r day. Its effective capacity, how- 1. A computer repair service has a design capacity of 80 repairs per day. Its effective can ever, is 64 repairs per day, and its actual output is 62 repairs per day. The manager would ta increase the number of repairs per day. Which of the following factors would you recommend an the manager investigate: quality problems, absenteeism, or scheduling and balancing? Explain vom reasoning 2. Comnared to manufacturing service requirements tend to be more time donandant la 8/hr 5hr 12/hr Outsourcing of Hospital Services CASE Questions Due to financial pressures that many hospitals face, the Deacon- ess Clinic in Billings, Montana, decided to outsource a number of services, although in somewhat different ways. First, the hospital outsourced its cafeteria food service. Although the food service employees were hired by the outside firm, they still felt a sense of ownership of their jobs, and still felt connected to the hospital because of the family atmosphere in the kitchen and the cafeteria. When the hospital tried the same thing with housekeeping, employee turnover became a problem. An investigation revealed lat because the housekeeping employees were more isolated in eir work, they lost what little feeling of being connected to the hospital they had The al they had. The problem was solved by hiring the employees using the outsource company to manage housekeeping. hospital also decided to outsource its laundry service. This e hospital approached a rival hospital about joining it in out- 1. In some instances the outsourced service occurs in a differ- ent location, while in others it takes place inside the organiza- tion doing the outsourcing, as the food service did in this case. What advantages were there in having the outsourced work performed within the hospital? Suppose a different hospital outsourced its food service but decided not to have the work performed in-house. What might its rationale be? 2. In the housekeeping situation, why not just forget about out- sourcing, especially since the hospital ended up rehiring its employees anyway? 3. For laundry service, what might have been the rationale for asking another hospital to join it? Sourcing laundry service. Source: Based on Norm Friedman, "Is Outsourcing the Solution? www.hpnonline.com/inside/June04/outsourcing.htm. Ake, N. A., and R. Hellburg. "The Capacity Planning Purg. "The Challenges of Planning." International Journal of Produc- Economics (1993), pp. 243-64. Schragenheim, Eli, and H. William Dettmer. Manufac- turing at Warp Speed. Boca Raton: St. Lucie Press, 2000. Darid "What Really Makes Factories Flex- t 1095 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY AND FURTHER READINGS Gildra, Flink