Bram Münnichs, Independent, The NetherlandsStudied Industrial Engineering and Management Science at the Eindhoven University of Technology. Spending most ‘study’ time rowing and coaching or as chairman at the students rowing club.
Started working at Schiphol Airport in 2001 after three months of travel in South America. First four years as a project manager building new baggage handling systems. The last two years as an operational manager in the baggage handling operation.
Quit my job at the end of 2007 and followed my heart to climb mountains all over the world.
Logistics and motivation - have it work during crisisAn airline can offer you the lowest fare, the fastest connection and the best service to make you a happy traveler. But if you arrive at your final destination and your bag isn’t there, you are not happy. Handling bags is an unknown process for the eye of the traveler and only becomes visible when your bag doesn’t show up.
I’ll give you an insight in the process of handling bags based on my six years of experience at Europe’s fourth largest airport, Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. I’ll spend most of the time talking and discussing on the human factor in this process. Because despite all technical improvements and system redundancies, breakdowns do happen and skilled and motivated people are the decisive factor whether a breakdown will turn into an airport wide crisis or dies out quickly and silently. To put it in another way: whether you will find your bag at your final destination or not.
In a world of increasing working pressure and technical difficulty but decreasing profits for stakeholders, it can be a hell of a job to keep your people motivated. But with the right attitude, approach and energy, you can manage.
