A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
1–10 of 34 posts
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#2I found it weird that Deming wasn't mentioned anywhere in the second half of the article.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#3The only real thing he studied in this comparison is rehearsal and timing.
The British death marched to an unrealistically optimistic date while the Chinese were finished and testing long before the ship date.
Socio-technical systems theory is interesting but he doesn't explain how the Chinese did this better. The Chinese aren't exactly known for empowering their workers.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#4Also compare Heathrow Terminal 5 with Madrid Barajas latest terminal. Both designed by the same British architectural firm, Barajas took about half the time to build, cost less and is an uncompromised design.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#5The only real thing he studied in this comparison is rehearsal and timing. The British death marched to an unrealistically optimistic date while the Chinese were finished and testing long before the ship date. Socio-technical systems theory is interesting but he doesn't explain how the Chinese did this better. The Chinese aren't exactly known for empowering their workers.
If the workers aren't empowered, the success of the project is up to the leaders. Apparently the Chinese manager was more competent than the British one.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#6A lot of the second half of this article could be summarised as "Think about people if your software/system/airport involves them." However, I'm not entirely convinced by her argument that this was the main flaw. Release without thorough testing and stupid bugs (not removing a safety patch) seem more to blame.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#7The only real thing he studied in this comparison is rehearsal and timing. The British death marched to an unrealistically optimistic date while the Chinese were finished and testing long before the ship date. Socio-technical systems theory is interesting but he doesn't explain how the Chinese did this better. The Chinese aren't exactly known for empowering their workers.
Agree, he successfully pointed out that Heathrow management entirely ignored the objections from the people who would have to implement the policies, but doesn't compare how these worker/management interactions were handled in Beijing - my guess: the process probably sucked just as much, it was just enforced in the most authoritarian way possible.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#8Well one was built by a state elite gerontocracy who have centuries of being in charge and an utter contempt for the workers building the terminal and the ultimate users.
and the other was buill by the chinese
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#9China is successful with these things because they have a large number of excess staff, and the staff are very obedient. Britain typically has too few staff, and the staff are very independent.
A person who has been to a chinese restaurant in china will understand the difference.
Re: A Tale of Two Terminals: Beijing Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5
#10While it's a good, didactic article, it is very much worth noting that she doesn't have much to say about Beijing's design processes. Presumably they are much more opaque than the UK's. How are the two terminals doing now, comparatively?