Case Study: Streamlining the Customer Service Department

Terry Smith managed a small group of employees in the Customer Service department at a growing business. Lately, the number of calls had increased, her staff was under tremendous pressure, and there were many complaints regarding the response time to calls. Terry was told that if her departments performance did not improve, the company might just outsource the function altogether. She was given a very short time to turn things around; 2 or 3 months at best. She thought that streamlining the customer service process could improve the departments workflow and resolve issues with the customers as well as the employees. Terry decided to construct a project plan for the streamlining project. She began by identifying all the steps she needed to take. To improve the process, she first needed to understand the current process. She began by (A) reviewing the current service level, which involved gathering information on the volume of calls, the time it took to assign call tickets to customer service representatives, and the ticket closure time. She estimated that she could complete this task within 10 days. While working on measuring the current service level, Terry thought it would be beneficial to (B) have discussions with all company managers to gather their insights on customer service improvements. Additionally, she planned to (C) conduct a survey among the department's employees to gather their feedback on existing challenges. She estimated that she would need 2 days to make the necessary phone calls to company managers for input, and she would allocate 5 days for employees to complete the survey. After the review of the current service level was complete, with assistance from a colleague in the Operations department who had Six Sigma training, Terry planned to (D) document the current process workflow, which she anticipated would take 2 days. Afterward, together with the Operations colleague, they would (E) design a new process based on the gathered information from managers and employees. Terry allocated 10 days to complete this task. Once the new process was designed, Terry intended to arrange a meeting with key employees in her department to (F) review and refine the new process based on their input. She allocated 5 days for this task, recognizing that it might involve several iterations. After finalizing the revised workflow/process, Terry planned to (G) communicate it to all employees and provide any necessary training, estimating 3 days for this process. Recognizing the importance of assessing the effectiveness of the new process, Terry decided to let it run for 45 days. During this period, (H) employees would track data related to the service level. At the end of the 45 days, Terry would (I) analyze the collected data, which she anticipated would take 5 days. Her goal was to achieve a 25% reduction in waiting time. If this goal was not met, she would need to consider alternative solutions to prevent the function from being outsourced. However, before implementing the streamlining plan, Terry needed to request additional time.

Questions: Help Terry by: (1) Completing the table below. (20 points)

Task	Precedence	Duration (Days)
A Current Service Level
B Talk to Company Managers
C Survey the Employees
D Document Current Process Flow
E Design the New Process/Workflow
F Review the New Design With Key Employees
G Implementation and Training of New Process
H Gather Data for the New Process
I Analyze Data for the New Design

(2) Identify the critical activities. (20 points)

(3) How many days will be needed to complete this project? (15 points)