Reference no: EM133400459

Case Study: Topic and Detailed InstructionsCase Study: Topic and Detailed Instructions

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 it if 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 Setting: Airline Industry Shortfalls
With demand for travel rebounding, pilot shortages have caused a host of flight cancellations in recent months.  There is no easy solution in sight.  Some airlines in the United States are looking to hire pilots from other countries such as Australia, Canada, and many other global locations to fill the gap.  Candidates from Australia are particularly attractive because of a "specialty occupation" U.S. visa that is fairly easy to get and can be renewed two years at a time as many times as needed.  In December 2022, Southwest Airlines cancelled 70% of its flights as travellers tried to get home for the holidays.  The airline acknowledged it had been cripped by winter weather and staffing issues.  These are but a few examples of how the airline industry could use continuous improvement metrics to meet customer requirements.

Questions:

• Make a list of air travel attributes that are important to you as a customer.  Think like a customer and brainstorm a list of attributes that are important when it comes to selecting an airline.  Briefly discuss each attribute.
• Now, think like the airline operations manager and translate those attributes into a measurable process.  Associate with each attribute/customer requirement a quantitative measure that would ensure the process meets the requirement.  Refer back to the House of Quality example on page 51.  You do not need to create a house of quality, but you need specific, quantitative measures such as the target values in the house of quality example.  See the Critical to Quality (CTQ) tree attachment for examples of quantitative measures.
• Create a service blueprint for a process that meets your requirements.  Describe it by using a flowchart similar to that show in Exhibit 9.6.  Your flowchart can be any part of your process you select (a process of booking a flight from start to finish, a process for hiring pilots or other employees, a process for winter weather preparedness, a process for cancellations, etc.).