Question

Books Inc. is a company that sells college textbooks. Books Inc. has been successful in the past, but the CEO, Mr. Lawrence, has recently discovered some problems. The company’sprofits have been decreasing considerably over the last couple of months.

Books Inc. was started in 2012 when Caroline Garitano and Robert Lawrence came up with the idea of selling their old college textbooks online. When Caroline and Robert started the business, they did not think about organization structure and control measures.

The company has one vice president (VP), five district managers, and twenty employees that work in book processing. The VP was appointed by Robert Lawrence out of personal friendship but has no business experience whatsoever. The employees are hired through jobs sites and were never interviewed or evaluated before they were hired.

Books Inc. also has sales representatives whom it gives a blind quota of the number of textbooks they ought to sell within a month. As long as the sales representatives meet their goals, Books Inc. trusts all information given by the sales representatives.

Another problem with the sales representatives is the fact that they do not tell Books Inc. where they sell their books. The sales representatives only have to give a list of what they sold and the price they sold for.

The sales representatives will take payment from other companies to hide or misplace books. The sales representatives will also forget to put customer orders on their log sheet. Then,

when angry customers call the headquarters about a problem with their books, the sales representatives will not take responsibility.

Books Inc. uses an outside company to process all book claims. This company charges a flat rate for their services. Books Inc. chose this company because they provide a cheap and good

quality service. This outside company raises the order total by 20%. The company does this to show Books. Inc. that the demand for their product is increasing when actually the real demand for Books Inc. has stayed the same.

Books Inc.’s communication with the processing employees has been poor. Books Inc. only hears from the processing workers every month to find out the grand total of books that was sold.

The label machine has had a problem in the past which leads to an increase of time for book orders. This has resulted in delayed shipping. The problem has never been reported to

upper management for fixing. Since the problem has never been reported, the CEO will yell at the workers to move faster and produce more labels in an hour.

Caroline Garitano decided to collect some data by taking samples of processed books about business, law, art, engineering, and literature for year 2018. The obtained results follow:

	Business	Law	Art	Engineering	Literature
January	12	6	9	0	1
February	8	13	9	1	5
March	10	17	9	2	8
April	6	19	5	5	3
May	13	5	6	6	7
June	14	8	7	3	18
July	15	20	12	4	20
August	8	21	14	12	3
September	9	13	17	13	4
October	12	2	11	2	6
November	11	5	10	5	7
December	11	8	10	7	7

Now Caroline Garitano and Robert Lawrence are interested in performing a Six Sigma strategy, using the DMAIC process to improve their business.

I need to see the Cause and Effect Fishbone Diagram as well ..

Answer 1

ALREADY SOLVED!

Performing a six sigma strategy, using the DMAIC process to improve the business -

Data available is of year 2018.

The term DMAIC stands for the five main steps in the process: Define, Measure, Analyze, Improve, and Control.

Define

• Defining the problem means analysing the current situation of the business.
• Engineering and Literature have the least response in the market.
• Months of January, October, February, May, April and November are below average or near to average in processing books compare to other months.

Measure

• Gather data and measure the existing process.

	Business	Law	Art	Engineering	Literature	Total
January	12	6	9	0	1	28
October	12	2	11	2	6	33
February	8	13	9	1	5	36
May	13	5	6	6	7	37
April	6	19	5	5	3	38
November	11	5	10	5	7	38
December	11	8	10	7	7	43
March	10	17	9	2	8	46
June	14	8	7	3	18	50
September	9	13	17	13	4	56
August	8	21	14	12	3	58
July	15	20	12	4	20	71
Total	129	137	119	60	89

Analyze

• Analyze the gathered data

• Engineering and Literature have the least response in the market.
• Months of January, October, February, May, April and November are below average or near to average in processing books compare to other months.
• These variations may be occuring because the demand in these months or of these subjects are itself less in the market.

Improve

• Proposing solutions - More marketing of the subjects - Engineering and Literature.
• Marketing can be done by conducting seminars of these subjects, showing what all opportunities are there after studying these subjects.
• Months where the performance is poor needs more push from sales teams, discounts can also be given in these months to boost sales.
• Carrying out pilot studies, test and evaluate the proposed solutions mentioned above.
• Develop the plan which has most exposure as scene in pilot studies and testing.

Control

• Implement processes to ensure sustainable improvements.
• Develop procedures, control plans and train your staff.
• Check the improvements thoroughly and keep improving it as situation requires.

YOU SHOULD DO SOME WORK!