2017-April: Operational Excellence by Design eNewsletter

It seems that not a day goes by without our reading about someone getting caught in the processes of a system – aggreged not (necessarily) by nefarious intent, but by a process that didn’t take into consideration some set of circumstances. Sometimes, the angst endured is amplified by the subsequent processes initiated in a chain of events.

Take the situation of Dr. David Dao who, on April 9th 2017, was supposed to fly from Chicago to Louisville on United Flight 3411.  Dr. Dao had been issued a boarding pass, was checked-in and seated in his assigned seat.  United needed to make room for some flight crew required in Louisville to man a flight originating from there and asked for volunteers to give-up their seats (with compensation for the inconvenience).  When not enough volunteers came forward, United decided to select passengers (based on a predetermined algorithm) and involuntarily “re-accommodate” them (bump them against their will)…