Dr. Julia Connors has a busy, successful cataract clinic and wants to expand to meet demand. She is considering two alternatives: keeping her physical facility as it is and extending office hours, or renting additional space within her current building. The first appears to be less disruptive to operations but risks alienating her workforce. The second is more disruptive to current operations during construction and will require more capital investment. This case is designed to be taught in a single class session with students who have practiced process analysis.
A printer and paper converter produces customized packaging used by industrial customers to deliver promotional materials, software, luxury beverages, and gift food and candy. The company specializes in creating innovative packaging solutions for its customers and providing full service from design through final delivery. Even though revenue has tripled, performance has been declining and the firm posted its first loss in over 10 years. The new VP of Operations has been hired to address operational problems resulting in cost overruns, quality problems, and late deliveries. He tours key departments including quality control and sales and visits the various work centers in the plant as he investigates the challenges in the current production process. This case can be used in a first-year MBA-level course in Operations Management. Students are asked to create a process flow diagram and perform break-even, capacity, utilization, and yield analyses before making their final recommendations for improving the firm's performance.
Delwarca Software provides business software to large corporate clients around the world. The firm serves customers who prefer to assemble corporate solutions using a combination of software programs from various suppliers rather than implementing a single enterprise resource planning system. Consequently, Delwarca must provide telephone support services for complex software-hardware interaction and performance problems in addition to the typical software support issues around software installation and upgrades, malware attacks, and processing failures. The manager of the remote support unit implemented a new triage program for customer calls hoping to reduce customer wait time, improve customer satisfaction, and reduce costs. After one year, customer dissatisfaction is at an all-time high and he must perform a quantitative analysis of the current process, considering wait times for customers as well as cost per call, before making a final recommendation. This case can be used in a first-year MBA course in Service Management or Operations Management or a course in industrial engineering. It can also be used to introduce simple queuing theory.
The general manager of a chauffeured limousine transport company is concerned about underperformance at the company's customer service call center. The eight-person call center handles almost all customer interaction including discussing company services with prospective customers, scheduling pickups, providing pricing, confirming appointments, and handling billing inquiries. Customers have complained about extended wait times to speak with someone and about abandoned calls. On the other hand, customer satisfaction with the firm's fleet vehicles and drivers is extremely high. The general manager worries that call center service quality will limit the company's ability to expand operations into new markets. The company's founder has asked the general manager to look into the problems and propose solutions. Students must analyze the capacity utilization and demand for the call center while also considering the costs of problems including abandoned calls.