Deck 25: Operations Consulting

Question 1

Rapid Plant Assessment
Form a team of four to five people and take a 30-minute tour of a plant or service business. At the conclusion of the tour, rate the leanness of the operation using the rapid plant assessment (RPA) questionnaire and rating sheet given in Exhibits 25.9 and 25.10. (According to the questionnaire's developer, the average number of yeses for over 400 plant tours was seven, and the standard deviation was 2.) In class, discuss those areas where leanness is generally lacking across all companies visited.
Advanced analysis:
a. ? Use the results from filling out the leanness questionnaire and your team's observations to develop a consensus score for each item in the RPA rating sheet. (There are many quantifiable factors by which to assess performance in the rating sheet's 11 categories. They are presented on Goodson's website:
www.bus.umich.edu/rpa.)
b. ? Prioritize targets of opportunity for management.
c. ? Develop a two-page action plan that you would present to management to help them make improvements.
References:

Question 2

Check the websites of the consulting companies listed in the chapter. Which ones impressed you most as a potential client and as a potential employee?
Boston Consulting Group (www.bcg.com)
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (www.deloitte.com)
McKinsey Co. (www.McKinsey.com)

Answer 2

A good website should include several features including appropriate information, user friendliness, appropriate design with customized navigation, suitable font size and color, etc. Compare the mentioned websites of the three consulting companies from the viewpoint of a potential client and a potential employee. From the viewpoint of a client Company DTT provides more detailed information on its home page. A client can easily get information regarding the locations, services and industries served by the company. Besides this, the complete information about this company can also be easily availed from the home page. Furthermore the site is also user friendly with appropriate design and customized navigation.
From the employee viewpoint, Company MK provides more detailed information. A potential employee can easily find his career opportunity using "serach and apply" option. Under this category, an employee can fill his desired job type, location, and industry information to identify an appropriate job. This site is also user friendly and easy to navigate through.

Question 3

In what three ways do Treacy and Wiersema suggest that market leadership can be obtained?

Answer 3

T and W suggest that Market leadership can be obtained by the following three ways:
1. Through product leadership.
2. Through operational excellence. 3. Through customer intimacy.

Question 4

Name the three categories of consultants.

Question 5

What does it take to be a good consultant? Is this the career for you?

Question 6

The process of running a consulting firm is analogous to what type of manufacturing process structure?

Question 7

This type of project requires a great deal of experience but little innovation.

Question 8

In discussing characteristics of efficient plants, Goodson, developer of rapid plant assessments (see the OSCM at Work box), suggests that numerous forklifts are a sign of poor space utilization. What do you think is behind this observation?

Question 9

What are the 5 Ps of production in which firms typically seek operations consulting?

Question 10

Accenture is well known for this type of approach to training consultants.

Question 11

Think about the registration process at your university. Develop a flowchart to understand it. How would you radically redesign this process?

Question 12

What is the current "hot area" for operations consultants in both manufacturing and services?

Question 13

Target utilization is usually highest for which level of consultant?

Question 14

Have you driven any car lately? Try not to think of the insurance claim settlement process while you drive! How would you reengineer your insurance company's claim process?

Question 15

What methodology is used to assess a client's performance relative to the expectations of its customers or the performance of its competitors?

Question 16

McKinsey uses these to structure or map the key problems to be investigated.

Question 17

What type of plant tour is designed to determine the "leanness" of a plant in just 30 minutes?

Question 18

These are the five forces of the five forces model.

Question 19

What tool is used to reflect the particular needs of each stakeholder group in a performance measurement system?

Question 20

Gap analysis measures the difference between these two factors.

Question 21

What tool is used to ensure that all tasks in a project have the right mix of project team members assigned?

Question 22

Rapid plant assessment is used to measure this variable.

Question 23

An equipment manufacturer has the following steps in its order entry process:
a. Take the order and fax it to order entry.
b. Enter the order into the system (10 percent unclear or incorrect).
c. Check stock availability (stock not available for 15 percent of orders).
d. Check customer credit (10 percent of orders have credit questions).
e. Send bill of materials to warehouse.
The order receipt to warehouse cycle time is typically 48 hours; 80 percent of the orders are handled without error; and order-handling costs are 6 percent of order revenue.
Should you reengineer this process or is continuous improvement the appropriate approach? If you choose to reengineer, how would you go about it?

Question 24

An accounting approach to reflect the needs of each stakeholder is called this.

Question 25

Is the business reengineering process more gradual, more radical, or about the same as the TQM process?

Question 26

In contrast to TQM, this approach seeks radical change through innovation.

Question 27

What concept provides guidance and direction for consistent, efficient implementation of BPR projects?