Will Terminal 5 Flow?

This article was spotted extolling the virtues of Lean process design in Terminal 5.

Lean is starting to enter the vocabulary of wider business away from its typical manufacturing base which is to be welcomed. But the article on Terminal 5 talks about 'operational efficiency leading to cost reduction'.

This leads us to wonder if lean is really being used in the right context. Where is the customer in all this? Well, the end of the article quotes a BA exective as saying, “T5 is opening up Heathrow to a new passenger-oriented experience.”

So the jury is probably out.

If you want to be part of the jury, BAA is asking for volunteers to test the systems at T5. It will be interesting to see if some of the new systems and techniques have really been designed in terms of the customer pathway or designed top-down.