A transport services company provides a whole range of services to railway operators. Its reputation for quality was a valuable asset in its increasingly competitive market. ‘We are continually looking for innovation in the way we deliver our services because the continuous improvement of our processes is the only way to make our company more efficient,’ said the company’s CEO. ‘We use a defined set of criteria to identify critical processes, each of which is allocated a “process owner” by our quality steering committee. This is helped by the company’s “process excellence index” (EPI) which is an indicator of the way a process performs, particularly how it is designed, controlled and improved. The EPI score, which is expressed on a scale of 1 to 100, is calculated by the process owner and registered with the quality department. With this one figure we can measure the cost, reliability and quality of each process so that we can compare performance. If you don’t measure, you can’t improve. And if you don’t measure in the correct way, how can you know where you are? Employee recognition is also an important. Our suggestion scheme is designed to encourage staff to submit ideas that are evaluated and rated. No individual suggestion is finally evaluated until it has been fully implemented. Where a team of employees puts ideas forward, the score is divided between them, either equally or according to the wishes of the team itself. These employee policies are supported by the company’s training schemes, many of which are designed to ensure all employees are customer-focused.’ (a). What seem to be the key elements in this company’s approach to improvement? (b). Do you think this approach is appropriate for all operations?
> The growing use of social network sites (such as Facebook) and online communities (such as for instance the Apple Computer community, the community of Harley-Davidson riders, and the community of Starbucks customers) provides exciting opportunities for o
> This case exercise covers many issues found in new product and service development projects. In particular, the case examines a new type of product that is to be launched in an uncertain and unpredictable market and also carries some development risks. A
> The example of the bullwhip effect shown in Table 7.2 shows how a simple 5 per cent reduction in demand at the end of supply chain causes fluctuations that increase in severity the further back an operation is placed in the chain. Table 7.2: (a). Using
> Described as having ʻrevolutionised the concept of sandwich making and eatingʼ, Prêt A Manger opened their first shop in the mid-1980s, in London. Now they have over 130 shops in UK, New York, Hong Kong and Tokyo. They say that their secret is to focus c
> The manager of a sweet shop decides to sample batches of sweets to check that the weight is reasonably consistent. She takes 9 samples, each with 10 bags. The data below shows the average mean weight for each sample and the weight range. What control lim
> An animal park in Amsterdam has decided to samples 50 visitors each day (n) to see how many visitors are from overseas. The data below is for the last seven days. If it decided to continue recording this data and plot it on a control chart for attributes
> A local shop has a relatively stable demand for tins of sweetcorn throughout the year, with an annual total of 1,400 tins. The cost of placing an order is estimated at £15 and the annual cost of holding inventory is estimated at 25 per cent of the produc
> The environmental services department of a city has two recycling services – newspaper collection (NC) and general recycling (GR). The NC service is a door-to-door collection service that, at a fixed time every week, collects old newspapers that househol
> Supplies4medics distributes a range of around 4000 SKUs of medical and safety item supplies across Europe. The case highlights increasing problems with inventory shortages and declining service levels, at the same time that total inventory levels were at
> Some (even relatively experienced) project managers neglect stakeholders in the project management process, preferring to ‘manage them at a distance’ rather than allow them to interfere with the project. Others argue that the benefits of stakeholder mana
> The activities, their durations and precedences for designing, writing and installing a bespoke computer database are shown in Table 15.3. Draw a network diagram (activity-on-node) for the project and calculate the fastest time in which the operation mig
> Revisit the six examples of failure described at the beginning of the chapter. Compile a table that summarises your view of: (a). The reasons for the main failure. (b). How it might have been prevented. (c). The result (damage) of the failure.
> It is week 35 of a busy year at Ashby Architect’s and Jo Ashby is facing a big problem. Both her two junior partners have been diagnosed with a serious illness contracted on a trip to scope out a prospective job in Lichtenstein. So Jo h
> Find a copy of a financial newspaper (Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Economist, etc.) and identify one company that is described in the paper that day. What do you think would be the main operations issues for that company?
> The Fast and Efficient (FAC) transport Group is reviewing its fleet maintenance operations. ‘Our lease on our current maintenance and repair facilities site will expire in a year, and we need to decide how to operate in the future. Currently we have the
> Mark Key is an events coordinator for a small company. Returning from his annual holiday in France, he is given six events to plan. He gives them the codes A–F. He needs to decide upon the sequence in which to plan the events and wants
> Write down five services that you have ‘consumed’ in the last week. Try and make these as varied as possible. Examples could include public transport, a bank, any shop or supermarket, attendance at an education course, a cinema, a restaurant and so on. F
> Visit an IKEA superstore and a smaller furniture store. Observe how the shop operates, for example, where customers go, how staff interact with them, how big it is, how the shop has chosen to use its space, what variety of products it offers and so on. T
> The Managing Partner of The Branding Partnership (TBP) describes her business. ʻIt is about four years now since we specialized in the small to medium firms’ market. Before that we also used to provide brand consultancy services for anyone who walked in
> Blackberry Hill Farm (BHF) has developed two businesses to complement their traditional farming activity over the last 6 years. The first is a service operation opening up the farm to paying visitors who can observe farming activities and enjoy tours, wa
> Quentin Cakes make about 20,000 cakes per year in two sizes, both based on the same recipe. Sales peak at Christmas time when demand is about 50 per cent higher than in the more quiet summer period. Their customers (the stores who stock their products) o
> A company that produces concrete paving slabs is introducing a new range of ‘textured’ nonslip products. To do this it must invest in a new machine. Demand is forecast to be around 10,000 units per month for the first year and approximately 24,000 units
> A data centre is ‘a facility composed of networked computers and storage that businesses or other organisations use to organise, process, store and disseminate large amounts of data. A business typically relies heavily upon the applications, services and
> Consider the music business as a supply network. How did music downloads and streaming affect to artists’ sales? What implications did electronic music transmission have for record shops?
> It sounds like a joke, but it is a genuine product innovation. It’s green, it’s square and it comes originally from Japan. It’s a square watermelon. Why square? Because Japanese grocery stores are not large and space cannot be wasted. Similarly a round w
> A janitor called Murray Spangler invented the vacuum cleaner in 1907. One year later, he sold his patented idea to William Hoover whose company went on to dominate the market. Now, the Dyson vacuum cleaner has jumped from nothing to a position where it d
> According to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a circular economy is ‘one that is restorative and regenerative by design, and which aims to keep products, components and materials at their highest utility and value at all times, distinguishing between tech
> Innovation becomes particularly important at the interface between offerings and the people that use them. Consider two types of website: (a). Those which are trying to sell something such as Amazon.com. (b). Those primarily concerned with giving informa
> We have to get this new product and fast’, said the Operations Director. ‘Our competitors are close behind us and I believe their products will be almost as good as ours when they launch them.’ She was talking about a new product that the company hoped w
> One product for which customers value a very wide range of product types is that of domestic paint. Most people like to express their creativity in the choice of paints and other home decorating products that they use in their homes. Clearly, offering a
> This case uses publicly quoted information (usually from the companies’ own websites) to compare three well-known fashion retailers, all based in Europe. These three retailers are Benetton, based in Northern Italy, H&M, based in Sweden, and Zara, based i
> Xexon7 is a specialist artificial intelligence (AI) development firm that develops algorithms for various on-line services. As part of its client services it has a small (10 person) help-desk call centre to answer client queries. Clients could contact th
> DSD designs, makes and supplies medical equipment to hospitals and clinics. Its success was based on their research and development culture. Although around 50 per cent of manufacturing was done in-house, their products were relatively highly priced, but
> Examine this simple domestic project. The project definition is to make ‘breakfast in bed’ consisting of a boiled egg, toast and orange juice, using the minimum staff resources and time, and to a high quality (egg fres
> In the oil industry, project teams are increasingly using virtual reality and visualisation models of offshore structures that allow them to check out not only the original design, but any modifications that have to be made during construction. (a). Why
> Funding comes from a variety of sources; to restore the literally irreplaceable buildings we work on. We try to reconcile historical integrity with commercial viability, and rely on the support of volunteers. So we need to involve all stakeholders all th
> Revisit the two examples towards the beginning of the chapter describing the type of projects undertaken by Disney Imagineering and the Crossrail project. Using, the three methods of distinguishing between projects that are described in the chapter (thei
> An automated sandwich-making machine in a food manufacturer’s factory has six major components, with individual reliabilities as shown in Table 14.2. Table 14.2: Component ……………………………………………………………………………………. Reliability Bread slicer ………………………………………………………
> The light bulb in the men’s lavatories of a factory finally burnt out after 70 years of operation. The manager at the firm said, ‘It is actually a little bit sad. I joined the firm when I was fifteen (he is now sixty-three) and it was there then.’ In fac
> One cause of aircraft accident is ‘controlled flight into ground’. Predominantly, the reason for this is not mechanical failure but human failure such as pilot fatigue. Boeing, which dominates the commercial airline business, has calculated that over 60
> Wyco is a leading international retailer selling clothing and accessories with stores throughout the United States, Europe and the Middle East. The countries from which it sources its products include Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. It was shoc
> Action Response is a London-based charity dedicated to providing fast responses to critical situations throughout the world. The charity receives requests for cash aid usually from an intermediary charity and looks to process the request quickly and prov
> Look again at the example, ‘The Four Seasons Canary Wharf’. (a). The company has what it calls its Golden Rule; ‘Do to others (guests and staff) as you would wish others to do to you’. Why is this important in ensuring high-quality service? (b). What do
> Look again at the example, ‘Tea and Sympathy’. (a). Why do you think ‘Nicky’s Rules’ help to make the Tea and Sympathy operation more efficient? (b). The restaurant’s approach to quality of service seems very different to most restaurants. Why do you thi
> Understanding type I and type II errors is essential for surgeon’s quality planning. Consider, for example, appendectomy operations. Following a diagnosis of appendicitis, removal of the appendix is necessary because of the risk of it bursting, causing p
> Ryanair, the best-known budget airline in Europe, focusing on a popular routes and very low operating costs. For years, the boss of the airline, Michael O’Leary’s policy on customer service was clear. ‘Our customer service’, he said ‘is about the most we
> The owner of a small wedding photography business realises that the market is changing. ‘I used to take a few photos during the wedding ceremony and then formal group shots outside. It rarely took more than two hours. Around 30 photos would go in a stand
> Human error is a significant source of quality problems. Think through the times that (with hindsight) you have made an error and answer the following questions. (a). How do you think that human error causes quality problems? (b). What could one do to mi
> Step 1(a). – As a group, identify a ‘high visibility’ operation that you all are familiar with. This could be a type of quick service restaurant, record stores, public transport systems, libraries, etc. Step 2(b). – Once you have identified the broad cla
> For over 10 years a hotel group, had been developing self-managed improvement groups within its hotels. At one hotel reception desk, staff became concerned about the amount of time the reception desk was left unattended. To investigate this, the staff be
> Develop cause–effect diagrams for the following types of problem: (a). Staff waiting too long for their calls to be answered at their IT helpdesk. (b). Poor food in the company restaurant. (c). Poor lecturing from teaching staff at a university. (d). Cus
> McPherson Charles, based in Bristol in the West of England, has grown rapidly to be one of the biggest law firms in the region. Comprising 21 partners and a total of 400 staff it is an ambitious partnership aiming to maintain its impressive growth record
> Everything we do can be broken down into a process’ said Lucile, COO of an outsourcing business for the ‘back office’ functions of a range of companies. ‘It maybe more straightforward in a manufacturing business, but the concept of process improvement is
> Go back to Chapter 10 and re-read the description of the Theory of Constraints (ToC). Now consider the similarities and differences between ToC and lean synchronisation in terms of their overall objectives, measures of effectiveness, improvement method a
> • Examine the value-added versus non-value-added times for some other services. For example: (a). Handing-in an assignment in for marking if you are currently studying for a qualification. (What is the typical elapsed time between handing the assignment
> An insurance underwriting process consists of the following separate stages. What is the ‘value-added’ percentage for the process? (Hint – use Little’s law to work out how long ap
> Consider this record of an ordinary flight. ‘Breakfast was a little rushed but left the house at 6.15. Had to return a few minutes later, forgot my passport. Managed to find it and leave (again) by 6.30. Arrived at the airport 7.00, dropped Angela off wi
> Re-examine the description of the Toyota production system at the beginning of the chapter. (a). List all the different techniques and practices that Toyota adopts. Which of these would you call just-intime philosophies and which are just-in-time techniq
> Think through the following three brief examples. What type of control (according to Figure 10.13) do you think they warrant? 1. The Games Delivery Authority (GDA) was a public body responsible for developing and building the new venues and infrastructu
> Read the following descriptions of two cinemas. Kinepolis in Brussels is one the largest cinema complexes in the world, with 28 screens, a total of 8,000 seats, and four showings of each film every day. It is equipped with the latest projection technolo
> It takes six hours for a contract laundry to wash, dry and press (in that order) a batch of overalls. It takes three hours to wash the batch, two hours to dry it and one hour to press it. Usually each day’s batch is collected and ready for processing at
> Revisit the example on the Blood and Transplant service at the beginning of the chapter. (a). What are the factors that constitute inventory holding costs, order costs and stock-out costs in a National Blood Service? (b). What makes this particular inven
> Aarens Electronic (AE) produces ‘precision custom coating and laminating services to a wide range of customers, amongst the most important being, Phanchem to whom it supplied dry photoresist imaging films, a critical step in the manufacturing of microchi
> Our suppliers often offer better prices if we are willing to buy in larger quantities. This creates a pressure on us to hold higher levels of stock. Therefore, to find the best quantity to order we must compare the advantages of lower prices for purchase
> A fruit canning plant has a single line for three different fruit types. Demand for each type of tin is reasonably constant at 50,000 per month (a month has 160 production hours). The tinning process rate is 1,200 per hour, but it takes two hours to clea
> A supplier makes monthly shipments to ‘House & Garden Stores’, in average lot sizes of 200 coffee tables. The average demand for these items is 50 tables per week, and the lead time from the supplier three weeks. ‘House & Garden Stores’ must pay for inve
> Revisit the example, ‘United drags passengers off its plane’. (a). How should the airline have handled the situation? (b). After the incident attracted so much negative publicity, United announced a new upper limit of $10,000 in compensation for passen
> Seasonal demand is particularly important to the greetings card industry. Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween, Valentine’s Day and other occasions have all been promoted as times to send (and buy) appropriately designed cards. Now, some card manufactur
> A German car manufacturer defines ‘utilisation’ as the ratio of actual output for a process to its design capacity, where design capacity is the capacity of a process as it is designed to operate. However, it knows tha
> In a typical 7-day period, the planning department of the pizza company programs its ‘Pizzamatic’ machine for 148 hours. It knows that changeovers and set-ups take 8 hours and breakdowns average 4 hours each week. Waiting for ingredients to be delivered
> A Pizza Company has a demand forecast for the next 12 months that is shown in Table 8.5. The current workforce of 100 staff can produce 1,500 cases of pizzas per month. Table 8.5: Month ………………………………………………………………. Demand (cases per month) January …………………
> Many companies devise a policy on ethical sourcing covering such things as workplace standards and business practices, health and safety conditions, human rights, legal systems, child labour, disciplinary practices, wages and benefits, etc. (a). What do
> If you were the owner of a small local retail shop, what criteria would you use to select suppliers for the goods that you wish to stock in your shop? Visit three shops that are local to you and ask the owners how they select their suppliers. In what way
> A chain of women’s apparel retailers had all their products made by Lopez Industries, a small but high-quality garment manufacturer. They worked on the basis of two seasons; Spring/Summer season and Autumn/Winter. ‘Sometimes we are left with surplus item
> The COO of Super Cycles was considering her sourcing strategy. ʻI have two key questions, for each of our outsourced parts, what is the risk in the supply market, and what is the criticality of the product or service to our business? As far
> A gourmet burger shop has a daily demand for 250 burgers and operates for 10 hours. (a). What is the required cycle time in minutes? (b). Assuming that each burger has 7.2 minutes of work required, how many servers are required? (c). If the burger sho
> At the theatre, the interval during a performance of ‘King Lear’ lasts for 20 minutes and in that time 86 people need to use the toilet cubicles. On average, a person spends 3 minutes in the cubicle. There are 10 cubicles available. (a). Does the theatr
> A company has decided to manufacture a general-purpose ‘smoothing plane’, a tool which smooths and shapes wood. Its engineers estimated the time it would take to perform each element in the assembly process. The market
> The headquarters of a major creative agency offered a service to all its global subsidiaries that included the preparation of a budget estimate that was submitted to potential clients when making a ‘pitch’ for new work
> It is a real problem for us’, said Angnyeta Larson, ʻWe now have only ten working days between all the expense claims coming from the departmental coordinators and authorizing payments on the next month’s payroll. This really is not long enough and we ar
> One of the examples at the beginning of the chapter described ‘drive-through’ fast-food processes. Think about (or better still, visit) a drive-through service and try mapping what you can see of the process (plus what you can infer from what may be happ
> Revisit the example at the beginning of this chapter that examines some of the principles behind supermarket layout. Then visit a supermarket and observe peoples’ behaviour. You may wish to try and observe which areas they move slowly past and which area
> A direct marketing company sells kitchen equipment through a network of local representatives working from home. Typically individual orders, usually contain 20 to 50 individual items. Much of the packing process was standardised and automatic. The Vice
> McDonald’s is the best-known fast-food brand in the world (32,000 plus restaurants) and, since its foundation in the 1950s, is held to have totally changed the food industry. Innovatively, it was a self-service drive-in format with a very limited menu (b
> The international Frozen Pizza Company (IFPC) operates in three markets globally. Market 1 is its largest market where it sells 25,000 tons of pizza per year. In this market, it trades under the name ‘Aunt Bridget’s Pizza’ and positions itself as making
> A company produces a wide range of specialist educational kits for 5–10 year olds is based in an industrial unit arranged in a simple layout of with six departments, each performing a separate task. The layout is shown in Figure 5.9 tog
> Visit a branch of a retail bank and consider the following questions: (a). What categories of service does the bank seem to offer? (b). To what extent does the bank design separate processes for each of its types of service? (c). What are the different p
> Globalisation is very much a “mixed blessing”. There is little doubt that it has lifted millions out of poverty, but it has also led to the destruction of traditional cultures in developing countries and many jobs in the developed world.’ Draw up lists o
> The United Photonics Groups is a US-based corporation that manufactures lenses and precision instruments. It has a reputation for technical excellence and its products are reputed to be amongst the most technically advanced in the global market. Recently
> Slagelse Industrial Services (SIS) had become one of the Europe’s most respected die caster of zinc, aluminium and magnesium parts supplier for hundreds of companies in many industries, especially automotive and defence. The case describes the formulatio
> This case is essentially a story of how a relatively small factory, supplying ink jet paper to Hewlett-Packard and other customers moved itself from being a loss-making operation into a profitable position by gaining control of its processes. The case co
> Ferndale Sands Conference Centre is a conference venue of 52 rooms in Victoria State, Australia outside Melbourne. Established initially as a hotel, it was re-launched as a conference centre four years ago. The centre had managed to establish a presence
> The case relates the history of some improvement initiatives carried out at a (fictional) hospital in Sweden from the perspective of Denize Ahlgren the new Chief of Administration (COA) at St Bridget’s. Dr Pär Solberg, a clinician who also heads the hosp
> C.K. One’ founded subText in South East Asian computer generated imaging (CGI) market, three years ago. The case opens with him (the first time) needing to apologise to some clients, because of the failure of the businesses resource planning and control
> Concept Design Services (CDS) is a company that has changed from being a manufacturer, initially of precision plastic components and cheap ‘homeware’ to making very high quality homewares, then to offering a â
> “You’ve got to be kidding me!” said Amit Chopra, owner of the 215‐room Comfort Express in Jamestown. “No, I’m not kidding. He sold them all,” replied Sylvia Zepeda, the hotel’s director of sales and marketing. Together, Amit and Sylvia served as the hote
> “I think I can buy it at a great price,” said Dan Flood. He was talking about the Watershed Restaurant. The property was for sale and Dan was meeting with Loralei Glenn, his friend and an experienced restaurant manager. “It’s losing about 7 cents on each
> “I think we have to do it,” said Paula, the director of operations for the five‐unit Hungry Henry’s pizza chain. Paul was talking to Henry Acosta, the chain’s founder. Paula and Henry were discussing the fact that their competitors in the area had extend
> Mary Margaret Glenn knew the going would be tough for the first couple of years. She was now finding out exactly how tough. After five years of working for others, Mary and her former college roommate had pooled their resources and purchased a small buil
> Bill O’Leary could see both sides of the issue. As the general manager of the 500‐unit Plazamar Hotel, he knew how important it was to remember that both members of his room revenue management team now sitting across his desk shared the same goals. What
