1. Analyze Southwest's passenger boarding process using the TOC.
2. Which boarding scenario among the different ones proposed would you recommend for implementation? Why?
3. How should Southwest evaluate the gate boarding and plane turnaround process?
4. How will Southwest know that the bottleneck had indeed been eliminated after the change in the boarding process?
What if you could take a commercial airline flight any time and anywhere you wanted to go? Just show up at the airport without the need to consider time schedules or layovers. Aside from the potentially cost-prohibitive nature of such travel, there are also constraints in the airline system that preclude this kind of operation. From the lobby check-in process through to boarding at the gate and processing plane turnaround, the process of operating the airline is filled with constraints that must be managed in order for them to be successful and profitable. Flight schedules are tightly orchestrated and controlled, departure and arrival gates at airports are limited, and individual aircraft have seating capacities in each section of the plane, to name a few.