OIS 5000

Case Study Deliverable 1

Deliverables:
The first project deliverable includes the two critical items:
Process Hierarchy
Using the list of processes that was compiled by your junior coworker, organize the processes at
Marketing Advantage into a meaningful hierarchy. Please structure the hierarchy according to a
Value Chain (Functional) view. Since the list contains varying levels of granularity, you are
allowed to create additional process grouping units, rename existing, or delete existing. Process
hierarchy should be grouped according to a clear numbering reference.
Project Prioritization Matrix (aka QFD)
Based on interviews with owners, management, and staff, we have identified 4 processes at
Marketing Advantage that are particularly important and are also struggling right now. The
following table summarizes notes and observations about these 4 processes. Your job is to create
a prioritization matrix (QFD) to help the team know where to focus attention on process
improvement. Please label assumptions and provide additional comments on the evaluation
scores. Write 2-3 paragraphs about your recommendations and justifications for your
recommendations.
The following processes should be prioritized using the template for Process Prioritization Matrix
(published online at Canvas). The criteria for prioritization are:
Internal Impact (employees)
External Impact (Customers)
Improvement Feasibility
Current State Performance
Financial Value from Improvement
Rick (the owner) expressed the relative importance of these criteria as follows:
Internal Impact (20%)
External Impact (40%)
Improvement Feasibility (10%)

Current State Performance (10%)

Financial Value from Improvement (20%)

Proposed Scope of Improvement Project

Based on discussions with members of Marketing Advantages management team,
the processes related to Wholesale Large Format Accounts will be area of first focus.
These customer accounts struggle with the following challenges:
1. Inventory Management
2. Rush Orders Management
3. Workflow Management
4. Quality Assurance

Process Name &

Description

Interview Notes

Inventory
Management:
The fulfillment of
orders for Large
Format Printing
generally requires
two main inventory
items:
1. Media. This is
the fabric
material upon
which the
clients logo
and design are
printed
2. Hardware.
These are the
structural parts
required for the
tent or
marketing
stand.

In conversations with several employees, the process of

Inventory Management was raised repeatedly as being a main
problem. Since issues with inventory touch so many different
people in the company, it causes widespread frustration when
inventory is not available. One employee even estimated that
50% of orders experience some issue with inventory not being
available at the right time.
Even though this process is critically important to the smooth
flow of the business, it is unclear how Inventory is managed in
the current environment. The process is performed in an ad-hoc
and inconsistent way. Sometimes, the sales team will place an
order for the media and hardware and other times the production
team will place orders with their inventory suppliers.
Large Format orders for wholesalers are generally extremely time sensitive and
most often a rush. When inventory is not available to fulfill promised orders, the
sales team often must rely upon expensive rush orders with their suppliers. The
media and hardware suppliers often need to overnight material to Marketing
Advantage. The cost of overnight shipment quickly deteriorates the already-thin
profit margin on Wholesale orders.
Inventory issues also cause unnecessary rescheduling by the Production
Management team. When items are not available, they will need to reschedule all
jobs to work on those items where inventory exists.
Generally speaking, the end client is not aware of the inventory
issues that Marketing Advantage faces. The team generally
scrambles enough that the client is shielded from the pain of
mismanagement. However, the end client is impacted in a
negative way when the extra rushing caused by inventory leads
to poor quality on the finished product.

Process Name &

Description

Interview Notes

Rush Order
Management:
The expedited
processing of an
order is intended to
be used on a rare
exception basis.
Rush orders bypass
the typical work
queue and are
placed at front of
the priority list.
Rush orders also
involve shipment
with overnight
services.

Wholesalers who place orders with Marketing Advantage on

behalf of their end clients often misunderstand the Large Format
printing process. Wholesalers underestimate the work involved
with creating Large Format items (such as tents and display
stands). Very often, the end customer (the client of the
wholesaler) does not have the right graphics and logos for use
with large format items. Usually, their logo works great on small
items (like pens and other trinkets), but does not work well on
large items.
This lack of understanding by the Wholesaler about Large Format
can occasionally create the need for Rush Orders. These rush
orders play an important role in servicing the needs of
wholesalers and the ability to deal with rush orders effectively is
a key part of Marketing Advantages strategy to become a
flexible and responsive partner for Wholesalers.
Rush Orders were originally intended to be an exception to the
normal process, but lately the number of rush orders has made
them more the norm than the exception. If not managed
effectively, these Rush Orders have an extremely disruptive
impact on the entire work flow for Large Format printing. As one
order gets prioritized as a rush order, that necessarily means
that the other orders in the queue get disrupted.
The Wholesaler and the end customer are often unaware of the
internal challenges required to effectively deal with rush orders.
Marketing Advantage generally does a good job of hiding and
covering the amount of disruption caused by rush orders.
Rush orders have both direct and indirect cost impact. Direct
costs involve overnight shipment and occasional overtime hours
to ensure the order gets completed. Indirect costs involve a
delay to other orders which then turns a normal order into a rush
order as the company deals with the shuffling of internal
prioritization. Other indirect costs involve an inefficient use of
machines and people as they are reallocated and reconfigured to
work on a rush order.

Process Name &

Description

Interview Notes

Workflow
Management:
The process
involved with
managing the flow
of individual orders
from inception to
completion. Also
involves the
interaction of
multiple orders as
they compete with
other orders for
priority, time, and
resources.

Marketing Advantage has seen such strong growth in recent

years that the processes involved with workflow management
have not been well defined. In the current environment,
customer orders flow in a halting, inconsistent, nonstandardized,
and ad-hoc way.
As a sales representative takes an order from a wholesaler for an
end customer there is no standardized way that the order will be
completed as it flows through the various stages of design,
printing, finishing, shipping, and invoicing. The sales
representative generally works with each group individually to
make sure his/her order gets completed. There is no centralized
queue management process that guides the priority and flow of
orders through all stages of the fulfillment process.
The lack of a standardized workflow process creates direct
challenges for internal employees. First, employees constantly
feel the pressure of pleasing individual sales representatives who
come and advocate for the priority of their individual orders.
Employees are often torn between pleasing one representative
and disappointing another.
Second, employees are interrupted
by sales representatives who come asking about the status and
progress of their individual orders. Since sales representatives
have no system that captures the progress of an order through
the lifecycle, they must bother and interrupt each fulfillment
group to get a status.
Customers dont directly feel the negative impact of a poor
workflow process. However, the lack of standardized and robust
workflow management contributes to quality issues and timing
pressures when the company isnt able to effectively balance the
internal inefficiencies of an inconsistent process.

Process Name &

Description

Interview Notes

Quality Assurance:
In the current
process, each order
is inspected for
quality issues by
the finishing team.
After sewing the
material onto the
hardware, the
finishing team
inspects for
printing problems
and other
formatting
problems. If they
identify problems,
they notify sales
representatives
who work to
correct or recreate
the order.

In a recent interview, Rick the owner of Marketing Advantage expressed concern

that too many orders experience problems that are ultimately detected by the end
customer. The finishing team has been given a quality assurance role, but they do
not detect and prevent all defects from reaching the end customer.
The sales, design, and printing groups have come to rely too much on the
finishing team for quality assurance. These teams are not intentionally negligent
or careless with quality, but they trust that mistakes will be caught by the
finishers. This overreliance on a manual quality check at the end of the process
causes about 15% of orders to experience rework and defect correction.
The end customer ultimately discovers quality issues when the order arrives.
Unfortunately, given the sensitive and urgent nature of marketing campaigns, it is
often too late to correct problems with orders before the marketing event.
Internal employees experience the frustration of rework when quality issues arise.
It becomes demoralizing and discouraging when a job or order must be done
twice (or more). This is especially true considering the amount of urgent work
that already exists in the queue.

Evaluation:
This first project/case study deliverable will scored on a scale of 50 possible points (25 for hierarchy and
25 for prioritization matrix).
The process hierarchy will be graded on the following points:
Logical structure and organization of processes. There is no absolute best way to organize
these processes, but your approach should be rational and logical and show that you understand
the relationship among these processes and their placement in a hierarchy.
Formatting. Is the hierarchy clear and understandable? Does the hierarchy follow a consistent
numbering structure?
Hierarchy Consistency. Is there consistency in the granularity among the processes at each
hierarchy unit? For example, are the units at Level 2 consistent in the level of granularity?
The Process Prioritization Matrix will be graded on the following points:
Scoring is Reasonable. Scoring is not an exact science, but you should demonstrate that the
scores reflect the areas of emphasis from the interview notes. Scoring involves both the correct
weighting on the relative priority of criteria and the scoring of each individual process against the
criteria.
Labeled Assumptions. Ensure that you offer some context about the assumptions you made on
the scoring. Use the Comments column for these notes and assumptions.
Recommendation. Write 2-3 paragraphs that describe the recommendations for action (with
justification for the recommendation)