Wk 1 - Apply: Case Study: Appliance Warehouse – Analysis & Planning

JAD session excerpts

Alan Marks (store mgr): I am so excited to be launching this new service to our customers! It’s going to be great to not have to refer out customers to unknown service companies. Besides, if they can’t fix their own appliance, we might be able to convince them to visit the store to replace it.

Emily Johns (service manager): Yes, I agree! We need to work very closely with the parts department in order to get the service estimates out to the customer and get the parts for the repair quickly.

Meredith Parks (programmer): I think it would be a good idea to name our new service system. Any ideas?

Alan Marks (store mgr): Service Information System? SIS?

Emily Johns (service manager): Service Information Manager? SIM?

Meredith Parks (programmer): OK, let’s vote.

Meredith conducts a quick vote and all are agreed on SIM.

Maddox Farley (parts director): I’m a little worried about how this SIM will affect my inventory levels.

Meredith Parks (programmer): I need you to break this down a bit for me. Who is involved in this new process?

Emily Johns (service manager): We definitely have the customers, parts department, parts, technicians, appointment setters, and calendar.

Meredith Parks (programmer): OK, now we have our entities. What are the processes that will take place?

Alan Marks (store mgr): Well, we will need to generate estimates and final invoices.

Emily Johns (service manager): Right. And we’ll make appointments, order parts, assign technicians to appointments.

Meredith Parks (programmer): Anything else?

Emily Johns (service manager): A calendar should be able to be viewed or printed for each technician. Each technician needs their daily schedule of appointments at the beginning of each day.

Alan Marks (store mgr): I don’t think so. Payment will be accepted by the current cashier’s system.

Meredith Parks (programmer): OK.

Questionnaire results

Results are ordered by importance. The top result (#1) is the most important to that group.

Most common features requested by appointment setters:

1. Reminder services calls/messages

2. See technician’s availability

3. Determination of discounts for customers

4. See availability of parts to schedule repair

5. View service history

Most common features requested by technicians:

1. Able to view own calendar

2. See availability of parts to schedule repair

3. Keep notes for each customer

4. Mobile access of scheduling

5. View service history

6. Reminder services calls/messages

Most common features requested by parts department:

1. Can pull inventory requests every two hours.

2. Database of requested parts.

Most common features requested by management:

1. Reporting by time period, type of appliance, brand

2. Determination of discounts for customers

3. Mobile access of scheduling

4. Routing and mapping of technician’s driving to appointments

5. See technician’s availability

6. Suggest preventative maintenance to customers

Appliance Warehouse staffing

Parts Department – purchasing, inventory control, sales

1. Director: Maddox Farley

1. Sales staff: Tyler Cummings, Steve Dawson, Amelia Warner

1. Purchasing: Celia Martel, Joe Perez

1. Inventory/warehouse: Ben Cooke, Melissa Benedict, Matt Jones

Appliance Sales – sales of new appliances in 4 departments

1. Director: Sonia Lopez

1. Large Kitchen Appliance department: Mike Nelson (manager), Jessica Scott, Rachel Evans, Justin Cooper

1. Laundry Appliance department: Tina Turner (manager), Mackenzie Scott, James Wright

1. Audio/Visual department: Samantha Campbell (manager), Tim Reynolds, Tracey Oliver

1. Small Appliance department: Peter Parker (manager), Ken Howell, Marti Castillo

Service Department

1. Service Manager: Emily Johns

1. Technicians: Liam Henson, Mark Robles, Lee Wong

1. Appointment setters: Lisa Shields, Jake Meyers

1. Equipment and parts: Rhonda Patel

Storewide Cashiers:

1. Manager: Abby Franklin

1. Cashiers: Nancy Richards, Joy Vasquez, David Goodman, Paul Patton, Maria Nunez

Administrative roles:

1. Owner (store manager reports to this role): Mae Roth

1. Store Manager (all department heads and assistant manager report to this role): Alan Marks

1. Store Assistant Manager (admin roles report to this assistant manager): Ali Miranda

1. Admin Assistant to store manager: Tim Stafford

1. Human Resources specialist: Joey Booker

1. Accounting, payroll, accounts payable/receivable: Doug Dorsey, Tia Carey

1. IT department: Carlie Davis (manager), Tony Barlett, Meredith Parks, you

Service Records Sample

Date Called	Date of Service	Appliance type	Appliance serial number	Parts Needed	Technician assigned	Customer Name	Customer Address	Customer Phone
1/6	1/6	Refrigerator	KN-78-215-896	KN-1256	Robles	Sophie Goldberg	123 Main St, Hopkinton, MA	508-555-1256
1/6	1/7	Dishwasher	WP-55-311-698	WP-1788	Wong	Mitch Chu	5525 Winter Rd, Medford, MA	617-555-9898
1/7	1/7	Refrigerator	WP-78-956-694	WP-8877	Henson	Jamie Fernandez	2 Hope St, Hull, MA	617-555-4125
1/8	1/10	Microwave	AB-99-357-753	AB-3321	Wong	Mike Singh	15 Arch St, Tewksbury, MA	508-555-3596
1/9	1/9	Washing machine	GE-10-122-542	GE-2119	Robles	George Kostanza	369 Pike Circle, Danvers, MA	508-555-6235
1/9	1/10	Dishwasher	KN-55-396-477	KN-5511	Robles	Felicia Parkinson	50 Central Ave, Hopedale, MA	508-555-2144