SMED Proposals

SMED proposals for airplane boarding:

To reduce down time for the plane: From the point of it flying and delivering passengers to their destinations and landing, to it taking off and delivering new/different passengers to their destinations, I would consider downtime. Downtime is any time the machine is not adding value to the process, like anytime the machine is not operating. So to reduce this downtime, it would involve attempting to make the switching (boarding) process more efficient. 

This first one will not involve the modification of the airplane/airport:

If you look at the way people are sitting in the terminal, waiting for the plane to arrive/prepare/etc., you'll notice that when people are finally boarding and getting seated, many people who may not fly as often, will be fumbling around, looking for their seat numbers, figuring out how the latch on the luggage compartment works, etc. But, what if they used one of their TVs to display a video that walks you through the plane, so that you already have a feel for where things are? I believe this could potentially be more efficient, just to training your passengers before they try to board.

You could also rearrange the seats, and make it mandatory to have people sit in certain seats based on the section they are in the plane. If they did this, it could potentially make getting the correct people in line for boarding more efficient. They'll simply just get up and already be in the right order. 

The next one will involve the modification of the airplane/airport.

Theoretically I believe that an argument could be made that if planes used two entry doors, one on the front and one on the back, then it would be much more efficient. The modifications would include (for most airports) just the passenger boarding ramp to be modified. As well as the plane would have to park sideways so there is relatively equal distances between the front, back, and the airport. (Visual below drawn by Joel Young using Drawio).