Car Rental Process (Ned Kock)

"The business process starts with a customer filing a complaint online using a web-based software system called RentalBot regarding problems with a car that the customer rented. The details of the complaint filed by the customer are stored in RentalBot. The floor manager of the rental company then downloads the information about the complaint using RentalBot, which for each complaint generates a (paper) form to be used for processing of the complaint. The floor manager then places the complaint forms in a box for later processing.

Once every week, the floor manager of the rental company reviews each complaint form, using a manual containing several rules for reviewing complaints. Those rules have been devised so that certain complaints can be filtered out (e.g., complaints not related to car maintenance problems) before they progress any further in the business process. Once the floor manager is finished reviewing the complaint forms, (s)he hand delivers the reviewed complaint forms to the rental company's manager, briefly explaining why complaints should proceed in the process.

The rental car company's manager then hand-delivers the reviewed complaint forms to the assistant maintenance manager, again briefly explaining why the complaints should be processed. The assistant maintenance manager is the main point of contact for the rental company's manager in the company's maintenance department, which is the organizational unit that processes reviewed customer complaints.

The assistant maintenance manager then, upon receipt of a reviewed complaint form, places the form in a box for processing by the quality control specialist. The quality control specialist is an employee who formerly worked for a software development company that owns and commercializes a computer system called SmartFleet. Smartfleet incorporates artificial intelligence algorithms that operate on predictive maintenance rules, which are both used and updated by SmartFleet based on each new complaint processed through the system and on details about previous maintenance activities. The algorithms allow the SmartFleet system to create a schedule of predictive maintenance activities (called 'jobs') that reduces maintenance costs to a minimum while also reducing the likelihood of future car problems occurring while the cars are with the customers of the car rental company.

The schedule of predictive maintenance jobs generated by SmartFleet is a printed set of pages (one page per job), organized according to the order of execution prescribed by SmartFleet. The quality control specialist then places those pages in a box with other predictive maintenance jobs. The box is located at the entrance of the workshop used by the maintenance department.

A team of mechanics then processes each predictive maintenance job. Upon completion of each job, the team enters the details about each completed job into a fleet maintenance details file, using a data entry screen of the SmartFleet computer system."

Answer the following questions:

Question 1: Consider the above company and preventive maintenance process as a system.

a. Name three (3) elements of this system.

b. For each of these three elements name a relation that it has with another element. What are the directions of these relations?

c. Does this system have feedbacks? If so, describe them.

d. Are any of the elements in this system black boxes? Explain your answer.

Question 2: What distinguishes so-called deterministic processes from stochastic ones? Give an example of both a deterministic and a stochastic process other than the ones listed on the course notes or discussed in class.

Question 3: The process described above contains both deterministic and stochastic components. Provide two examples of both. Explain your answers.