Note: Do not need to do question 2!

A central theme of contemporary operations management is focus on the customer. This is commonly understood to mean that if a company does focus on its customers and if it is able to consistently deliver what the customer wants in a cost-effective manner, then the company should be successful. The hard part is to be able to truly understand what the customer wants. Translating what the customer wants into a deliverable product (meaning some combination of goods and services) and designing a set of processes that will consistently deliver the product in a cost-effective manner are every bit as difficult. Finally, connecting the management of these products and processes to obtain desired business outcomes of the organization is a further challenge. The following exercise will try to illustrate how difficult all of this can be. The Setting South Beach Pizza is a restaurant that currently offers sit-down and take-out service. Many customers have said they would buy more pizzas from South Beach if it offered a delivery service. This exercise is in two parts. In Part I, you play the customer. In Part II, you play the manager at South Beach who is responsible for developing the pizza delivery process design requirements. Part I To start with, you have to think like a customer. This should be easy since you probably have experience with ordering pizza to be delivered. Put that experience to work! Make a list of the attributes of pizza delivery that are important to you AS A CUSTOMER! As we said, this should be easy. Right? Or is it? In devising your list, consider the following: What must a pizza delivery service accomplish so that you are reasonably satisfied? Beyond your being reasonably satisfied, what could a pizza delivery service do that would make it really unique and create a differential advantage? In other words, what could a pizza delivery service do that might cause you to ALWAYS order from one particular service (and, perhaps, to pay more for the privilege)? As you develop your list, remember that you are considering only the delivery service and NOT the pizza itself. Assume that this pizza restaurant can make whatever kind of pizza (and side items) that you want. Part II Now, put on your "South Beach manager's hat." For this part of the exercise, you will be teamed with some other students. First, using the lists of all of your team members, create a master list. Next, try to group the items on your list under a series of major headings; for example, "condition of the delivered pizza" or "quick, on-time delivery" or "order accuracy," and so on. Finally, make a list of the "pizza delivery process design requirements" that your pizza delivery process will have to meet. As you do this, think about measurable standards. In other words, what would you measure in order to ensure that your process is operating effectively and efficiently? Why do you think that these measures will be useful? Here's an example of how a part of this analysis could go. One customer requirement may be that the pizza should be hot when it is delivered. The fact is that as soon as the pizza comes out of the oven, it starts to cool. So, how could you keep the pizza from dropping below some minimum temperature before you hand it to your customer? Questions 1. Make a list of pizza delivery attributes that are important to you as a customer. 2. Combine your list with the fists of a few other class members and categorize the items under a series of major headings. 3. Make a list of pizza delivery process design requirements. Associate with each requirement a measure that would ensure that the process meets the requirement. 4. Design a process that meets your requirements. Describe it by using a flowchart similar to that shown in Exhibit 9.6