CASE STUDY

Daifuku Oceania | Baggage Handling System Upgrade

Caliber supported Daifuku in upgrading and refurbishing the baggage handling system at Auckland Airport’s West Bag Hall in the international terminal. Working in a live airside environment, our engineers helped deliver structural and mechanical upgrades with minimal disruption to operations. The project involved custom component design, staged demolition, steel installation, and continuous coordination with multiple stakeholders across a high-security, safety-critical site.

KEY TASKS

• Project scheduling and snag rectification
• Refurbishment of existing systems
• Site measurement and installation support
• Structural and mechanical design planning
• Upgrade of conveyor and drive system

HOW WE DELIVERED

Caliber supported Daifuku in delivering a complex upgrade and refurbishment of the baggage handling system (BHS) at Auckland Airport’s West Bag Hall in the international terminal—one of the most operationally sensitive environments in the country.

Over 18 months, two Caliber engineers were embedded in sequence, providing continuous on-the-ground support from structural preparation and component design through to installation supervision and system commissioning.

This was a live environment in the truest sense. Except for a brief window between midnight and 3am, thousands of bags flowed through the system daily. To avoid disruption, every task—whether demolition, installation, or inspection—had to be timed to coincide with planned outages or quiet hours. Risk planning, safety, and precision were everything.

Our engineers played a key role in preparing the site for new conveyor lines. Working from narrow catwalks and mezzanines high above the ground, we helped visualise and coordinate the staged removal and relocation of clashing services (lighting, ducting, cable trays) ahead of new steel installations. Access was extremely constrained, requiring the use of suspended scaffolding that itself had to be designed with future steel and conveyor placements in mind.

Where scaffold interfered with the new structure, we had to innovate on the fly—modifying the scaffold layout to avoid rework. In some cases, vertical scaffold tubes were temporarily detached and then reattached to completed steelwork once installed. This load redistribution enabled conveyor installation to proceed safely and efficiently.

Coordination was constant. Our engineers liaised daily with certifying structural consultants, Auckland Airport staff, BHS operators, and multiple subcontractor teams. The environment was fast-paced and unpredictable, with site readiness meetings, toolbox talks, and tight access controls (every visit required security screening). Despite this, the project was completed within weeks of the original deadline.

Safety was front and centre. Lock-out-tag-out (LOTO) procedures were mandatory, exclusion zones were enforced beneath overhead works, and safety netting was used as standard. The dynamic nature of the work meant adaptability was as critical as technical know-how.

From system design to steel installation, site logistics to commissioning, Caliber’s embedded support helped bring together decades of system upgrades into a cohesive, modernised baggage handling network—ready to support one of New Zealand’s busiest transport hubs for the next generation.