Ryanair Streamlined Processes With Technology

A quick disclaimer; I am unfortunately not a “frequent flyer”, so if I am late to this party i apologise (sorry not sorry).

Streamlining processes is a hot topic that never really “cooled down”.  Why wouldn’t a business want to become more efficient in administration tasks, or make the process of customers placing orders with them easier?  Especially when that streamlining actually saves money (either short or long term).

The problem is sometimes the concept is either too good to be true, too expensive to achieve, or simply too far fetched from the viewpoint of decision makers (made worse by those who fear and resist change).

So what are good examples (IMO) of successful streamlined processes?  Well, for me personally two of my favourites have been self service checkouts at supermarkets (Sorry to all those people who consider me part of the problem) and also pay at pump.  I mean who really wants to socialise over paying for fuel, a task that in itself is already a soul destroying chore (JC, 2017-forever)

Moving onto the actual point, let’s look at airports;  Airports are a necessary evil. Everybody hates the faff involved in all areas of moving through airports but at the same time, deep down, knows they’re necessary.

The first bit of DIY came in the form of online check-ins.  This lets you as the flyer go online, 28 days before your flight, to confirm to the airline that the flight you paid for, that is absolutely required for your holiday, is something you will be attending (WUT?).  I get checking in at the airport, you’re telling the airport you’re actually there.  Telling the airline you’re going to be there, 28 days before the flight no less, seems a little pointless when you still have to go into the same exact queues and do the same social interaction to hand in your luggage.

UNTIL NOW.  My recent flight with Ryanair seen me all giddy with nerd excitement at the idea of playing with a new toy unsupervised (to an extent).  Checking my own bags in! There was no queue, there were around 8 of these devices and only a handful of people using them. I simply scanned my e-ticket, put my case onto the scales, and the machine gave me a ticket the wrap through the handles.  After that I walked 10m to the self check in area, threw my bags onto the belt and off they went.

If I am completely honest, it was so smooth I did consider I was never going to see those bags again…. But I did, and the whole process was perfect.  Well done Ryanair and hopefully other airlines follow suite.

Looping this around to being more a C&C related blog post; Streamlining our current processes is something we are always trying to improve on.  For regular blog readers, you may have seen other mentions from other blogs about a new piece of software we are developing for exactly that – keeping all our tasks in check.  Of course there are a plenty of online tools and subscriptions out there, but who has time to go over them all? The ones we have seen always seem to try to hard, and offer a gazillion options or features which just distract us.  As the old saying goes, if you want something doing properly; you have to do it yourself.

CG