Short Case

Managing queues at Madame Tussaud's, Amsterdam

A short holiday in Amsterdam would not be complete without a visit to Madame Tussaud's located on four upper floors of the city's most prominent department store in dam square. With 600,000 visitors each year, this is the third most popular tourist attraction in Amsterdam, after the flower market and canal trips. On busy days in the summer, the center can just manage to handle 5,000 visitors. On a wet day in January, however, there may be only 300 visitors throughout the whole day.

The centre is open for admission, seven days a week, from 10.00 am to 5.30 pm. In the streets outside, orderly queues of expectant tourists snacks along the pavement, looking in at the display in the store windows. In this public open space, Tussaud's can do little to entertain the visitors, but entrepreneurial buskers and street artists are quick to capitalize on a captive market.

On reaching the entrance lobby, individuals, families and groups purchase their admissions tickets. The lobby is in the shape of large horseshoe, with the ticket sales booth in the centre. On winter days or at quiet spells, there will be only one sales assistant, but on busier days, visitors can pay at either side of the ticket booth, to speed up the process. Having paid, the visitors assemble in the lobby outside the lifts. While waiting in this area, a photographer wanders around offering to take photos of the visitors standing next to life-sized wax figures of famous people. They may also be entertained by living look-alike of famous personalities who act as guides to group of visitors in batches of around 25 customers (the capacity of each of the two lifts which takes visitors up to the facility). The lifts arrive every four minutes and customers disembark simultaneously, forming one group of about 50 customers, who stay together throughout the section.

REQUIRED

1. Explain briefly the basic four perspectives in operation strategy that can enhance Madame Tussaud's to cope with the demand fluctuation?

1. Madame Tussaud's is thinking to have systems that allows decisions and databases from all parts of theenterprise to be integrated so that the consequences of the decisions in one part of theenterprises are reflected in the planning and control systems of the rest of theenterprises. Describe five benefits of implementing this Madame Tussaud's Idea to her enterprises.
2. Madame Tussaud's met an expert in queuing who come up with a number of principles that influence how customers perceive waiting times. Describe any five techniques that can be used for improvement at Madame Tussaud's center.