MINI CASE STUDY: Nathaniel is the senior service adviser at a premier appliance store called KPC. Together with his team. Nathanial acts as the interface between customers who want their appliances sorviced and repaired and the 16 technicians who carry out the work in their state-of-the-art workshop. There are three types of work that we have to organise, \" says Nathaniel. \"The first is performing repairs on customers' appliances such as fridges, dishwashers, and washing machines producod by the KPC brand. They usually want this done as soon as possible. The second type of job is routine arvicing. It is usually not urgent, so customers are willing to negotiate a time for this. The remainder of our work involves working on the pre-owned appliances, which one of our buyers has purchased to sell to customers. Before any of these appliances can be sold, they must undergo extensive checks. \"We theat these categories of work slightly differently,\" Nathaniel continues. \"We must give good service to our internal car buyers, but there is some flexibility in planning these jobs. On the other extreme, emergency repair work for customers must be fitted into our schedule as quickly as possible. someone is desperate, let's say. to have their washing machine repaired at short notice, we times ask them to drop their appliance off as early as possible and pick it up as late as possible. gives us the maximum time to fit it into the schedule. They can also make use of our pick-up and I service whereby we send our company van to pick up the appliance. re are several service options open to customers,\" Nathaniel explains. \"We can book short callout for a fixed time and fee. We then do the assessment and light repairs at the customer's home. st commonly, we ask the customer to drop off the appliance and to collect it. ematively, the company courier van can collect as well as drop off the appliance at the customer's me and delivered back when it is ready. Our four drivers who do this can cope with up to 12 drop offs a day \"Most days, we deal with 50 to 80 lobs, each laking from half an hour to a whole day.\" Nathaniel estimates. \"To enter a job into our process, all service advisers have access to the computer-based scheduling system. On-screen, It shows the total capacity we have daily, all the jobs that are booked in, the amount of free capacity still available, and so on. We use this to see when we have the capacity to book a customer in, and then enter all the customer's details. Our franchisor has issued standard times for all the major jobs. However, you have to modify these standard times a bit to consider circumstances. That is where the service adviser's experience comes in \"We keop all the most commonly used parts in stock.\" Nathaniel continues, \"but if a repair needs a part that is not in stock, we can usually get it from the manufecturer's parts distributors within a day Every evening our planning system prints out the jobs to be done the next day and the parts that are likely to be needed for each job. This allows the staff who deal with parts' stocktaking to pick out the parts for each job so that the technicians can collect them first thing the next moming without any delay. \"Every day, we have to cope with the unexpected, \"Nathaniel laughs. \"A technician may find that extra work is needed, customers may want extra work done, and technicians are sometimes ill, which reduces our capacity. Occasionally, parts may not be available, so we have to arrange with the customer for the appliance to remain in the warehouse for a longer period of time. Usually, about four or five customers may forget that they have scheduled a service and there are no people at their property for the driver to collect the appliance. Thus, we have to rebook them at a later time. We can cope with most of these uncertainties because our technicians are flexible in terms of the skills they have and are willing to work overtme when needed. Also, it is important to manage customers' expectations. If there is a chance that the appliance may not be ready for them, it shouldn't come as a surprise when enquire over estimated time of completion \" Required: Write a response in which you. - Identify and critically discuss the four vital activities of the planning and control system that Nathaniel manages at KPC. (20 marks) - How does Nathaniel attempt to meet the sometimes-conflicting requirements of customers and the workshop as he manages the planning and control system