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CASE PROBLEM
OPERATION MANAGEMENT
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in
mobile
communication
technology,
including
the
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DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. What are the components of Motorolas international
strategy?
2. Describe how Motorola might have arrived at its current
strategy as a result of a SWOT analysis.
3. Discuss Motorolas primary business strategy.
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cility. The McDonald's fryer is neither so large that it produces too many
French-fries at one time (thus allowing them to become soggy) nor so small
that it requires frequent and costly frying.
The fryer is emptied onto a wide, flat tray adjacent to the service
counter. This location is crucial. Since the McDonald's practice is to create
an impression of abundance and generosity by slightly overfilling each bag
of French-fries, the tray's location next to the service counter prevents the
spillage from an overfilled bag from reaching the floor. Spillage creates not
only danger underfoot but also an unattractive appearance that causes the
employees to become accustomed to an unclean environment. Once a
store is unclean in one particular (area), standards fall very rapidly and the
store becomes unclean and the food unappetizing in general.
While McDonald's aims for an impression of abundance, excessive
overfilling can be very costly for a company that annually buys potatoes
almost by the trainload. A systematic bias that puts into each bag of
French-fries a half ounce more than 'is intended can have visible effects on
the company's annual earnings. Further, excessive time spent at the tray
by each employee can create a Cumulative service bottleneck at the
counter.
McDonald's has therefore developed a special wide-mouthed scoop
with a narrow funnel in its handle. The counter employee picks up the
scoop and inserts the handle end into a wall clip containing the bags. One
bag adheres to the handle. In a continuous movement the scoop descends
into the potatoes, fills the bag to the exact proportions its designers
intended, and is lifted, scoop facing die ceiling, so that the potatoes funnel
through the handle into the attached bag, which is automatically
disengaged from the handle by the weight of the contents. The bag comes
to a steady, non-wobbling rest on its flat bottom.
Nothing can go wrong-the employee never soils his hands, the floor
remains clean, dry, and safe, and the quantity is controlled. Best of all, the
customer gets a visibly generous portion with great speed, the employee
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remains efficient and cheerful, and the general impression is one of extravagantly good service.
Mechanized Marketing
Consider the other aspects of McDonald's technological approach to
marketing. The tissue paper used to wrap each hamburger is color-coded
to denote the mix of condiments. Heated reservoirs hold pre-prepared
hamburgers for rush demand. Frying surfaces have spatter guards to
prevent soiling of the customer. Nothing is left to chance or the employees'
discretion.
The entire system is engineered and executed according to a tight
technological discipline that ensures fast, clean, reliable service in an
atmosphere that gives the modestly paid employees a sense of pride and
dignity. In spite of the crunch of eager customers, no employee looks or
acts harassed, and therefore no harassment is communicated to the
customers.
What is important to understand about this remarkably successful
organization is not only that it has created a highly sophisticated piece of
technology, but also that it has done this by applying a manufacturing style
of thinking to a people-intensive service situation. If machinery is to be
viewed as a piece of equipment with the capability of producing a
predictably standardized, customer satisfying output while minimizing the
operating discretion of its attendant, that is what a McDonald's retail outlet
is. It is a machine that produces, with the hell of totally unskilled machine
tender, a highly polished product. Through painstaking attention to total
design and facilities planning, everything is built integrally into the machine
itself, into the technology of the system. The only choice available to the
attendant is to operate it exactly as the designers intended.
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QUESTIONS:
1.
2.
Explain how the design of the product and the design of the service
delivery are intertwined in the McDonald's example.
3.
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PC
manufacturers,
in
contrast,
have
previously
assembled PCs ready for purchase at retail stores. Dell uses direct
sales, primarily the internet, to increase revenues by offering a
virtually unlimited variety of PC configurations or customize them.
Customization allows Dell to satisfy customers by giving them a
product that is close to their specific requirements. Options are easy
to display over the internet and allows Dell to attract customers that
value this choice. Dell also uses customized Web pages to enable
large business customers to track past purchases and place orders
consistent with their current needs. In addition, Dell constructs
special Web pages for suppliers, allowing them to view orders for
components they produce as well as current levels of inventory at
Dell. This allows suppliers to plan based on customer demand and
as a result reduces the bullwhip effect.
Products in the PC industry have life cycles of only a few
moths. But PCs across different manufacturers are
highly
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virtually
impossible.
Therefore,
traditional
PC
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QUESTIONS
1. GM and Ford have quickly pushed the development of large Internet
sites to create an environment where suppliers must compete for
business. Ford and GM argue that these Internet sites should
reduce cost because the negotiations are streamlined. How do you
think the suppliers view these sites?
2. Rather than having vendors compete against one another, Toyota is
interested in treating suppliers as partners. Is Toyota just being oldfashioned in its views?
3. A major reason for the differences in opinions may be the difference
in what Toyota considers "competitive" components. These are the
components that would mostly be bought using the Internet trading
sites. Who is right? Are steering wheels and wire connectors
competitive components?
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the
Hard
Rock Cafe,
like
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The day of the rock concert itself is not the end of the project
planning. Its nothing but surprises. A band not being able to get to
the venue because of traffic jams is a surprise, but an 'anticipated'
surprise. We had a helicopter on stand-by ready to fly the band in,
says Tomasso.
On completion of Rockfest in July, Tomasso and his team have a 3month reprieve before starting the project planning process again.
Discussion Questions
1. Identify the critical path and its activities for Rockfest. How long
does the project take?
2. Which activities have a slack time of 8 weeks or more?
3. Identify five major challenges a project manager faces in events
such as this one.
4. Why is a work breakdown structure useful in a project such as
this? Take the 26 activities and break them into what you think
should be level 2, level 3, and level 4 tasks.
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References
Brian
McWilliams, Reengineering
Technology, March 19, 1996
the
small
Factory,
Inc.
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