Questions and Answers of Service Management Operations Strategy

An IE has determined that a hospital ward has a need for the following number of nurses on the 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shift for Sunday to Saturday, respectively:If only full-time nurses are used, and they
In the formulation in Exercise 10.16, the implicit assumption made was that the problem was separable by shift. Why might this not be the case in practice? What other factors might affect the
Research any two major payment networks and compare them in terms of annual revenue, number of cardholders, the number of places where each one is accepted worldwide, and any consumer protection they
Discuss various factors a consumer would consider in selecting a payment mode.
Discuss some of the incentives offered by card issuers to attract consumers.
Research Bitcoin and briefly describe payments using this currency.
Discuss NFC, an emerging payment mode.
Compare PayPal and Google Wallet from a consumer perspective and from a merchant perspective.
A gas station is forecasted to sell 4000 gallons per day. Approximately 70% of the customers use credit/debit card, and the rest use cash. It costs the gas station owner 5 cents per gallon to process
Illustrate the “Distinctive” characteristics of services (customer participation, simultaneity, perishability, intangibility, heterogeneity) for the United States Postal Service Operation.
Discuss the pros and cons of the following on the performance of service systems:a. Increasing self-serviceb. Allowing employees to exercise judgment in meeting customer needsc. Introducing an
Illustrate the five dimensions of service quality for a service of your choice.
As discussed in Section 1.9.1, SERVQUAL is a survey tool that was designed in the late 1980s that measures the customer’s perception of service quality in terms of reliability, responsiveness,
Explain in one or two sentences the differences between the following terms:a. Type I and Type II errorsb. Run chart and histogramc. Flowchart and fishbone diagramd. X–Y plot and Pareto chart
State whether each of the following statements is true or false, or whether the answer depends on other factors (which you should identify):i. Airlines fall under the category of “high labor/low
A family-owned convenience store is interested in monitoring the quality of customer service at the checkout counter. Five service times in minutes have been randomly recorded daily for a week and
A call center, providing software support for customers, is concerned about the amount of time a customer has to wait before talking to a service technician. They have randomly selected 10 calls each
Company XYZ, a Six Sigma listed company, receives and delivers mails across the United States. Once each day, a sample of 125 mails delivered is drawn from the “Delivery” log that the company
Late departure statistics of all airlines are available online to the travelling public. A major carrier is concerned about its late departures at one of its hub airports. The airline has 100 flights
Consider the Record of Problems faced by EZ Access Clinic given in Table 1.8 (Example 1.3, Section 1.9.3). Draw the run charts for the following problem areas:a. Overtime daysb. Medical errorsc.
Consider the data given in Table 1.8 (Example 1.3) again. Draw the histograms for the following problem areas:a. No-showsb. Overtime daysc. Medical errors What can you conclude based on the above
For the data given in Table 1.8, draw the scatterplots of the following variables and discuss your conclusions:a. No-shows and overtimeb. Medical errors and billing errorsc. Overtime and billing
Draw the flowchart of no-shows for Example 1.3.Example 1.3EZ Access is a for-profit family medicine clinic that serves more than 100,000 patients annually. Recently, there has been a decrease in
Draw the fishbone diagram of billing errors for Example 1.3.Example 1.3EZ Access is a for-profit family medicine clinic that serves more than 100,000 patients annually. Recently, there has been a
Explain the differences between qualitative and quantitative forecasting methods. Which method is applicable under what conditions?
Compare and contrast the two qualitative forecasting methods—executive committee consensus and Delphi method.
Under what conditions may the “Last value” method be better than the “Averaging” method?
What are the advantages and disadvantages of the exponential smoothing method?
Name at least three practical uses of forecast errors.
Why do most companies “underforecast” than “overforecast”? Cite a situation when “overforecasting” may be better.
Monthly sales data for this year for QuikSell Realty are given in Table 2.10. The company wants a forecast of sales for the first quarter of next year (months 13, 14, and 15). Compute the forecasts
Joe Kool has decided to use the 3-month weighted moving average method for one of his company’s products. Last year’s monthly sales data are given in Table 2.11.Joe is trying to decide the
Consider the sales forecasts determined for months 13, 14, and 15 by the various methods in Exercise 2.7. Compute their forecast errors using MAD and Bias. Based on the forecast errors, which method
A community college is planning to use the exponential smoothing method to forecast freshman applications for the fall semester of each year. Past 5-year data on the actual number of applications
Consider the freshman applications data in Exercise 2.10 (Table 2.12).Suppose the community college wants to try the following forecasting methods as well:• 3-month moving average• Averaging
An electronics company is interested in forecasting the quarterly sales for next year for one of its products. Based on the past sales data, they found that the quarterly sales have seasonality and
ABC company is interested in forecasting quarterly sales for year 2017 for one of its products. Based on past 3 years of quarterly sales data (2014, 2015, and 2016), two forecasting methods look
Ephemeral Apparel is experimenting with two forecasting methods for its new jeans. Table 2.13 gives the actual sales and the forecasts obtained by the two methods during the past 6 months.a.
Explain the differences between set covering and set partitioning models.Give two applications of each.
Discuss the differences between the two types of quantity discounts.Is one better than the other? If so, under what conditions?
Consider a supplier order allocation problem under multiple sourcing, where it is required to buy 2000 units of a certain product from three different suppliers. The fixed setup cost (independent of
Reformulate the problem in Exercise 3.3 under the assumption that both suppliers 1 and 3 offer “all units” discount, as described below:• Supplier 1 changes $10/unit for orders up to 300 units,
A company manufactures three products A, B, and C. Each unit of product A requires 1 hour of engineering service, 10 hours of direct labor, and 3 pounds of material.Producing one unit of product B
Explain how the following conditions can be represented as linear constraints using binary variables.a. Either x1 + x2 ≤ 3 or 3x1 + 4x2 ≥ 10b. Variable x2 can assume values 0, 4, 7, 10 and 12
Convert the following nonlinear integer program to a linear integer program. Minimize Subject to Z=x-xx + x x + x1x2 8 x 2 X2 7 x,x220 and integer
An M/M/1 queuing system has an arrival rate of 10 customers per hour. The average service time is 9 minutes.a. What is the system utilization?b. What is the average queue length?c. What is the
Using the birth–death model for the M/M/c queue, derive Equations 3.50 and 3.51.Equation 3.50:Equation 3.51: P = P" P. n! Por 1n
Customers arrive to a service center according to a Poisson process with a rate of 30 per hour. Service times are exponentially distributed with a mean of 12 minutes.a. What is the minimum number of
Make a plot of the probability that a customer has to wait for more than 2 minutes as a function of number of servers, starting from the c you found in 3a and going up to c + 5.
Repeat Exercise 3.10 if there are only 10 customers allowed in the system.Data From Exercise 3.10:Customers arrive to a service center according to a Poisson process with a rate of 30 per hour.
Suppose the service time is not exponentially distributed for Exercise 3.8, but is instead log-normally distributed with μ = 8 and σ = 0.015. Use the P–K formulas to estimate the average waiting
Consider a G/G/3 queuing system. Interarrival times are on average 5 minutes with a standard deviation of 6 minutes. Service times are on average 12 minutes with a standard deviation of 15 minutes.
Repeat Exercise 3.14 using the Whitt refinement given in Equations 3.73 through 3.80.Equations 3.73 through 3.80:Data From Exercise 3.14:Consider a G/G/3 queuing system. Interarrival times are on
The call volume data for Figure 3.13 is given in Table 3.7. Develop and solve an integer programing formulation to find the minimum number of service agents to staff the offered load. An agent
How would your answer to Exercise 3.16 differ if you were allowed to staff agents for less than 8 hours if they are paid 10% more per hour compared to permanent agents?Data From Exercise 3.16:The
Using the data in Table 3.7, determine the staffing levels required for each interval using the rule of thumb of β = 2. TABLE 3.7 Call Volume Data for Exercise 3.16 Time 7:00 a.m. 8:00 a.m. 9:00
For Exercise 3.18, what is the probability of delay using Equations 3.89 and 3.90?Equations 3.89 and 3.90:Data From Exercise 3.18:Using the data in Table 3.7, determine the staffing levels required
A call center has 300 calls (arrivals) per hour. Average service time for a call is 3 minutes. Assuming an M/M/c + M approximation, determine the service value β from Equation 3.91, if we want the
A call center has 600 calls (arrivals) per hour. Average service time for a call is 6 minutes. Management has determined that the cost to staff an agent is $9.50 per hour. In addition, the cost of
For Exercise 3.21, management estimates that the customer delay cost ranges from $120 to $160. How much difference will the estimate effect the staffing levels?Data From Exercise 3.21:A call center
List three or more equally important criteria that might be considered in each of the following decision situations:a. Choosing an apartment for rent.b. Purchase of a car.c. Selecting a university to
Discuss the differences between the following terms in MCDM:a. Efficient and ideal solutionsb. Decision space and objective spacec. Dominated and Pareto optimal solutionsd. Multiple-criteria
Discuss how elasticity meaningfully differs from the derivative in DEA.
Give a practical example for when you believe constant returns to scale, increasing returns to scale, and decreasing returns to scale are appropriate.
Consider a DEA model for a university system. What do you believe are the five most important inputs? What are the three most important outputs? Discuss how you would measure them.
You have been asked to rank a set of universities using technical efficiency found from DEA. Discuss the main advantages and disadvantages of this approach.
Discuss the most limiting assumptions on allocative efficiency in DEA.
Prove which of the following problems is an MCDM problem. Justify your conclusion. i. Max Z = x + x; Max Z =2x + x Subject to 0x7 0x 10 ii. Max Z = x + x; Max Z =x-x Subject to 0x 5 0x 8
Consider the following bi-criteria LP model:a. Show graphically the decision space and the objective space.b. Show graphically the set of efficient solutions in both the decision space and the
XYZ company has an MCDM problem with six criteria—C1, C2, C3, C4, C5, and C6.The company, wishing to determine the order of importance of these criteria, uses the method of paired comparisons and
You just completed your PhD in Industrial Engineering, have job offers from six different universities, and are faced with the problem of choosing the right university to work for. You have collected
Consider the MCLP problem:Determine at least two properly efficient points to the above MCLP using Geoffrion’s theorem. Max Max Min Subject to: f(x) = -x + x f(x) = 10x f3(x)=2x - 3x -x1 + x 2 x7 x
Consider the MCLP problem:a. Show graphically the decision space and the objective space.b. Determine all efficient solutions to the MCLP problem.c. Explain what happens when you try to solve a Pλ
Consider the following bi-criteria problem:Prove whether or not the following solutions are efficient:a. X(1) = (0,0,2,18,0)b. X(2) = (0,0,8,0,12)c. X(3) = (0,4,0,20,0) Maximize Minimize Subject to:
The following bi-criteria problem is to be solved using compromise programming:a. Determine the ideal solution f1* and f2*. You can solve it graphically or use any LP software.b. Using the distance
Write the output-based VRS DEA model.
For the Cobb–Douglas production function given in Example 4.5, use A = 20, α = 0.7, and β = 0.5. Answer the following:a. What can you say about the returns to scale?b. What is the output and
Solve for the optimal inputs for Example 4.9.Example 4.9:Consider the Cobb–Douglas production function considered in Example 4.5. Suppose that a unit of x1 is $10 and a unit of x2 is $20. Further,
Expand the model given in Section 4.14 to include prices on the outputs.What key assumptions do you need to make?
Consider the data for six DMUs given in Table 4.10.a. Draw the input possibility set using the H–R construction for an output of 15.b. Repeat for an output of 8.c. Repeat for an output of 5. TABLE
Using the same data as given in Exercise 4.20:a. Scale the inputs by the output and apply the H–R construction.b. Draw the input possibility set for an output of 10 [you can directly use the
Consider the data for six DMUs given in Table 4.11.a. Formulate and solve as a VRS input-based DEA model for DMU 4.b. Formulate and solve as a VRS output-based DEA model for DMU 4.c. Will these
For Exercise 4.20, suppose the cost for input 1 is $15 per unit and that for input 2 is $10 per unit.a. Determine the overall efficiency for DMU 4.b. Determine the allocative efficiency for DMU 4.
For Exercise 4.20, suppose output 2 is stochastic. The mean is equal to the deterministic value, and the variance is equal to 10 for the first three DMUs and 20 for the next three. Determine the
Some people argue that shareholders can diversify their stockholdings and that there is no need for corporate diversification to reduce risk. The upshot is that any excess earnings (known as free
Product-unrelated diversification (conglomeration) is widely discredited in developed economies. However, in some cases it still seems to add value in emerging economies—think of Tata and Wanda. Is
As a CEO, you are trying to decide whether to acquire a foreign firm. The size of your firm will double after this acquisition to become the largest in your industry. On the one hand, you are excited
Multinational enterprises from emerging economies (EMNEs) have recently emerged as a new breed of acquirers around the world. In comparison with acquirers from developed economies, two unique and
As a Chinese MNE executive working in the United States or an American MNE executive working in China in 2020, you feel that the host-country government officials and media have become noticeably
From time to time, managers may be faced with the need to change the internal rules of the game within their MNE.What skills and capabilities may be useful in achieving this?
If you were a CEO or a business unit head, under what conditions would you consider moving your headquarters overseas?
You are head of the best-performing subsidiary in an MNE. Because bonus is tied to subsidiary performance, your bonus is the highest among managers of all subsidiaries. Now headquarters is organizing
Working in pairs or small groups, review a high-profile case of an MNE moving its headquarters out of your country and the media and political outcry surrounding this move. Pick your role as either a
You are a Peruvian national who serves as head of the Brazilian subsidiary of a large US multinational.While Brazil is theoretically attractive, the going has been tough and chances for becoming
Leveraging excellent engineering, German machine toolmakers are world leaders in their industry. As China’s industrialization takes off, they are often sought after in newly built factories that
You are 30 years old and obtained your MBA from a top business school two years ago. You are being promoted to be CEO of a multibillion-dollar firm that is publicly listed in your country. There is
Starting from Berle and Means (1932), some argue that the Anglo-American style separation of ownership and control is an inevitable outcome in corporate governance for large firms. Others contend
How do you participate in the debate on state ownership versus private ownership?
If you grabbed a Burger King for lunch, did some shopping at Neiman Marcus, munched at Outback Steakhouse for dinner, enjoyed a Budweiser, checked into a Hilton hotel, took a ride on an elevator made
Between the two opposing views of stakeholder capitalism and shareholder capitalism, which view do you support? Why?

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