MBA544AL SERVICE OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

CIA1

CASE ANALYSIS

By
AKHILA MARY JOSE

REGISTER NUMBER:1827030

Submitted to,

PROF ARCOT PURNA PRASAD

Institute of Management
CHRIST (Deemed to Be University), Bangalore
October, 2019
 CASE ANALYSIS: COMMUTER CLEANING

INTRODUCTION

The case is about a cleaning service concept called Commuter Cleaning. The business concept
is that the customers while conveying or transiting to commuter stations, they could just drop
off their dirty clothes in one of the location of the business and pick them up once they have
been cleaned. Moreover, a central plant is considered for washing which is outsourced and they
are focusing only into the customer service aspect.

SERVICE BLUEPRINT

Service blueprint is a planning tool which helps to provide the guidance of how the operational
activities are designed for a service provider. It includes all the physical evidences, system
operations front end and back end and the functions to be performed by the staff. The service
blueprint for Commuter cleaning is shown below:
Accuracy of Bill Clean

PHYSICAL
Make payment Pick-up shirts
EVIDENCE Bag Location

PLACE TAKE BAG

CUSTOMER SHIRTS IN TO OUTLET Sort Shirts
THE BAG
for Pick-up
Pay at Pick-up
3:30-8:30
ATTACH COLOUR pm
CODED LABEL Credit Pickup shirts
Reminder
6:00-9:00 AM Card at plant and
Line of Visibility distribute
6VFVF
Deliver bags to
FGF
Bill Customers Payment
Central Plant
Received?

Line of Internal Interaction

Count shirts and Clean and Put on Load on Truck

CENTRAL CLEANING
record for Billing press shirts Hangers sorted by
PLANT
Location
STRATEGIES USED:

Commuter cleaning uses Customer contact approach to service design. A typical example
would be a high-contact front- office drop-off and pick-up by the customer at a commuter train
station kiosk and the low-contact back-office contract cleaning operations at a remote site as
given in the case. The principal competitive advantage of this kind of a system is the customer
convenience, because the kiosk is located taking into consideration that the customer must be
working every day. Also, monthly billing and use of a personal laundry bag minimizes the
transaction time.

KEY OBSERVATIONS:

The commuter’s channel would be able to take advantage of the economies of scale of mass
production, and thereby achieve

1. Consistent Delivery
2. Cost savings

Since, the operation of cleaning the clothes would be done in huge numbers, it would
lead to discounts on the basis of volume of business provided.

3. Required optimum speed

The division of labour and sequential flow of the production line approach creates
work-in-process buffers. So, it requires a service model which facilitates optimum
speed.

4. Low Cost Delivery

Since the facility location and scheduling is done in a systemized pre-decided manner,
it provides an edge of low cost delivery to the customer.
SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPROVEMENT:

The business concept seems effective for cleaning men’s and women’s business shirts, but
more complicated dry cleaning is problematical, because instructions would be difficult to
communicate. If the level of demand increases, explicit efforts would be needed to smooth
demand throughout the week. Customers may need to be given a day in the week (perhaps
keyed to a color-coded bag) to make a drop-off. Also, there is some concern about lack of
quality control over the contract cleaner as they are planning to outsource only the cleaning.
The willingness of the contract cleaner to return shirts the same day if it interferes with in-
house cleaning. Accounts receivable could pose a collection problem, because the cleaned
shirts have already been returned to the customer. The complimentary tea provided to the
customers is a good strategy towards showing Customer Loyalty.

The primary focus is on Customer Experience rather than in-house operations. But if
the quality is getting compromised, it would drastically affect the customer base. Also, more
advertising can be done to increase the customer base. Developing a user friendly app can allow
the customers to keep a track of their orders. Apart from that getting constant customer
feedback will help improving the services day by day.
 REFERENCES:

1. James A Fitzsimmons, M. J. (Latest edition). Service Management -

Operations, Strategy, Information technology. New Delhi: Tata Mc Graw
Hill.