1. Compare Shouldice to a traditional Hospital. From the viewpoint of a patient (both his cost and experience at the hospital), and from the view point of its operations. How does the focus strategy manifest itself in giving Shouldice superior operational capabilities?

2. Compute the annual net profit of the clinic and hospital operations (separately). The clinic performs operations, and the hospital maintains the beds.

3. According to Littles Law, what is the maximum sustainable average number of surgeries per week?

4. Develop a weekly schedule of admittances and discharges that achieves a weekly throughput of 127 patients per week, without exceeding the capacities of nay major resources. Assume the same schedule is repeated each week.

5. Besides Shouldice, what other firms use operational focus as a competitive advantage? What firms would you consider unfocused?

6. As Dr. Shouldice, what actions, if any, would you take to expand the hospitals capacity? Compute the impact of your proposals on incremental annual net profits.