How is it possible that Kansai Airport (KIX) hasn’t lost a single piece of luggage out of the estimated 10 million baggage items it processed in fiscal 2023!?

Image generated on Microsoft’s Copilot—powered by DALL-E 3

I’ve been taking an (Lean) Operations Management class and would be really interested to see what processes, rituals, and culture they have put in place to achieve this (even if they are padding the numbers a little…).

At the very least, it looks like they are practicing a very “Lean” approach to continuous improvements by listening to front-line workers: “CKTS updates the manual regularly to incorporate staff suggestions.”

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On a related note, I have had the unfortunate experience of having our bags lost, and I truly think that I wouldn’t have been able to retrieve it if I didn’t place AirTags on them. The customer service agent had assured me that our bags had made it to Portland (according to what she could see in the system) but I was able to let her know that they had been left behind in Toronto! Thankfully she was able to get in touch with Toronto Airport staff to get our bags onto the next plane to PDX.

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This WSJ article reminded me of how confusing hotel light switches are such a visceral example of mismatched mapping with controls. Watch this TikTok video and tell me…how does that make sense?

@chelseazeferina why are hotel lights so complicated #hoteltour #hoteltok #solotravel #solotravelfemale ♬ original sound - 🍓 CHELSEA 🍓

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Definitely a throwback to Jakob Nielsen's 10 Heuristics for User Interface Design, namely #2: Match Between the System and the Real World. It’s nostalgic to see the stovetop as the example on that page, as it was my first “aha!” moment when I realized that it was bad design that led me to turning on the wrong stove over and over.