DTU students lend Copenhagen Airport a helping hand with the luggage

Airport analysis

At Copenhagen Airport, Christina Davidsen Damm and Johan Stauner Bill are running around the large baggage hall under the airport. The two engineering students in the Production program are writing their final project in collaboration with the airport, where they are analyzing baggage handling and how it can be improved.

Copenhagen Airport has a goal for when the first and last piece of arriving baggage should be delivered, but meeting the set goals for the external partners responsible for baggage handling is often challenging.

Christina Davidsen Damm and Johan Stauner Bill are therefore working to map and analyze the various stages of baggage handling, from when the plane lands to when the suitcases appear on the carousel for passengers. This will enable them to suggest how to optimize the processes so that baggage is more often delivered on time.

“It is such a dynamic environment, and the need for ongoing planning is enormous. If several planes land late or early and thus closer to each other than expected, situations can arise where resources need to be prioritized, for example, in terms of how many carts can collect the baggage and how many people are ready to receive it, which can cause waiting times,” says Christina Davidsen Damm.

Hands-on approach

“You can work with production in many ways – you can hide behind a spreadsheet or go out and have a more hands-on approach. Out here, you have a contact surface ranging from unskilled workers who handle the baggage daily to people with a PhD in modelling and transport systems, so you need to embrace a wide range of people. They have done that extraordinarily well,” says Jens Eisner.

He hopes the project will result in some concrete initiatives and recommendations for frameworks they can continue to work with in baggage handling.

“You are always biased when you go up and down things every day, so we get a fresh perspective on something that we have not yet been able to solve completely,” says Jens Eisner.

Using their expertise

Christina Davidsen Damm and Johan Stauner Bill are enthusiastic about doing their final project in collaboration with a company.

“It is highly motivating to be allowed to do something in the real world that the company can potentially benefit from, rather than it just being an Excel spreadsheet that a lecturer has constructed for your sake,” says Christina Davidsen Damm and continues:

“In many cases, you need to learn how to navigate the workplace and get all the information necessary to complete the analysis. I think it is very healthy to recognize and gain experience with this in your final project, and not only when you have landed a job.”

For Johan Stauner Bill, it has been affirming to experience that, as students, they have something to contribute to a large company like Copenhagen Airport.

“I have gained a sense that we have really learned something during our studies and have an expertise that allows us to go into a company and observe what things are not working perfectly and suggest how to improve them. It can be difficult to have a sense of this when working with school examples within safe boundaries,” he says.

When the project ends, they hope the airport's baggage handling can implement some of their suggestions.

“It is exciting that our project involves something that affects many people and that people can relate to. Next time we travel, we might get our baggage a bit faster, based on something we uncovered in our project. It is fun to think about,” says Christina Davidsen Damm.