Fitness Plus Case Analysis

Fitness Plus – Part A

Candice Stewart

BUS 5461

Operations Management

Executive Summary

Fitness Plus began its operations in a large suburban office park in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1995. Fitness Plus provides fitness, relaxation and recreational facilities operating 7 days a week. Customers use the facilities having subscribed to yearly memberships. During the first two years of being open membership was small. By 1997, membership had grown as fitness began to play a bigger part in people’s life and with that came increased use of the facilities. By May 2005 members visiting Fitness Plus every hour during peak time (4 - 7pm) had doubled to 80 from 1997. Lately the area of Greensboro has expanded in population and businesses. The growth in population has also increased health awareness in residents and has increased demand for fitness facilities. Other health centers have also opened nearby such as YMCA, Oasis and Golds Gym. YMCA offers a full range of facilities, Golds Gym only offers cardiovascular and weight training and Oasis has an age restriction to only adults over 16 years of age.

The average visits per hour increased from 15 to 25 in a typical day and the facility became overcrowded and complaints began to rise about non-availability of equipment use. Most of complaints where in the areas of aerobics, nautilus and cardiovascular. The capacity of Fitness Plus needs to be measured and planned properly in order to form an effective operational strategy both in the long and short terms. There are two options available i.e. first is to effectively manage the existing facility which will take few months and second is to build a new facility in the downtown area which might take up to a year to become operational. Due to financial and time constraints a short term solution is needed for now and a long term later.

Questions

1. What method would you use to measure the capacity of Fitness Plus? Has Fitness Plus reached its capacity?...