Work System Architecture and Performance for Ink, Inc.

Work System Architecture and Performance for Ink, Inc.

The Customer Element Architecture: Who are the customers? Book purchasers are direct customers of Ink, Inc. The Shipping Clerk is an internal customer of the Sales department. S/he receives order/invoices and must call them directly for customer support when the order/invoices are illegible or incomplete. The bookkeeper is a customer of the shipping clerk. S/he receives the order/invoices with checked-off and back-ordered markings. The inventory clerk is a customer of the shipping clerk. S/he receives two files, Completed Orders and Incomplete Orders. The production manager is a customer of the inventory clerk. S/he receives the inventory spreadsheet. What are the requirements of the customers? Book Purchasers: Receive the requested book titles and quantities that they order in a timely fashion and to receive customer support for order issues. Shipping Clerk: Receive order/invoices in a timely manner from the salespersons that have accurate, legible and complete information and to receive customer support when order/invoice has illegible or incomplete information, or goes missing. Bookkeeper: Receive order/invoices in a timely manner from the shipping clerk that have been accurately marked as found and shipped or as back-ordered. Inventory Clerk: Receive all order/invoices correctly sorted in two files, Completed Orders and Incomplete Orders. Production Manager: Receive an inventory spreadsheet with accurate and complete information. Performance: How well does the work system function from the customer’s perspective? Book Purchasers: They can easily submit orders and do not need to know the exact ISBN or title(s) for their requests. If their item(s) can be found and are in stock, then the work system works well. Problems are likely to occur if: • The customer does not provide complete information and the salesperson is not able to indentify the requested items. • The salesperson’s order/invoice is incomplete,...