News on 10 October 2000
The critical eye of the Office Productivity Network was cast over BA’s World Cargo Centre at Heathrow on Monday. There’s not much fault to be found here, especially when you stack up the outcome against the company’s initial project objectives.
The £250m building, BA’s biggest single property investment, was its next venture, following the creation of Waterside, the new corporate HQ. The cargo centre is, in fact, an enormous shed with an adjoining office block that accommodates about 250 staff. Opened over a year ago, the centre is still an evolving development.
The same principles adopted at Waterside – one standard of quality throughout, no private offices, a variety of work settings – have been used at Heathrow. But this has much less to do with design philosophy and much more to do with business objectives. As Operations Director Pat Pearse points out, BA chose to transform the cargo business, with a complete break from the physical and operating regimes of the past. As a result, productivity rocketed and continues to improve steadily.
This was one in a series of site visits organised by the Office Productivity Network, a joint initiative launched under the DETR’s ‘partners in innovation’ scheme. OPN aims to serve as a resource for businesses that want to improve their own productivity.
More information on the group and its programme of activities is available at www.officeproductivity.co.uk
