When problems occur with products that are purchased, buyers contact the manufacturer’s call center. After being notified of a problem and requesting assistance from the appropriate parties, a call center agent can create a solution document for the problem in 30 minutes. A supervisor then takes 15 minutes to review the document and verify the solution. The document is then routed to Marketing for review (30 minutes) and on to Legal (two hours) to make certain that the document is ready for publication. However, because of time lags between each step, the total cycle time takes 15 days from creation to publication. (Based on information at www.streetdirectory.com/travel_guide/16701/corporate_matters/increase_call_center_efficiency_with_knowledge_centered_support.html.)
a. Which of the activities in the correction process are value-added?
b. If the problem could not have been foreseen, how would you calculate the cycle efficiency for the correction process?
c. Assume again that the problem could not have been foreseen. After being notified of a problem and requesting assistance from the appropriate parties, a call center agent can create a solution document for the problem in 30 minutes. Call center agents are “licensed” to publish a solution document after placing it in a queue for four hours after development to allow marketing and legal the option of review. After four hours, the solution document is automatically posted on the company’s Web site to assist customers. What is the new cycle efficiency?
d. Assume that the manufacturer sold 30,000 of the problem products just before Christmas. The first customer complaint call was received at 10 A.M. on December 25. The call center agent devised the solution document by 10: 30 A.M. If a call will be received every ten minutes until the support document is posted and each call costs the company $ 15, what is the call center cost related to this problem if the process is handled as originally discussed? As discussed in (c)?