Consider the following scenario: You have recently been hired as a process engineer by , an office furniture company. It's a small firm that's looking to expand. The prices of raw materials such as hardwoods, fabrics and such are constantly changing. Customers view furniture in your company's showroom and consult a catalog for furniture details. Prices are not listed, so when the customer asks about the price of a piece of furniture in the collection, the sales representative must consult a manual price sheet, and if the prices are more than a day old, they then call the material supplier for the most recent price. However, a number of sales have been lost because of unexpected price increases. The supplier also uses a manual price sheet. However, the supplier's manual price sheet may be updated several times throughout the day due to fluctuating markets. Often the supplier must call back your company's reps because the supplier does not have the newest pricing information immediately on hand. When a sales rep calls, the supplier will check to see if they have the valid pricing, meaning the price is less than or equal to two hours old. If the pricing is valid, they will provide the pricing information back to the sales rep, who in turn provides it back to the customer. If it's not valid, meaning the price is older than two hours, the supplier will get updated pricing and then call back the sales rep; the sales rep in turn passes this along to the customer. The customer then decides whether to purchase the piece. If the customer chooses to purchase, the sales rep will ask finance to run a credit check on the customer. Your company has a very small finance department, so sometimes credit checks are delayed, causing some customers to abandon their purchases. Your company has hired you to assess the business impact of the situation and see what can be done for them to make the "Furniture Ordering" process more efficient. 4. Process Improvements. a. Discuss the changes that could be made to make the process more efficient. ( 0.50 pts ea. /_) 1. 2. 3. b. Explain how information systems could support those changes. Discuss what data the systems should capture and what decisions the system could improve. (0.50. pts ea. /_) 1. 2. 3.