Homework 3 (3 points)
- To be completed individually or in pairs
- Submit as a PDF, Word or OpenOffice document, using the homework submission button.
This homework refers to the CVS pharmacy service improvement case study analyzed in previous homeworks.
We have seen in Homework 2 that the following are two major issues in the "as is" process:
- Customers who arrive at peaks times (shortly after 5pm) have to wait, whereas this is exactly what they wanted to avoid by dropping their prescription in the morning hours. Who wants to be kept waiting in a queue for 15+ minutes after being promised that the prescriptions would be ready at 5pm?
- Even worst, orders are not ready when customers arrive to pick them up, for various reasons analyzed in homework 2.
- Customers are often surprised to find out they have to pay more than expected for their prescription.
Task:
Propose changes to the prescription fulfillment process to address the above issues. Each change you propose should include:
- A brief description of the change (what part of the process is being changed and how it is being changed)
- A justification of the change: Why do you believe this change would address this issue and to what extent do you think the issue will be addressed? In the justification of the change, you may refer to your previous issue analysis (homework 2) as well as the reengineering principles and/or the redesign heuristics introduced in the Process Redesign lectures.
- An analysis of the feasibility of the change. Try to answer the following questions: Are these any upfront (capital) costs to put in place this change? How much upfront cost is necessary? Does the change has an effect on resource costs (would the pharmacy need to pay more to staff a pharmacy?).