LAV-COM

Shortlisted for 2018 Crystal Cabin Award

TEAM LEAD / Workshop facilitation / Concept DEVELOPMENT

The Challenge

Standing in line for the washroom on a long distance flight can be an un-nerving thing, both for airline crew and passengers. For passengers, finding the right timing to leave the seat only to find a line in front of the lavatory diminishes the flight experience. For crew, a line blocking the narrow aisle prevents smooth cabin service.

Current cabin layouts hinders passengers from accessing lavatories which may have capacity, and prevents crew to realize when maintenance may be required.

How can we develop a next-generation Lavatory which will meet various passenger needs, while improving operations for Airlines?

The Process

I lead the team through the concept development phases. In phase 1, it was crucial to get open-minded, enthusiastic, yet experienced people on the team. I made sure to on-board the team with a flexible and innovative mindset through a couple of workshops. In phase 2, I utilized the network of the diverse team members to gather broad information. Phase 3 required an un-biased facilitator, hence I onboarded an external design consulting firm to facilitate workshops. In phase 4, a smaller sub-group of the team developed the ideas into concepts.

The solution

Lav-Com creates an aggregated lavatory space at the rear end of the aircraft for all economy-class cabin. By situating the lavatories in the aft area of the aircraft, away from seated passengers, the usual queuing in aisles, which can interrupt cabin crew operations, can be avoided without reducing the number of lavatory cubicles.

By separating the sink and mirror from the cubicles, the variability of the time a passenger takes in a cubicle can be decreased significantly – thus the waiting line can be reduced. The sink and mirror will create a multi-functional area, meeting other amenity needs.

This unique set-up also opens the possibility of increasing general hygiene by making each section more accessible to the crew to tidy up on a regular basis.

The overall weight related to lavatories in the aircraft can also be reduced, as heavy piping for water supplies and water waste, which otherwise will travel across the whole cabin, can be eliminated.

links

Crystal Cabin Award news release: http://www.crystal-cabin-award.com/