Methodical design of baggage handling system concepts at airports

Methodical design of baggage handling system concepts at airports

Bentvelsen, T.J.W.

Beelaerts van Blokland, W.W.A. (mentor)

Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering

Transport Engineering and Logistics

2016-05-19

Although the importance of baggage handling systems is not widely recognised by its many daily users, they are a critical part of airports. A passenger only experiences handing in baggage and reclaiming it, but there is more than meets the eye. In these complex systems, baggage is collected from multiple sources, sorted, stored and redistributed. This is achieved by different devices which are connected to one another. As population growth and urbanisation are maintained, centralised around Asia and Africa, the demand for air traffic and baggage handling increases. Since no specific design process for baggage handling systems has been found in literature and design choices are based on designer intuition, the following research question is proposed: How may key performance indicators be determined for baggage handling system concept designs based on flight schedule demand? Defining a design process is crucial to this research question. A literature survey has shown a total of six design methods that may be applicable to baggage handling system concept design. To determine which method is preferred, eleven criteria are defined and ranked by baggage handling system experts in a pairwise manner with use of the analytic hierarchy process. Independently, the design methods are compared to one another in a pairwise manner on each of the eleven criteria. By multiplying both the criteria ranking and the method ranking, it becomes clear that the design method by Pielage (2005) is preferred. This preference is also verified by performing a sensitivity analysis. Results for this analysis are depicted in Table 1. As a generic model for baggage handling systems is not found in literature, six cases are assessed to determine the system boundaries, functions and interconnections. Defining these properties is part of the first three process steps in Pielage's design method. The remaining two steps, simulation and evaluation, have not been conducted. The generic model for baggage handling systems that follows from applying the selected design method is illustrated in Figure 1. A digitalised version of the model is programmed in Microsoft Office Excel and the functionality of the program has been verified by comparing manually calculated outputs and model outputs. It should be noted that this is only done for manually verifiable inputs. To assess the practical applicability of the design process and model, two case studies have been performed with data from design cases. The first case shows that there is a difference between the model-generated concept and the company-developed concept. However when disregarding the sorting function, both systems are fairly similar. In the second case, both the model-generated and company-developed concepts did not show similarities. A possible explanation for this difference may be found in several missing requirements. In both cases, design time was reduced when using Pielage's design method. The significance of this result cannot be tested as only two case studies have been conducted. The conclusion that may be drawn from this research is that Pielage's design method, as preferred by experts, is suitable for application in the baggage handling system concept design phase. Assessment of several design cases shows recurring functions from which a generic model may be established. Preliminary results on the model's application in two design cases are promising however, more design cases are necessary to either fully validate or reject the model. With this conclusion this research contributes to concept design theory for baggage handling systems. The design method and model may be generalisable for both postal and parcel systems, as these systems show similarities to baggage handling systems on functionality, connectivity and integral parts. Future research may further elaborate on this insight.

airport baggage handling system concept design method

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:11594c78-2522-4da9-9b27-5e4efe3281c7

2023-01-01

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2016 Bentvelsen,T.J.W.