Lion Air

Summary

Lion Air is an Indonesian airline that has been in operation since November 1999 up to date and which operates more than 100 aircraft. Lion Air is headquartered in Lion Air Tower in Central Jakarta. Lion Air is the cheapest in terms of offering air carrier services. Using its motor which basically encourages that everyone can be able to fly is an important factor at this company. Lion Air has had an international recognition with the public and has been flying to over 183 routes which are generally divided into domestic routes and all spread to almost every corner of the Indonesian land (Castle, 2011). The number of services will definitely continue to grow mainly because the aviation demand market in Indonesia is growing on a daily basis.

Introduction

Poor management at Lion Air has brought down the reputation and service delivery of the airline almost in every part of the world. Lion Air has had several malfunctions which have brought down the company reputation and eventually forced out in some markets especially in the European Union where it has been banned from operating business.

A flight from the Juanda International airport, Surabaya was recently forced to land just after taking off in December 2015. Reports indicate that the flight had experienced a cabin pressure which resulted in a panic among the passengers. The plane was officially on its way to Jakarta and had at least 95 passengers on board. There has been a series of other cases where the airline has been affected by a series of other major issues including an oil spillage at Juanda Airport located in Surabaya. In March, the airline's flight from Jakarta was immediately diverted to Johor Baru from Singapore after is officially lacked the landing rights. The aircraft was reported to have been in the air that same evening back to Singapore but this never happened due to the delays which affected the passengers (Weinmann, 2016). The company management has been summoned a number of times by the ministry of transport to explain where the issue is regarding the poor services being offered. For a while, the company has been making headlines with almost the same wrong reasons which have been affecting the airline for some time now. Passengers have been identified complaining of the service delivery as offered by the Lion Air company.

These challenges have been among the contributing factors of the suspension the company is facing at the moment. Frequent delays have been on the rise with passengers being left stranded at the airports waiting to be further directed by the airline management. Several accidents have been experienced in the year 2013 where one of the planes missed the runway in Bali and immediately landed into the sea where several passengers were injured seriously. Lion Air has been disadvantaged this season after the government promised to withdraw the operation license for the airline (Weinmann, 2016). Poor communication among the cockpit management has caused certain flights to be canceled or to be delayed. The leadership, communication, and the decision making have been a contributing factor to the downfall of Lion Air. This is in accordance with a government investigation office which stated that the crash experienced in 2013 was as a result of the poor communication in the management part of Lion Air. Lion Air has been in the spotlight mainly because of the airline delays which have brought down the service delivery and critics from all over the world. Technical problems are the main issue according to the airline management where there have been delays in terms of the delivery of the tires to be used by the planes. Another flight JT0693 which was only 15 minutes into the air was forced to go back after there were technical errors from the management (Weinmann, 2016). The aircraft was reported to have some complications with the air conditioning system.

Operations could resume to normal at Lion Air if only the management could be changed to a more serious panel of managers. The company has experienced a lot of mismanagement activities such as the use of worn out tires on the planes. There have been a number of cases where the airline planes have been forced to return to the ground just after taking off. Poor management has been the main problem at Lion Air. Changing the management will encourage timely accomplishment of the required products or equipment. Waiting until the last minutes in order to place orders for the planes equipment’s is inappropriate and qualities of poor management (Weinmann, 2016). In the event where the planes from Lion Air were forced to make a U-turn just after departure since the management realized that the plane could crash on arrival. Having the spare parts ready to assemble the aircraft when required and at any instance and timely is recommended for this case. The management should improve its operations by doing a very intensive inventory exercise after every six months to ensure that the books and operations status are up to book. Use of qualified personnel to control the Airline is also an effective strategy to allow for the improvement of this company.

Applying the use of combined method of management can help improve the company operations status. Passengers boarding a flight have been noted to have the shortest or least patience in waiting for a delayed flight (Jones & Robinson, 2012). Certain airlines have the tendency of delaying the flights with no major reason. This does not mean that an airline has the authority to delay any flights at all. Lion Air has been experiencing flight delays now and then and this can discourage the general public from ever wanting to board this airline. The reduction or having the name tarnished as offering poor services will generally reduce the marketability of the airline and this decreases the profits of the company in general. The airline can apply the use of digitalized programs in the control section. The accurate dedicated position of information while on the ground is very vital as this allows for the operations to be smooth and running. Precisely arrive and the location information should be communicated on time to allow the airline, air traffic control and any other type of control to take place. Airlines should always have an alternative to solving the issue of delays (Castle, 2011). The airline should create an application management system that will always blink or signal whenever the airline time to depart is close. The use of effective systems which can help influence the keeping of time for the airline is an important investment since the number of passengers or clients for the airline can be in large numbers. The popularity of an airline depends on the capability of the organization to perform its operations effectively and timely. Customer service is the best strategy to attract as many clients to Lion Air as possible.

Operations management is very important in an organization since these acts as the backbone of the organization (Weinmann, 2016). Operations management can be achieved at the organization level or the operational level. The importance of having an operation management strategy in place is to improve the quality of productivity. The productivity of such an organization is measured in terms of the input to the output. Both the input and the output can be attributed to the relationship between the managers and the employees. At some point, the company has had a series of strikes as the employee's fight for their right to salary. Such cases have been experienced in many parts of the world where Lion Air is involved. Poor services in many cases damage the level of output as both the employees and the clients will be less interested and happy to work with Lion Air. At the operations level, it is important to regard the fact that the level of output expected from the workers is dependent on the level of approach the management takes to dictate duties (Castle, 2011). The quality movement which focuses on improving the state of the processes assists in the quality control of the organization. Operations management basically defines the designs, control, and operations of the process of transformation through the conversion of the services to realize the goals more effectively and timely. Lion Air can use the vision-focused strategic management in the realization of the organizational goals. Use of updated programs and also equipment is also very vital in ensuring that the operations in the organization run smoothly at a particular time.

Report

Operations management strategies at Lion Air failed due to the poor implementation of the policies required to push the company to greater heights as according to its standards. The use of poor maintained equipment’s in its operations forced Lion Air into many inconveniences such as the diversion of its flights. Poor customer services are also a major hindrance to the success of the Lion Air (Jones & Robinson, 2012). Being a private limited company, Lion Air is faced by many challenges mostly attributed to the fact that the poor management in terms of saving the costs. Several delays in various airports and finally the lack of communication to the airport's control center on the situation of their flights caused mayhem among the passengers.

Changing the whole management team can be a solution at Lion Air. This is since the current panel has proved beyond doubt of their lack of integrity and panning. Management should always be in knowledge of whatever is happening around them and what impacts a certain event can cause. The delay in the ordering of the tires and also the poor implementation of the policies which can help in the growth of the business which is a step Lion Air missed. Using the latest systems to update the passengers can be a solution at Lion Air. The delays experienced at Lion Air are as a result of poor quality of the schedules. Having a complete schedule that is able to update the passengers and the airport control rooms of the expected next departure can help reduce the delays. Other major companies have implemented this strategy where a signal is sent to the control rooms before the flight departures from the airports in various airports.

Operations management, especially at the organization level, is very vital since it allows for the earlier planning of the operations. At the organization level, the management should always be optimistic about the future. Operations management is important at this stage since it allows for earlier planning of the flights, therefore, preventing the delays experienced by Lion Air from time to time (Castle, 2011). At the operations level, operations management is important since the rate of poor implementations at Lion Air is excessively disturbing. Operations management at this stage is important in order to have a reputable customer service. Customer satisfaction should be the main concern at Lion Air since the higher the ratings the higher the profits expected and finally a success at Lion Air.

Conclusion

Lion Air is a company that can perform better if there was proper control from the management to the general staff. Delays in airports have been reported from various major airlines due to technical hitches or weather but they still make up for the time lost. Lion Air should embrace the same and take advantage of its customer preference since it charges low rates. Maintaining the conditions of the airline should be a priority as this is the main income generating channel.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Castle, J. W. (2011). Indonesian business: The year in review 2010. Place of publication not identified: Equinox Publishing (

Jones, P., & Robinson, P. (2012). Operations management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

  Oxford Business Group. (2014). The report: Malaysia 2014.

Weinmann, M. (2016). Understanding the roles of Operations Management and the importance of managing quality. Implement Strategic Quality Change and evaluating its wider implications.