National Air Express Analysis

Andrew Carter

Excelsior College

Operational Management

M1A1: National Air Express Analysis

25 October 2015

National Air Express has been suffering with low productivity and thus has not been generating as much profits as desired. Frank Smith, the manager at Chattanooga, TN, is realizing that some financial and technical changes must be made in order to ensure customers' packages are picked up on time. Since the manager thinks he cannot "justify increasing costs by $1,200 per week for additional trucks and drivers while productivity (measured in shipments per truck/day) has remained flat", he needs to figure out the root causes of the problems and fix those before this air-express business crumbles (Excelsior, 2015). Clearly operational expenses are increasing, while the business is not increasing in value. As this "has been the worst first quarter" Smith can remember (due to uncontrollable storms and natural disasters), he is worried National Air Express will not be able to sustain itself for long.

It appears as though the system is well thought out and should be operating just fine. Smith and his field services supervisor, Martha Lewis, manage 24 trucks that drivers utilize to deliver over night mail. The drivers have to follow certain routes that are separated and split up based on factors like zip codes main streets. There is a certain pickup schedule, between 3-6 pm Monday-Friday, that the drivers and customers follow by. The drivers provide requested and necessary shipping supplies upon pick up, so customers literally only have to worry about filling out the paperwork and fill out personal/ address info on packages/ envelopes. One would think that consumers should be completely satisfied, as they don't have to to do much but be ready at their homes when the mail truck drivers arrive. However, the issue is that drivers have not been able to arrive on time due to terrible weather. This explains why the business has plateaued, as shipments per truck per...