A car service center provides customer support for service and sales operations of its customers in Wisconsin and Illinois.

When a customer calls, an agent takes the incoming call and logs it in the computer system. The system pulls up customer information (if present) and provides the area from which they are calling from, and sets the call status field to open. The agent talks to the customer to confirm they are calling about car service and the state they need service in, and then transfers the call to a customer rep in Wisconsin or Illinois.

The customer rep for the corresponding state pulls the caller’s identification record on the computer and talks to the customer about the customer’s problem to decide whether the call inquiry relates to service or sales. The customer rep enters this information into the system, and transfers the call to either a service specialist or sales specialist for the appropriate state.

The same sales specialist handles sales inquiries for both states, but separate service specialists are currently employed for Wisconsin and Illinois. The service specialists have access to customers file (if already a customer). Both sales specialist and service specialist record the conversation and actions taken, and then set the call status field to ‘closed’ in the computer system (while the customer is still on the phone). The call ends after these activities.

In a normal day, 3 calls arrive every minute on average. 60% of the calls arriving at the center are from Wisconsin and 40% from Illinois. The calls from each state are evenly distributed (50%) between service inquiries and sales inquiries.

The following time estimates in minutes are available for various activities of the process:

Answering and logging calls 4

Gathering customer info (Wisconsin) 10

Gathering customer info (Illinois) 6

Responding to Wisconsin Service inquiry 10

Responding to Illinois Service inquiry 6

Responding to Sales inquiry 12

Note that the decision making for directing the calls is made automatically by the workflow system used to handle the calls, and does not take any extra time in the system. Similarly, there is no additional time required for the calls to exit from the system and there is no move time between various activities.

The number of personnel employed at the center is as following:

Agent 2

Customer Rep - Wisconsin 1

Customer Rep – Illinois 1

Sales Specialist 2

Service Specialist - Wisconsin 2

Service Specialist – Illinois 2

Section 2: Perform a manual analysis of the process. (10 points split equally)

1. Using the description of the center, calculate the capacity of following resources:

1. Agent
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Customer Rep – Wisconsin

3. Customer Rep – Illinois

4. Sales Specialist

5. Service Specialist – Wisconsin

6. Service Specialist – Illinois

2. Use the activity times provided in the process description and the attached model as a guide (assume that there are no queues and route times and decision times are zero). How long should a customer expect to spend on each one of the following types of calls? (i.e. what is the throughput time for each type of call?): (10 points split equally)

1. Service calls from Wisconsin customers (Show all your work)
   
   
   
   
2. Service calls from Illinois customer (Show all your work)
   
   
   
   
3. Sales calls from Wisconsin customers (Show all your work)
   
   
   
   
4. Sales calls from Illinois customers (Show all your work)
   
   

5. Customer calls from Wisconsin customers (Show all your work)
   
   

6. Customer calls from Illinois customers (Show all your work)

7. Customer calls to the car service center (Show all your work)
   
   

3. Is there a bottleneck in the process for the arrival pattern mentioned? Why or why not? (explain your answer with enough supporting information from your analysis)