Solution for Mr. Lube's Case Study

1. What constitutes the mission of Mr. Lube?

Mission of Mr. Lube is constituted of better service to the customers compared to their competitors, such as providing fast service, to charge no more, and hopefully less, than gas stations, automotive repair chains, and auto dealers (competitors) and performing oil changes, lubrication, and interior cleaning in spotless environment.

2. How does the Mr. Lube operations strategy provide competitive advantage? (Hint: Evaluate how Mr. Lube’s traditional competitors perform the 10 decisions of OM compared to Mr. Lube.)

Service Design

Mr. Lube applies narrow product strategy in their service task of lubricating automobiles, where they perform oil changes, lubrication and interior cleaning of vehicles. This strategy allows the development of more focused and efficient operations. In order to differentiate itself from (traditional) competitors, Mr. Lube facilitates fast service and provides convenience to customers.

Quality

Quality standard of Mr. Lube exceeds normal standards since all of its employees who had received good training are performing precise task assignments with high repetition. Hence, the tasks were done effectively and efficiently by the employees where the quality should be relatively easy to be maintained and gain greater customer’s satisfaction. Besides, the workers are properly and neatly dressed while working.

Process

Mr. Lube processes are smooth and efficient since the standard team are working simultaneously on a car, where one person checking fluid levels under the hood, another in the garage removing the oil filter, draining the oil, checking the differential and transmission, and lubricating as necessary. Thus, this efficient use of human resource enables fast service provision. Moreover, this strategy enables employees and capital investment to focus on doing this mission well and adds to Mr. Lube’s competitive advantage as competitors will find it hard to imitate such...