Case Study Hazel (Pages 38 and 69)

Case study 1

Summary

Hazel was laid off by her previous employer, and job searching didn’t turn out well for her. She started to mown her neighbor’s lawn to earn extra cash, and soon she realized that she could turn it into her own business and earn a living. By the end of the first year, her business expanded and is providing not only mowing services but also other yard work such as fertilizing and weeding.

1. In what ways are Hazel’s customers most likely to judge the quality of her lawn care services?

Answer: Time, location, form, and psychological value. In other words, customers would judge the quality by the efficiency, convenience, flexibility, customer service of Hazel’s work.

2. Hazel is the operations manager of her business. Among her responsibilities are forecasting, inventory management, scheduling, quality assurance, and maintenance.

a. What kinds of things would likely require forecasts?

Answer: She has to have a database include season weather, customer demand, and the maintenance costs of her weeding machines.

b. What inventory items does Hazel probably have? Name one inventory decision she has to make periodically.

Answer: Weeding machines, scissors, gloves, fertilizer, and all equipments that she will use in her business. She has to make purchase decision periodically such as purchasing fertilizer.

c. What scheduling must she do? What things might occur to disrupt schedules and cause Hazel to reschedule?

Answer: She has to schedule her time for each of her customers. Some factors that disrupt her schedule could be the following, For example, she is sick one day and she could not work, or customer calls in for appointment cancellation.

d. How important is quality assurance to Hazel’s business? Explain.

Answer: Quality assurance is very important for a new business because the company need this to build its reputation and to extend its market. If Hazel doesn’t control the quality of her work, customer might not be satisfied....