I suddenly had to go on a business trip to Tokushima during a three-day holiday.
Tokushima from Tokyo has awkward transportation, so I use the domestic flights. And I’m an ANA guy.
I wanted to move in the morning flight, but the ANA’s morning flight was full.
JAL was a little later, but there were seats available. I also had the option of taking the Shinkansen to Shin-Kobe and then renting a car to cross Awaji Island, but I didn’t want to have a bad experience on the highway during the holiday, so I decided to take JAL.
JAL= Japan Air Line
ALA= All Nippon Airline
They are two top or airlines in Japan.
Then, when I arrived at Tokyo Haneda Airport, it was super crowded.
I was relieved when I went to check in my luggage and found it was a automatic luggage check-in machine. Until recently, JAL had a counter, which was also crowded.
However, the congestion is so bad that it doesn’t seem automatic.
Why? ANA’s automatic luggage check-in machine is always empty, even during holidays.
It seems like the design is slipping in various ways…
First of all, the luggage tag issuance machine is no good. ANA has a luggage check-in machine that also serves as a luggage tag issuance machine, and the check-in machine is separate. However, JAL has a check-in machine + luggage tag issuance machine, and the luggage check-in machine is separate.
At first glance, this seems more rational for JAL. The luggage check-in machine is probably expensive, and there are placement constraints, so it’s difficult to increase the number. If you want to maximize the number of people you can handle at the same time, it’s better to separate the tasks that don’t have to be done at the luggage check-in machine. In other words, the work of issuing luggage tags.
In fact, for each luggage check-in machine, there were three check-in machines + luggage tag issuance machines.
However, the problem was the check-in machine + luggage tag issuance machine’s flow line. Despite the subtle instructions written on the floor to arrange in a comb-shaped line for every three machines, it was too casual. As a result, I was cut off by a group of young people who came from the side to an empty spot. This is upsetting.
Furthermore, these idiots start to mess around. The remaining two machines are also in a similar state. Of course, I can’t peep at the screen, so I don’t know what operation they were stumbling over, but they seemed to have restarted several times.
I was also asked questions like, “How many tags do you want to issue?” and they started counting, saying, “Uh…”
Expecting customers who don’t do online check-in in this day and age to have the literacy to use the check-in machine smoothly is a miscalculation… However, even if you separate the check-in machine, it’s not necessarily a problem that can be solved, and from the perspective of customers checking in, it’s redundant to operate three machines: the check-in machine, the luggage tag issuance machine, and the luggage check-in machine. When you think about it, ANA’s design, which seems wasteful at first glance, is actually rational… I think.
After finally issuing the luggage tag (my operation was about 30 seconds, but I don’t know how long I was made to wait), I put my luggage into the empty luggage deposit machine and operate it while guessing the slightly difficult to understand UI…
The luggage was safely transported on the belt conveyor… or not!?
It’s hard to see, but the belt conveyor splits in the distance in front of me, causing a transfer. Here, the luggage slipped a little at the transfer and came to a halt with a thud. What’s this?
The ANA deposit machine was designed to fall back with a bang like a trick house, so the upper part inevitably became low, making it a bit difficult to load and unload. I thought the JAL deposit machine was well built because this area was open…
So that’s it… If you don’t close the opening, there’s a risk of people getting in or luggage falling over and getting caught on surrounding equipment or people. So, they’re guaranteeing the risk with an impact sensor or something…
The conveyor transfer is also a weak point.
Transfers are inherently dangerous. It’s not a big deal with this small conveyor, but with the large conveyors I deal with, objects and people get caught here. Quite a few people die every year as a matter of course.
But they probably had to tilt the place where they put the luggage because they wanted it to be horizontal, but due to the circumstances of the next conveyor… They can make a curved conveyor, but because they need rollers on the outside, the skirt part (the outer part of the conveyor) becomes bulky. It probably wouldn’t be possible to have such a tight skirt, which would be a disadvantage when loading and unloading luggage…
So, when it became JAL, I had a bad feeling about it, so I decided to arrive at Haneda two hours before departure. So I wasn’t really in trouble, but it’s not good after all.
Why did this system become so mediocre? I researched the background…
First of all, it seems that JAL’s machine was developed and delivered by Japan’s Daifuku in 2022. Isn’t that a super large company?
On the other hand, it seems that ALA’s machine was purchased from the Dutch company scrabee in 2015.
Scrabee is a small-sized company with just over 100 people, and it seems that Daifuku acquired it in 2019.
That means, as expected, JAL’s check-in machine should have been a newer model and an improved version…
Looking at it that way, ANA’s machine seems to be more stylish and has a more decisive design. It looks like a foreign-made product. The JAL machine, to put it harshly, seems to show all the bad aspects of Japanese products. It looks like a home appliance. The ambition is understandable, but the product does not seem to keep up.
