Using the Six Sigma DMAIC Approach to Improve Maintenance Practices of Ground-Service Mechanical Equipment within a Sub-Saharan African Airport

Abstract

Despite its ambitions for the most effective and world-class standard attainment, the ground-service equipment literature for airports is limited in engagements with the question of how to ascertain the effectiveness of maintenance services for critical ground-service equipment, to improve company goodwill and passenger comfort. By borrowing ideas from the process improvement literature, the DMAIC approach was instituted in a sub-Saharan African airport to capture the five critical ground-services mechanical equipment of package air-conditioner, escalator, travelator, baggage handling equipment and elevator. The methodology deployed to solve the problem is technical action research conducted in a large international airport. The DMAIC improvement framework was designed, installed and regularly managed for outcomes in discussions with the maintenance ground-service team from the delegated department. The cause and effect analysis was deployed to establish the frontline reasons for the equipment failures. The results revealed that 80% of the studied ground-service equipment exhibits the C_p/C_pk values above 1.33. Consequently, the maintenance procedure adopted to maintain the equipment is capable of maintaining a large majority of the equipment studied. However, there is scope to improve the performance of the escalator, whose value of the C_p/C_pk ratio falls below the 1.33 benchmark. A DMAIC framework appropriate to analyse the maintenance efficiency of ground-service mechanical equipment in airports is contributed for the first time to the airport setting.