Your learning exercises this week are focused on operations management decisions. Your path:

Read Chapter $5.$

Read the DeMar case study at the end of Chapter $5($p$.188/189).$

Your client is DeMar. They have asked you, an independent consultant, to write a $1-2$ page memo addressing the following questions:

$1.$ What is DeMar's $*$current$*$ strategy to achieve competitive advantage through operations? Support your answer with information you cite from the case study and the textbook.

$2.$ Of the $10$ Operations Management decisions, which three are the most important to achieve DeMar's strategy? Please provide support for your answer. An excellent answer here will define each of the three you chose, tell me why you believe they are the most important, and briefly cover what the other seven are and why you believe those are less important.

$3.$ For the three most important decisions you chose, what, specifically, can DeMar do to improve operations? Be specific. Forecasting is not one of our $10$ OM decisions, but if it were, here is a sample of a poor and a good answer:

$($poor answer$)$: "DeMar needs to improve its forecasting because better forecasting will let them serve their customers better. Bad forecasting can cost a lot of money and let them make bad decisions." $($what$\text{'}$s wrong with this? It's so vague that it could apply to any company, plus it gives no definition of what 'good' or 'bad' forecasts are. I have no idea whether the author of this answer even read the case study or the chapter.$)$

$($good answer$)$: "DeMar should keep metrics on the number of air$-$conditioning calls it receives each month. It can then use seasonal methods forecasting methods to determine seasonal indices and staff appropriately. For example, if July's seasonal index is $2\mathrm{.}5,$ that means July air conditioning calls are $2\mathrm{.}5$ times as many as the overall annual average, so DeMar may want to look into temporary staffing to meet demand then. Exponential smoothing wouldn't work as well here because it lags trends and doesn't accommodate seasons. We'd like to see a MSE on the level of $..."($what$\text{'}$s good about this? It's specific. It tells me you understand forecasting, and that you've read the DeMar case.$)$

Please submit a memo suitable for a graduate student. At a minimum, a reasonable memo$/$case study will include a cover page with your name on it$,$ a two$-$sentence Executive Summary with the most important information up front, an introduction, an outline of your ideas written in paragraph form, separate headings for each of the major areas, and a conclusion. Grammar and writing style will be suitable for the professional world, you will have run Spell$-$checker, it will pass SafeAssign, and all ideas will be properly cited. $($Yes$,$ even if you are taking an idea from our textbook, you need to cite it$!$ See our policy on Academic Integrity if you have any questions.$)$ And finally, you will convince me you have, indeed, read and understood Chapter $5,$ perhaps by citing some other examples from within the chapter.