A Tale of Two Terminals

In this talk, Mary Poppendieck will compare and contrast the openings of Beijing Capital Airport Terminal 3 and Heathrow Terminal 5 and present the lessons they hold for anyone switching on complex systems that absolutely must be on time, and must work well—starting the very first day.

On March 26, 2008, Beijing Capital Airport Terminal 3 commenced full scale operations. Covering almost a million square meters, the massive building took four years and less than $4 billion US dollars to build.

But you don’t hear much about the opening of this terminal, because it was pleasantly uneventful, while the chaotic opening of Heathrow Terminal 5 a day later captured worldwide attention. About a third of the size and twice the cost of Beijing Terminal 3, Heathrow Terminal 5 took twice as long to build; yet despite months of testing, its opening was an embarrassment to all concerned

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