8-2 Project Three- Systems Thinking

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Southern New Hampshire University *

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Industrial Engineering

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Dec 6, 2023

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Southern New Hampshire University IT-200 fundamentals of information 8-2 Project Three: Systems Thinking Lost Pines Outfitters (LPO) is an affordable small online and local clothing retailer. The LPO online and LPO retail operate out of the same warehouse to fulfill product demands for both operations. The LPO system consist of multiple independent sub-systems to ensure the system functions properly. System. (2021, June 10). The sub-systems are as follows: Retail Store, Online Store, Warehouse Department, Warehouse Associate, Warehouse Computer, Fulfillment Department, LPO Associate, LPO Manager. Retail Store – A physical store where customers can enter to purchase products directly Online Store – A website where customers can order products and have it shipped home directly. Warehouse Department – Storage area for all LPO product and is utilized by both the LPO online and LPO retail sections. Warehouse Associate – Handles online orders, pulling products, updating inventory, and sending product to fulfillment department Warehouse Computer – Collection of data of current inventory for the LPO company. Fulfillment Department – Handles and processes products for shipment and updates tracking information. LPO Associate – Sends review cards to online customers and offers coupons to members of LPO’s loyalty program who shopped locally. LPO Manager – Updates LPO retail inventory once a week. I begin by discussing the online system first. The process begins by the customer purchasing a product from the LPO website. The order is then sent to the warehouse department. A warehouse associate will then select the product from the shelves, update the inventory tracking system via the warehouse computer and the product will then be sent to the fulfillment department. The fulfillment department will process, package, and a tracking number will be assigned to the order through the United States Postal Service. When the product is shipped an associate from the fulfillment department will manually check the tracking information and update the delivery status of the order. When the customer receives the order, a LPO associate will send a thank you card for the order and will request a review for the item and the shopping experience. A feedback is the loop on which a system gathers relevant data and cycles it through a process that results in a cause and effect loop. Goetz, T. (2018, October 15). The feedback loop would be the customer receiving the thank you card and leaving a review on the product and experience. The customer will then revisit the website because of the great customer experience and will make another purchase. The process for the retail system begins by a customer visiting the physical store located near Austin, Texas. The customer would browse the aisles and would then proceed to the checkout line with the interested products. The LPO associate may ask if the customer is part of the LPO’s loyalty program and offer coupons on selected products. The LPO associate will finalize the transaction and the customer will leave the store with a receipt and purchased goods. The purchases are tracked in the point of sale system where the LPO manager will pull data weekly and update the LPO warehouse inventory. The feedback loop would be if the customer joins the program and return to purchase more products because of the coupons offered. The company will have developed a client base and would more than likely have the customer return to purchase more products from the store. The first identified issue with the current system is that
Southern New Hampshire University IT-200 fundamentals of information 8-2 Project Three: Systems Thinking the LPO manager retrieves the data from the point of sale system and updates the warehouse inventory once a week which will result in an inventory discrepancy. This issue would affect both the LPO online and retail stores because as orders come in online the warehouse associate will not have an accurate inventory supply meaning a product could be out of stock but will still show as available through the system. The second identified issue is having one computer in the warehouse department for multiple functions within causing a delay in updating and processing orders. This would cause a longer wait time between ordering a product and receiving it for the customer. This could last cause tension within the department as well as an excessive amount of order being pushed to the fulfillment department. My recommendation for the first issue would be to have the point of sales system link up to the warehouse inventory system. At the time of the purchase a generated report will be sent to the warehouse inventory and will reflect the purchased product as minus one from the system. The manager will be relieved of this task and is able to perform system checks to verify products are deducted correctly. This will clear the discrepancy of product available and will showcase the correct number for the CEO to review. My recommendation for the second issue would be to add additional computers for the warehouse associates. Providing a computer for each associate in the warehouse department would alleviate the delays in updating and processing order. Warehouse associate will no longer have to wait for a computer to become available and will be able to process the order through their own computers. With both issues revolving around the warehouse inventory, I was able to pinpoint the issue and was able to correct both problems with two simple solutions. In conclusion systems thing is a helpful and beneficial toolset to ensure the most efficient and effective method are being use. While using the systems thinking for this scenario, I was able to identify how the LPO online and retail systems worked. I discovered the innerworkings of both systems and when given an error or issue within the system I was able to recommend a course of action to correct or simply the problem.
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