Hi,

Can someone help me to answer Question 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

Thank you

Case Problem 3.5: USEast Airlines Mike Shepard was traveling from Roanoke, Virginia, to Nashville, Tennessee, through Pittsburgh on USEast Airline and had purchased an electronic ticket on the airline's website. When he checked in with an airline agent in Roanoke, she gave Mike a boarding pass from Roanoke to Pittsburgh and a second boarding pass for his connecting flight from Pittsburgh to Nashville. Mike uses a canyon bag, so he proceeded directly to the gate, boarded his flight on time, and had an eventful trip to Pittsburgh. Arriving on time on Pittsburgh, he ate a sandwich and went to the gate where he waited for his flight to Nashville to board. When his flight began to board, Mike stood nearby so he could get on the plane as soon as possible. From experience he knew that people who boarded a full flight late often could not find space in the overhead bin for their carry on and this appeared to be a hill flight. When Mike handed his ticket to the gate attendant, she told him, I am sorry sir, you can't board: your boarding pass is supposed to have a ticket coupon attached. The boarding pass does not verify you have paid for your ticket." Mike told her. "The boarding pass was all I was given in Roanoke. Anyway, how do you think I got from Roanoke to Pittsburgh if I didn't pay for my ticket?" The attendant showed Mike his boarding pass which clearly said, 'not valid without flight coupon attached "and curtly told him to see the attendant at the gate desk and tell him he needed a ticket. Mike dutifully did as he was told he walked to the desk 30 feet away and approached the attendant, who looked up at Mike. Mike explained what had happened and said that the boarding pass was all that he had been given by the agent in Roanoke. The attendant began working at his computer. Several minutes passed and the attendant returned the boarding pass to Mike with a copy of a ticket coupon stapled to the boarding pass, never having spoken to a single word to Mike. Mike joined the end of the tine boarding the plane and was the last to board. When he handed the boarding pass and ticket to the gate attendant, she tore the coupon off and said, "Thank you, Mr. Shepard, you may board now." Mike sucked up his courage and asked the attendant, "Why did this happen? What originally gave you was what I got in Roanoke, so why was I made to wait when it was the airline's fault? The attendant responded, "They just messed up down there in Roanoke. Half the time they hire inexperienced people who don't know what they're doing We're the hub here in Pittsburgh, so all of our people are very experienced and are more efficient so we catch things like this. If your fight had originated here this would not have happened." She offered Mike a quick smile to indicate the conversation was over, and Mike boarded his flight wondering if she was implying that he should have driven to Pittsburgh to catch his flight rather than in Roanoke where he was evidently doomed from the start On board the flight was full as Mike suspected, so there was no available space in the overhead bins to put his carry-on bag. The stewardess immediately approached Mike and informed him he would have to take a seat and she would take his bag and have it checked through to Nashville. The whole point of using a carry-on was so he would not have to check it through so Mike crammed the soft-sided bag under the Seat in front of him, which left him no room to stretch his legs out. Mike then asked the attendant for a Pillow, he has a bad back and he puts a pillow behind him for support. However, the attendant informed him that they were sort on pillows on this flight and there were none available. Mike spent on uncomfortable two hours flying to Nashville. In Nashville Mike picked up a car at the rental car agency. and when he opened his carry-on to get his sunglasses, he found that they were broken from shoving his bag under the seat. The day was bright and sunny. so by the time he arrived at his hotel he had headache from squinting, his legs were crammed and his back hurt. - After his visit in Nashville, Mike retraced his route to Roanoke through Pittsburgh, which was uneventful for him. However, alter he had settled into his seat in Pittsburgh for his flight to Roanoke, three elderly ladies got on. They sat down behind Mike, and they were obviously distressed. After it appeared everyone had boarded, one of the ladies approached the flight attendant and explained that two of their friends who were traveling with them were not on the plane and could she (the attendant) check on them. The flight attendant said she would After about 15 minutes, it was obvious the flight had been delayed and was now running late when two more elderly ladies boarded. One of the ladies was angry, and the other was near tears. As they sat down just behind Mike, he overheard their conversation what happened, a story all familiar to him. When one of the ladies handed her boarding pass to gate attendant, she was told that she should have an attached ticket coupon. She told the attendant that this was all she had been given by the ticket agent when she checked her bags when she arrived at the airport. She said the gate attendant acted like she was trying to sneak on board without paying The other lady said, "They were just plain rude! They acted like we were two addled old ladies who had never flown anywhere before and had somehow lost the ticket or forgotten we had bought in the first place. Why, we travel all the time! The plane then took off and arrived in Roanoke 15 minutes late the same 15 minutes that the flight was delayed in Pittsburgh because the two old ladies could not board. Mike thought of a recent news article he had read that rated airlines according to on time flights, a key airline performance indicator and how the airlines had maintained their statistics were low because of abnormally bad weather conditions in the East during the past six months A few days after Mike got home, he saw a friend, Vicki, who was a flight attendant for USEast He related his story and that of two elderly ladies in humorous tone, and was somewhat taken aback by her defensive response. You don't understand. Mike, how hard it is. We are just overwhelmed since 9/11 attack on WTO. US. With the loss of business, we've had to cut back and lay people off, and we just don't have enough people to cover everything. We have really been up against it, there is just a whole lot of pressure. I wish people would be more understanding about how much we have to do now and be a little more patience. And people are not flying because they are scared so nobody knows when business is going to pick back up Mike decided not to pursue this conversation, but he did wonder to himself if people were not flying because they were scared or because of other reasons. Asses the airline's approach to quality and customer satisfaction based on Mike's experiences on his trip. Case Study Question: 1. In what ways does the airline appear deficient in its approach to quality? 2. What specific measures would you suggest the airline take to improve customer service? 3. Using the process of collecting boarding passes and tickets at the gate as a quality improvement project, describe how the steps of the six-sigma breakthrough strategy could be applied. 4. Identify some other quality problems that you have experienced traveling on airlines? 5. Construct a fishbone (cause-and-effect) diagram for the problem of the "missing flight coupon' described in this case