Case Studies Question

Complete the Module 9 Assignment:​​​​​1. Complete the SAP Production Planning Case: Intro_S4HANA_Using_Global_Bike_Case_Study_PP_GUI_en_v3.3.pdf https://warsaw.cob.csuchico.edu:8030/sap/bc/gui/sap/its/webgui/? The client is: 265 System: WAR user: Learn-024 password:SChwslb742 Upload the PDF of your diagram 2. Discussion: Harvard Articles Summary (300 words or more for original response) 1- The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right. Harvard Business Review. Access at: The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right (hbr.org) 2- Why Some Factories Are More Productive Than Others. Harvard Business Review. Access at: Why Some Factories Are More Productive Than Others (hbr.org) One original response (not less than 300 words) and two replies to two of your peers (each response is not less than 200 words) Here are the students you can make a reply for: (200 words or more for reply) 1. Abdeta Tula’s post: The article talks about how businesses that offer services need to think differently from those that sell products. It says that while some old management techniques are helpful, they’re not enough. The writer suggests four important things service businesses should focus on: making their service appealing, managing their workers well, handling customers effectively, and finding smart ways to pay for everything. The writer also looks at successful service businesses like Walmart and others to see what they do right. They found that these successful companies blend these four things together well. The article says that it’s important for companies to figure out how to combine these four things in the best way for them. Lastly, the article suggests that big companies can stay strong against new competitors by focusing on many different types of customers instead of trying to please everyone with just one service. It also says that sharing some services, like HR and finance, can help companies save money and learn from different ways of doing things. The article talks about how important it is for manufacturing companies to focus on practical actions, not just marketing. It explains that traditional ways of measuring factory performance may not be reliable. The author introduces a study of 12 factories to understand productivity better. The study shows that reducing work-in-process inventory can improve productivity, but it’s important to address underlying problems. Confusion in factories, caused by things like changing schedules and equipment, can hurt productivity. Effective managers limit these changes to avoid confusion. The article also discusses how engineering change orders, which involve making changes to products or processes, can impact productivity. Overall, it suggests that by reducing confusion and addressing underlying issues, factories can improve their productivity over time. 2. Joshua Schmidt’s post: “The Four Things a Service Business Must Get Right” This article discusses four components derived from a Harvard service business model that are essential to success of any service business; what the business is offering, the methodology used to price the services to sell, the recruiting and managing of employees, and the customer management system. The first component, the service offering, is set in contrast to the marketing efforts of goods companies. As the article points out, managers selling products focus their attention on the characteristics of the product, service managers must understand that the experience is most important to the service consumer. Because what matters to consumers can vary so greatly, it’s important that the managers find what matters most to the customers they are attempting to reach and shift their offering to match their demands. It’s explained that when a service business tries to do all things well, they in turn result in just being mediocre at many things. The article stresses the importance of accepting trade-offs; focusing on excelling in a few areas at the expense of not doing well in others, thereby attracting a strong customer base that responds well to those things the service company is focused most greatly on. Next is the matter of costs of services provided and how best to bring in revenue from the customer in a way that they are comfortable with. One company may need to bundle different options together so the customer is getting a better deal. Another may need to extend customer service hours at the expense of providing a reduced interest rate on deposits such as the case with Commerce Bank. Intuit offers free customer service, expending costs up front to do so, but utilizing the benefit of real-time data for product improvements later. A service business must find unique ways to capitalize on the experience offered to the customer and long-term benefits of repeat customers as way to continue generating revenue. Employee-management is also stressed due to the often unique nature of customer service positions as well as the obvious, but difficult element of direct contact with the customer. The article goes on to state that service businesses must hire those with the most positive attitudes, regardless of full aptitude, then train for the position. Employees who are naturally positive and helpful often are better suited to difficult customer interactions, and just by their nature may help the customer to remain more reasonable. The training for the position can come later, but the customer experience is the most vital. Finally, customer management is another component that service businesses must get right. Many service businesses must in some way utilize the customer as part of the service “production”. Whether its WalMart and the self-checkout lanes or airlines and the kiosks that customers can use to purchase airline tickets. Guiding customers through the service is important and difficult and robust systems must be in place to not only make it the experience easy for customers but also maintain checks and QA throughout, such as bag-weighing methods utilized by WalMart in an effort to deter theft and fraud, as the article pointed out. The other important part of customer management is the methods used to ensure customer compliance with policies, such as refueling of rental cars before return. The consequences delivered for failure to comply must be such that additional costs do not fall onto the company, but also that does not chase customers off if too extreme. A successful service business likely will manage all of these components at least reasonably well. Service businesses are not like goods companies and the additional element of the customer and the significant role they play in the process must be managed well and innovative ways to improve their experience must continually be monitored and updated in order to keep them coming back. “Why Some Factories Are More Productive Than Others” This article discusses the findings following a study conducted on 12 factories in three different companies. The study evaluated the internal processes and management procedures within the company and the effects on employee productivity. Another focus of the study was the internal metrics used to track efficiency and productivity. The article found that most managers were overly concerned with the direct costs of the employees; that is, their wages paid. Specifically, the focus was on the floor workers and very little concern was given to office productivity, such as that of the engineers. Metrics and methods to track the direct costs were also burdensome, extensive and expensive. Important metrics that measure overall productivity were largely ignored. Of the important factors that determine productivity within a factory, capital investment appeared to be one that had the most dramatic effect. Factories that were unwilling to spend the money to update capital and equipment or implement high tech process systems into their productions suffered greatly. A measure used to determine productivity within a factory is TFP, Total Factor Productivity. Equally important and part of the capital investment factor was the learning that came from updating technology and equipment. Combined, the learning and capital investment contributed to a 96% growth in TFP for one factory over a 9 year period. Another important factor was the tracking and reduction of waste in the production process. Too often, companies fail to adequately track material usage and as such cannot place a reasonable figure to the amount of waste along the production process. Methods of tracking true material usage need to be in place in this effort. Even a small reduction in waste can help increase TFP point-for-point.Work in Progress is another factor often overlooked and it ties in well with capital investment. Companies whose production processes are slower moving inevitably drive up inefficiency or burden costs just by the work remaining in the factory longer. Implementing process improvement, capital investment on equipment that can help to streamline the production process, and training of employees in an effort to reduce WIP time can also have a significant impact on overall productivity. However, again, tracking WIP in a factory is the first step to identifying what areas need to be improved most urgently. Finally, the article stressed the importance of management processes, specifically the changes made in the production process. It’s important that managers curb the rate at which they implement changes to work flow or schedules on the production floor. It’s inevitable that some projects may move in the production schedule or rush jobs may get pushed in front of something else, however, managers can work to mitigate this. Additionally, managers must ensure that they keep employees informed on production schedules and changes in order to reduce confusion. Overall, the article stressed that companies must not only focus on direct costs because these often make up a small portion of the total costs of the production process. Implementing and properly tracking metrics on waste, material utilization, indirect costs of labor, and management processes need to be in place in order to give managers adequate information on the unseen costs of production. This can help them to properly identify areas of concern that they may begin working on improvement in these areas. .

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