Waiting Lines

Provide your own recommendation for an order quantity and note the associated profit projections. Provide a

Operations management is essential for the survival and success of any organization. According to Heizer & Render (2011), operations management (OM) is the set of activities that creates value in the form of goods and services by transforming inputs into outputs. Operations managers today contend with competition, globalization, inflation, consumer demand, and consistent change in technology. Managers must focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of processes such as cost, dependability, distribution, flexibility, and speed. The intent of this paper is to discuss the processes and operations management of the Kroger Company.

Evaluation of the queues at each station revealed that Station 3 (Average Queue: 556.6, St Dev: 453.3) was more strained than Station 1 (Average Queue: 386.1, St Dev: 363.3). The firm understands that as queues Figure 2: Machine Utilization and Queues at Littlefield Technologies

We began our analysis by searching for bottlenecks that existed in the current system. It was easily identified that major issues existed in the ordering process. Without calculations, you could tell the reorder point was too low since the historical plots showed inventory levels at zero for two or more days at a time. The number of jobs in customer orders showed correlating spikes at the same time of the inventory outages. We reviewed the utilization and queues of the other stations in the system but were hesitant to make in immediate changes since we were not entirely certain the effects of correcting the inventory policy.

Speed is also important inside the operation. If the movement of materials and information is not quick enough, this could delay the process of serving the customers as quickly as possible.

We would have to charge at least 27% more to rush an order, since we'd be increasing wait times for 4 proceeding customers after customer number 2 (3,4,5,6). Still, this only compensates monetary costs and fails to take into account non monetary/intangible costs such as customer loyalty and satisfaction which may incur further future costs. Given these

3. Two suggestions from other stores I would implement would be, I would buy two queue for our sales department and one for our repair shop. This would enhance fast service and convenience. While waiting to be attended,

Lead times act as a multiplier with regard to demand fluctuations. Even small changes in demand result in either high stock outs or high holding costs due to the time delay in delivery, since the order quantity cannot be adjusted during the lead time. Another factor is demand forecasting. Retailer, distributor and manu-facturer use different forecasting methods (in most cases not very sophisticated), leading to different results and biasing the demand forecast at the end of the supply chain.

Shuzworld aims to keep customer satisfaction at its highest. A customer approach that focuses on making the customer happy is of upmost importance. One way to achieve this is to ensure that customer wait time is kept to a minimum. Specific questions have been posed for concern; how many customers will be in the system; how many customers on average will be in line; and what the probability is of one being in line or being served? The company is looking at staffing each

With respect to staffing, I found that I initially had trouble serving customers quickly enough during peak hours. Customers dissatisfied with their queue times often left the store, resulting in lost sales.

Operations management is defined as the design, execution, and control of operations that convert resources into desired goods and services, while implementing an organizations business strategy (Business Dictionary, 2015). Office Depot Inc. is one such organization that truly understands that solid operations is the foundation to the success they have had in recent years. In this paper, I will give the history and background of Office Depot Inc. and explain why they have been able to keep such a competitive advantage in the consumer and small business supply industry. Additionally, I will

Lead time varies significantly, which affects the inventory cycle. The plant has to set a safety stock that will protect the production against stock outs, vehicle breakdowns, weather related delays and the shortage of supply from farmers and hogs barns.

The current average utilization rate of the call centre is 30.48% (see appendix XXX). The average arrival rate, rate at which the patients call, is lower than the average service rate, rate at which the patients are serviced. However, both the arrival time and the service time contain moderate variability (see appendix XXX), negatively impacting the flow time during peak hours. There are two arrival rate variability issues: variability amongst the different days the calls are received and variability amongst the hours the calls are received. The problem is bigger than Laura anticipated. As per the ‘Appendix 5’ of the case, the average daily abandoned calls are 338 and not 35. This does not include the patients receiving a busy signal, therefore becoming lost throughputs. Thus given the low utilization rate it is clear that the problem the call centre faces is in managing variability and not capacity.

* If the customer does not order before 3pm, the delivery of the product would happen only after the second day. This can hamper customer satisfaction.

3.   The travel time is 1 hour.  While this is considered part of the service time it actually means that the customer will be waiting during the first hour of the service time.  Thus, travel time must be added to the time spent in line as predicted model in order to determine the total customer waiting time.