运作管理第一章 CASE STUDY

CASE STUDY

National air express

National air is a competitive air-express firm with offices around the country。 Frank simth，the Chattanooga，tennessee，station manager，is preparing his quarterly budget report，which will be presented at the Southeast regional meeting next week， He is very concerned about adding capital expense to the operation when business has not increased appreciably 。This has been the worst first quarter he can remember：earthquakes，and bitter cold。He has asked Martha lewis，field services supervisor，to help him review the available data and offer possible solutions。 Service methods

National air offers door-to-door overnight air-express delivery within the U.S. simth and lewis manager a fleet of 24 trucks to handle freight in the Chattanooga area。Routes are assigned by area，usually delineate by zip code boundaries，major streets，or key geographical features，such as the Tennessee river。Pikups are generally handled between 3：00P.M. and 6:00P.M.，Monday through Friday。Driver routes are a combination of regularly scheduled daily stops and pickups that the customer calls in as needed.These calls-in pickups are dispatched by radio to the driver. Most call-in customers want as late a pickup as possible,just before closing(usually at 5:00P.M.). When the driver arrives at each pickup location，he or she provides supplies as necessary（an envelope or box if requested）and must receive a completed air waybill for each package。Because the industry is extremely competitive，a professional，courteous driver is essential to retaining customers。Therefore，Smith has always been concerned that drivers not rush a customer to complete his or her package and paperwork。

Budget Considerations

Smith and Lewis have found that they have been unable to meet their customers’ requests for a scheduled pickup on many occasions in the past quarter。Although，on average，driver are not handing any more business，they are unable on some days to arrive at each location on time。Smith does not think he can justify increasing costs by $1200 per week for additional trucks and drivers while productivity（measured in shipments per truck/day）has remained flat。The company has established itself as the low-cost operator in the industry but has at the same time committed itself to offering quality service and value for its customers。

Discussion questions

Is the productivity measure of shipments per day per truck still useful？Are there alternatives that might be effective？

每天每辆卡车的装货这样的生产率措施是否仍然有用？有没有有效的替代品?

What，if anything，can be done to reduce the daily variability in pickup call-ins？Can the driver be expected to be at several locations at once at 5:00P.M.?

可以做什么来减少每日的装载信息呼叫系统的变异性？装载车能如顾客期望的一样每天在不同的装载点在5点来一次么？

How should package pickup performance be measured？Are standards useful in an environment that is affected by the weather，traffic，and other random variable？Are other companies having similar problems？

如何衡量装载车的性能？是否衡量标准还会受环境中的如天气，交通和其他随机变量的影响？其他公司也会有相似问题么？

Source：adapted from a case by Phil Pugliese under the supervision of Professor Marilyn

M.helms，University of Tennessee at Chattanooga。Reprinted by Permission.

CASE STUDY

Zychol chemicals corporation

Bob Richards，the production manager of Zychol chemicals，in Houston，Texts，is preparing his quarterly report，which is to include a productivity analysis for his department。One of the inputs is production data prepared by Sharon Walford，his operations analyst。The report，which she gave him this morning，showed the follwing：

2004 2005

Production（units） 4500 6000

Raw material used（barrels of

Petroleum by-products） 700 900

Labor hours 22000 28000

Caption cost applied to the

Department（$） $375000 $620000

Bob knew that his labor cost per hour had increased from an average of $13 per hour to an average of $14 per hour，primarily due to a move by management to become more competitive with a new company that had just opened a plant in the area。He also knew that his average cost per barrel of raw material had increased from $320 to $360。He was concerned about the accounting procedures that increased his capital cost from $375000 to $620000，but earlier discussions with his boss suggested that there was nothing that could be done about that allocation。

Bob wondered if his productivity had increased at all。He called Sharon into the office and conveyed the above information to her and asked her to prepare this part of the report.

Discussion questions

Prepare the productivity part of the report for Mr.Richard。 He probably expects some analysis of productivity inputs for all factors，as well as a multifactor analysis for both year with the change in productivity (up or down)and the amount noted。

The producer price index had increased from 120 to 125，and this fact seemed to indicate to Mr.Richards that his costs were too high。What do you tell him are the implications of this change in the producer price index。

Management’s expectation for departments such as Mr.Richards’s is an annual productivity increase of 5%。Did he reach this goal？

Source ：Professor Hank Maddux III，Sam Houston Utate University。

国家航空快递

国家空气是有竞争力的航空快递公司与全国各地的办事处。弗兰克simth，田纳西州查塔努加，站经理，正准备他的季度预算报告，下周将在东南亚的区域会议提出，他非常关注当企业还没有明显增加的操作，这是最糟糕的第一季度，他能记住：增加资本开支。地震，苦寒，他已要求玛莎刘易斯，现场服务主管 …… 此处隐藏：6128字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……