Consider the following scenario: You have recently been hired as a process engineer by , an office furniture company. Its a small firm thats looking to expand. The prices of raw materials such as hardwoods, fabrics and such are constantly changing. When a customer asks about the price of a piece of furniture in the collection, sales representatives consult a manual price sheet and then call the material supplier for the most recent price. The supplier also uses a manual price sheet, which has been updated each day. The manual price sheet may be updated several times throughout the day due to fluctuating markets. Often the supplier must call back your companys reps because the supplier does not have the newest pricing information immediately on hand. The supplier will check to see if they have the valid pricing. 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 its not valid, the supplier will get the updated price 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. 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.

Complete the following. Note that you will replace the placeholders, e.g., , with your answer. For those questions that dont specify a number, there may be more or fewer answers than indicated by the number of placeholders.

Business Process.

List at least 3 issues with the current process. (3 pts / _)

Explain Three impacts of the existing process on operational efficiency. (2 pts / _)

Diagram existing process. Using Lucidchart, model the existing process; insert your diagram here. (4 pts / _)

Metrics. Identify 3 metrics that could be put in place to measure the impact of the existing process on operational efficiency. (3 pts / _)

Process Improvements. Discuss the changes that could be made to make the process more efficient. (2 pts / _)

Explain how information systems could support those changes. Discuss what data the systems should capture and what decisions the system could improve. (2 pts / _)

Diagram the improved process. Using Lucidchart, model the improved process; insert your diagram here. (4 pts / _)

Value Chain. Using Lucidchart, model your companys value chain; insert your diagram here. (2 pts / _)