all relationships, regardless of weather the relationships are personal or professional, and regardless of the nature of the communication. see more:explain how children and young people use communication methods in different ways Reasons why people communicate Explain how communication affects relationship within the work setting Communication affects relationships in many different ways in the work setting. Relationships are important and relationships are built of trust and understanding between people makes it easier to get things done. The benefits of effective communication in the workplace are that it is:- A happier, less-frustrating workplace experience. Frees up employees to focus on other more productive activities. An increase in satisfaction from workplace activities and workplace relationships. An increase in productivity can lead to an increase in pay, promotion, and prestige The key relationships are with the people that I support. The skills that I have learned as a care assistant will help me to build relationships and this will be important to ensure that the right outcomes are met, for example somebody may have identified that they would require support in their lives and they need to sure that the people they are working with are honest and trustworthy. Read more:  Describe the Different Ways That People Communicate Relationships with colleagues and other professionals are vital if people are to work together effectively. Showing respect for the work that other professionals undertake is an essential building block of a good professional relationship. It is important to take the time to find out what other people do and think about what you could learn from them, and remember that everybody makes a contribution. Demonstrate how to establish the communication and language needs, wishes and preferences of individuals. All relationships start through communication, when providing support for people you must ensure that you are a good communicator. You will have to gain an understanding of messages that are being communicated from others and be able to communicate back when you’re not always able to use words. When you first meet somebody and talk to them you would usually be using two language systems to enable communication and thy will be verbal and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication: is when we communicate our message verbally to whoever is receiving the message. Nonverbal communication: is usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture, body language or posture, facial expression and eye contact. Body language is very important when you communicate as it affects the way people interoperated what you are trying to say. Effective communication requires you to have the ability to understand you’re own and other peoples non verbal behavior. Your body often sends messages to other people unintentially. Describe the factors to consider when promoting effective communication When people communicate they tend to take notice of somebody’s tone of voice and facial expressions first other than what is actually being said. As a care assistant being able to understand the factors that contributes to good communication is very important as this will allow me to gain an understanding of every service user and also be able to tell if anything is affecting them or causing them upset or pain. Demonstrate a range of communication methods and styles to meet individual needs. There are many different ways to communicate and ensuring that you are using the right level and type of language is very important to ensuring that you are being understood fully. Communicating with people may not always be about speaking or even non-verbal communication, you can communicate in a wide of different ways these are:- Email audio (speaking, singing) telephone conversation texting using a mobile (short messages) visual (seeing pictures, slides, artwork, written words) kinesthetic (teaching someone by showing them how to do something, hands-on instruction, texture) face-to-face vs. long distance   Interperators (if you are trying to communicate with somebody who’s language you do not speak) technological (some people prefer reading books, other prefer reading them via electronic screen) Demonstrate how to respond to an individual’s reaction when communicating A response during communication is important for the communication to take place. If someone is talking to you and you are not responding, it is difficult for communication to take place. When you respond to someone, it shows that you are listening to them, which then shows that you understand what they are saying and are interpreting it correctly. However, the response doesn’t need to be verbal. A simple nod can even be considered communicating, as long as both participants are aware of each other and understand what is being said. When communicating it is important to remember that when communicating you can often learn as much by observing as by what you hear. It is important to learn to listen with your eyes. An important part of responding appropriately to communication is recognizing when people are distressed and know how to deal with it. It is importing to have an understanding of the effects of emotions, as they can often be an indicator of a potentially highly charged or dangerous situation. There are some general indications that a person is becoming distressed and these can be obvious to see:- i. breathing patterns ii. excessive sweating iii. face and neck become red and flushed iv. body language v. eyes for example pupils dilate vi. change in facial expressions vii. change in tone of voice for example voice may become raised Explain how people from different backgrounds may used and /or interpreter communication methods in different ways When you are first communicating with somebody it is important to find out about communication issues the person you are communicating with. You can discover a great deal about possible communication issues by simply observing somebody’s behavior. Observation should be able to establish What language is being used If the person is experiencing any hearing or visual impairment If they have any physical illness or disability If they have any learning disabilities Any of these issues could have a huge affect on how well we communicate and can allow you to put steps in place to help communicating easier. Identify barriers to effective communication Hearing Impairment- A service user that has a hearing impairment in one or both ears. Visual sight- A service user that has no visual sight or poor vision or sight in one eye. Disability/learning difficulties- A service user that might have a condition that might stop them from communicating effectively and might need visual aids to help them communicate. Learning and speech impediment- A service user that finds it hard to communicate through speech and gets frustrated because they are not understood. 0ther languages (cultural backgrounds or English as an additional language)- you may need an interpreter or find other means of communicating with service user that do not speak English. Different family background personality. Demonstrate ways to overcome barriers to communicate Physical barriers Physical and environmental factors can cause problems when we communicate. When you are communicating it is important to consider the surrounding that you are in when you’re communicating, for example people find it difficult to talk in noise and crowded places. Understand what could be barriers to communication can allow myself to ensure that communicating id done effectively these could be:- Hearing loss Physical disability Visual impairment Learning disability Dementia Language differences Distress Demonstrate how to access extra support or services to enable individuals to communicate efficiently. If I am having any communication problems with a service user I would seek advice straight away as the longer I leave It the longer the problem will take to get resolved. Also the service user may become upset and frustrated and this can cause more barriers when communicating. The person I would go to first is my organiser and if they are unable to resolve the problem they will get in touch with people who can. These could be:- Translation services- can help with changing written txt from one language to another. Interpreter services – they convert spoken language from one to another. Speech and language services- support for people who have had a stroke or have problems with speech. Advocacy service- support people who are unable to speech for themselves. This service try’s to understand the needs and wishes of people and will argue on their behalf. Explain the meaning of the term confidentiality Within the care sector there are legal requirement under the data protection act 1998 to ensure that all records are confidential. This act gives people the right to see all the information recorded about them weather it’s their medical records or the social service file. Confidentiality means keeping all information with the work place safe and only be passed on where there is a clear right and need to do so if it could cause half to an individual. Confidentiality is an important right to everybody and it is very important as a care assistant to remember this as because service users might not trust a care assistant who can not keep things private additionally by breaking confidentiality you may be putting service users at risk if their personal details get out for example home address. All service users records will be kept in a locked office and they will also be kept on the computer which will be password protected and there will be policies on record keeping within the office place. Demonstrate ways to maintain confidentiality in day to day communication. The principle of confidentiality is about trust and confidence that people might have in care workers. Care workers need to ensure that they do not discuss one person who you support with another person that you also support. The most common way in which confidentially is breached is by people talking about work issues with family and friends. It is done very easy and very tempting to discuss the days events especially if you have had a stress full and it is often therapeutic. But by doing this if you don’t keep peoples details confidential and anonymous this could break confidentiality. Every organisation will have policies on confidentiality and the disclosure of information. As a care assistant it is important that I know where the policies can be found and what information is in the policies.

Uses for the Getenv() PHP Function

The getenv() function is used to retrieve the value of an environment variable in PHP. The getenv() function returns the value of a specified environment  variable. The function follows the syntax  getenv (varname).   What Are Environment Variables Environment variables are imported into the environment where the PHP code runs. You probably have more than one deployment of code: a local one for development and one in the cloud, each with different credentials. The environment variables for any two locations are different, so it makes sense not to include them in the main code. Examples of the Getenv() Function Below are some examples of environment variables you can use. These code examples retrieve an IP address, the admins contact information, and the document root.

Beneficios de los indocumentados en California

El estado de California es el que cuenta con un mayor nà ºmero de inmigrantes indocumentados. Reconociendo este hecho, a lo largo de los aà ±os ha aprobado leyes que reconocen derechos y beneficios a estos miembros de su comunidad. Licencia de manejar Los indocumentados que pueden probar residencia en California pueden solicitar una licencia de manejar.   Este documento, junto con la matrà ­cula consular, son importantes a la hora de probar la identificacià ³n de una persona. Sin embargo, este à ºltimo debe llevarse con precaucià ³n en los lugares en los que sugerir que se està ¡ en EE.UU. en situacià ³n de indocumentado puede ser peligroso. Licencias profesionales La ley que se conoce como Senate Bill 1159 establece que los indocumentados tienen derecho a sacar licencias profesionales para desarrollar sus profesiones, como por ejemplo, dentista, enfermera, etc. Esta ley es consecuencia de la lucha de Sergio Garcà ­a, quien ganà ³ el reconocimiento de la Corte Suprema de California para obtener la licencia de abogado. Ayudas para los estudios universitarios La California Dream Act autoriza a que los estudiantes indocumentados que llegaron a Estados Unidos antes de cumplir los 16 aà ±os de edad a que puedan beneficiarse de becas pagadas con fondos pà ºblicos y a pagar in state tuition en las universidades pà ºblicas. Asimismo, el State Dream Loan Program ha creado fondos para que los indocumentados que estudian en uno de los dos sistemas de universidades pà ºblicas de California tengan acceso a prà ©stamos. Por ley no pueden beneficiarse de prà ©stamos federales y tambià ©n està ¡n excluidos de la mayorà ­a otorgado por organizaciones privadas. Tambià ©n pueden beneficiarse de becas, esto à ºltimo al igual que ocurre en el resto de Estados Unidos. Y, si no obtienen suficientes recursos econà ³micos pueden considerar la opcià ³n de comenzar sus estudios universitarios en un colegio comunitario. En los siguientes artà ­culso se brinda informacià ³n sobre ello: Las ventajas de estudiar en un Community CollegeBecas para Dreamers13 universidades de à ©lite que becan a estudiantes internacionales e indocumentados Ciudades Santuario California es el estado con mà ¡s ciudades santuario. En ellas, las autoridades locales no preguntan sobre el estatus migratorio de las personas con lo que no hay distinciones entre ciudadanos americanos, residentes permanentes e indocumentados a la hora de calificar por ciertos beneficios. Este es el listado de ciudades santuario en California. Salud Por ley los inmigrantes indocumentados no pueden beneficiarse de Obamacare (ACA, por sus siglas en inglà ©s), ni siquiera los muchachos a los que se les ha aprobado la Accià ³n Diferida (DACA, por sus siglas en inglà ©s). Asimismo por ley no pueden beneficiarse de programas de salud financiados con fondos pà ºblicos, esto hace que en la mayorà ­a de los estados en USA no puedan tener derecho a Medicaid. Sin embargo la situacià ³n es distinta en California ya que todos los fondos proceden del estado. Asà ­: Sin embargo jà ³venes con DACA podrà ­an enrolarse en Medi-Cal (el Medicaid de California), si tienen pocos recursos econà ³micos. Ademà ¡s, algunos condados brindan asistencia sanitaria a su poblacià ³n mà ¡s vulnerable sin importar el estatus legal. Y a partir de mayo de 2016 se ampliarà ¡ Medi-Cal para cubrir a indocumentados de escasos recursos econà ³micos. En el campo de la cobertura sanitaria en todo Estados Unidos el programa WIC brinda ayuda a la nutricià ³n a mujeres embarazadas o lactantes y los bebà ©s e infantes, sin que importe el estado migratorio. Y las salas de emergencia de los hospitales (ER) tienen obligacià ³n de aceptar los pacientes cuyas vidas corran peligro hasta que se estabilizan, aunque no tengan papeles, seguro mà ©dico o tarjetas de crà ©dito. Ayuda econà ³mica para asesorà ­a legal Por ley, el estado de California ha dado $3 millones a organizaciones sin fines de lucro que brindan ayuda legal a los menores centroamericanos detenidos en la frontera.   Derechos laborales Este es el salario mà ­nimo que aplica a nivel federal y en cada estado, incluido California. Los indocumentados tambià ©n tienen derecho a que se le respete. Y esto es lo que se puede hacer en casos de abusos. Ademà ¡s, al igual que en el resto de Estados Unidos, las và ­ctimas de fraudes migratorios pueden reportarlos. PRUCOL Los inmigrantes indocumentados en estatus PRUCOL pueden obtener en el estado de California acceso a mà ¡s beneficios. Disfrutar California En el sur de California se encuentra Disneyland, estas son 7 recomendaciones para comprar boletos mà ¡s baratos. A tener en cuenta A veces la vida en Estados Unidos puede ser muy dura. Si has tenido pensamientos suicidas o sabes de quià ©n los tiene, por favor, solicitar ayuda gratis y en espaà ±ol. No importa el estatus migratorio. Este es un artà ­culo informativo. No es asesorà ­a legal.