Customers purchasing appliances can purchase a three-year service contract that

Question

Customers purchasing appliances can purchase a three-year service contract that provides free repair service and parts. When a customer needs Sears’ appliance repair service they call for an appointment that make take up to two weeks. The repairman arrives and diagnoses the problem. If the repair requires a new part, the repairman will replace it if he is carrying it on his truck. If he doesn’t have the part on hand, he must order it. If the part is not in stock at Sears, it is ordered and sent to the customer. After the part arrives, the customer must make another appointment to have the repair technician replace the part. It make take two weeks to schedule the first repair visit, another two weeks to order and receive the part, and another week to schedule a second repair visit after the part has been received. 1. Diagram the existing process. 2. What is the impact of the existing process on Sears’ operational efficiency and customer relationships? 3. Identify 3 metrics that could be put in place to determine the impact of the existing process on Sears’ operational efficiency and customer relationships? 4. What changes could be made to make this process more efficient? How could information systems support these changes? Diagram the new improved process.

Explanation / Answer

2. Regarding customers purchasing appliances Sears has to schedule a repair technician’s visit twice which is an expensive process. Thus customers may be inconvenienced and without the use of their appliances for up to five weeks and customers could have to take off work twice or make other arrangements to accommodate the repair technician instead of just once.

3. i) Focus on market niche
ii) Product differentiation
iii) Strengthen customer and suppliers

4. Sears has to analyze that what are the maximum reasons why appliances break and there parts failing very often. Sears can gather the information from their transaction processing system that manages parts ordering and gather information from repair technicians. Thus parts which fail very often can be stocked on the repair trucks or in the Sears stores itself. If so happen then it may require only one repair visit to fix the most common problems.

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