Production and Operation Management Essay

The Bronson Insurance gathering was originally open uped in 1900 in Auxvasse, Missouri, by James Bronson. The Bronson Group owns a variety of companies that underwrite personal and commercial insurance policies. Annual gross sales of the Bronson Group are $100 million. In recent years, the family has suffered in operation(p) losses. In 1990, the company was heavily invested in computer hardware and software. unmatchable of the problems the Bronson Group faced (as well as many insurance companies) was a conflict between established manual procedures and the relatively recent (within the retiring(a) 20 years) introduction of computer equipment. This conflict was illustrated by the fact that such(prenominal) information was captured on computer but paper single files were still kept for practical and legal reasons.FILE CLERKSThe file department occupied 20 file clerks who pulled files from stacks, refilled used files, and delivered files to various departments including com mercial lines, personal lines, and claims. Once a file clerk received the file. Clerks delivered files to underwriters on an hourly basis end-to-end the day. The average file clerk was paid $8,300 per year. One special file clerk was used full time to search for requested files that some other file clerk had non been able to find in the anticipate place. It was estimated that 40 percent of the requested files were these no hit files requiring a search. oft these no hit files were eventually found stacked in the requesters office. The primary customers of the file clerks were underwriters and claims attorneys.UNDERWRITINGCompany management and trading operations analysts were consistently told that the sterling(prenominal) problem in the company was the inability of file clerks to supply files in a speedy fashion. The entire company from top to bottom viewed the productivity and effectiveness of the department as unacceptable. An underwriter used 20-50 files per day. Because of their distrust of the files department, underwriters tended to compose often used files. A count by operations analysts found that each underwriter kept from 100-200 files in his or her office at any one time. An underwriter would request a file by computer and work on other business until the file was received. Benson employed 25 underwriters.MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMUpper management was deeply concerned about this problem. The MIS department had suggested using video disks as a possible solution. A video disk organization was found that would be sufficient for the Semester II Examination Papers IIBM Institute of Business management companies needs at a be of about $12 million. It was estimated that the strategy would take two years to install and make compatible with actual information systems. Another, less attr ready was using microfilm. A microfilm system would require underwriters to go to a single detectboard to request paper copies of files. The cost of a microf ilm system was $5 million. 1. What do you recommend? Should the company implement one of the new technologies? Why or why not?2. An operations analyst suggested that company employees shared a dump on the clerks mentality. Explain.Caselet 2Harrison T. Wenk III is 43, married, and has two children, ages 10 and 14. He has a overcomes degree in education and teachers junior high naturalize music in a small town in Ohio. Harrisons father passed away two months ago, leaving his save child an unmatched business opportunity. According to his fathers will, Harrison has 12 months to become active in the family fodder-catering business, KareFull Katering, Inc., or it will be sold to two key employees for a reasonable and fair price. If Harrison becomes involved, the two employees have the option to acquire a significant, but less than majority, interest in the firm. Harrisons only involvement with this business, which his grandfather established, was as an hourly employee during high sc hool and college summers. He is confident that he could learn and perhaps enjoy the marketing case of the business, and that he could retain the long-time head of accounting/finance. But he would never really enjoy day-to-day operations.In fact, he doesnt ensure what operations management really involves. In 1991 Kare-Full Katering, Inc. had $3.75 million in sales in central Ohio. Net profit after taxes was $ 105,000, the eleventh uncoiled year of profitable operations and the seventeenth in the last 20 years. There are 210 employees in this labor-intense business. Institutional contracts account for over 70 percent of sales and include partial food services for trey colleges, six commercial establishments) primarily manufacturing plants and banks), two long -term care facilities, and 5 grade schools.Some customer location employs a permanent operations manager others are served from the main kitchens of Kare-Full Katering. Harrison believes that if he becomes active in the bus iness, one of the two key employees, the vice president of operations, will leave the firm.Harrison has discrete to complete the final two months of this school year and then turn over the summer around Kare-Full Katering as well as institutions with their own food services to assess whether he wants to become involved in the business. He is particularly interested in finding out as practically as possible about operations. Harrison believes he owes it to his wife and children to fairly mensurate this opportunity.