Problem 1

Analyzing a current OM technique

Find one scholarly journal article reporting on one or more of the following techniques: business/predictive analytics, dashboards, decision support systems, supply chain management.

• What is the problem, opportunity, or challenge addressed in the article?
• What is the solution, idea, approach, etc., recommended/implemented in the article?
• How does this help operations? Is the problem, opportunity, or challenge solved completely or partially?
• What are the takeaways from the article?
• In particular, what are the limitations of the technique?

Be sure to define the terms that you use, starting with the technique that you choose.

Problem 2.

Applying OM technique(s) to your organization

Find in your organization an aspect of the operational process that could benefit from use of one or more of the following techniques: business/predictive analytics, dashboards, decision support systems, supply chain management.

• What is the problem, opportunity, or challenge to be addressed?
• What technique(s) would be appropriate to help mitigate the problem? Why?
• What would be the areas which present challenges in the approach (e.g., culture, cost, technology complexity, etc.)

Be sure to define the terms that you use, starting with the technique that you choose.

Problem 3. Recommending a low-cost customer service employee daily assignment schedule

To the extent permitted by local law, each Acme Home Improvements store, including Acme Mexico City, is open from 7 am - 11 pm every day.

Acme Mexico City advance planners in North Carolina have provided the following table, which identifies the minimum number of customer service employees estimated to be needed on the floor of the store each hour of a typical work day:

In the interest of cost control, the planners have also imposed a not-to-exceed maximum of 30 customer service employees on the floor at any time.

Full-time customer service employees at AMC work a 9 hour shift (8 hours of work plus a 1 hour meal break) either from 7 am to 4 pm or from 2 pm to 11 pm. Workers on the 7-4 shift are assigned an hour-long lunch break at either 11 am or 12 noon. Workers on the 2-11 shift are assigned an hour-long dinner break at either 5 pm or 6 pm.

Part-time customer service employees work four consecutive hours per day and their shifts can start any hour between 7 am and 7 pm.

By corporate policy, which is consistent with Mexican labor law, the company limits the hours worked by part-time customer service employees to 50% of the day's total scheduled hours.

Part-time customer service employees earn $500 per day, and full-time customer service employees earn $1100 per day in salary and benefits (here, $ = MonedaNacional,ie, the Mexican peso).

Acme operations analysts working in North Carolina, working with the AMC advance planners, have used integer linear programming, an important tool employed by operations managers, to propose in accordance with the foregoing factors, an employee assignment schedule for a typical day. Their proposed schedule is the following item in Course Content.