© steven alter, 2010, all rights reserved 02/10/10 next week reminder about the take-home final...

© Steven Alter, 2010, all rights reserved

02/10/10

• Next week• Reminder about the take-home final exam• Avoiding pitfalls in emerging technology paper• Database continuation• Work system details vs. work system characteristics• More on case studies from 2/3, new cases from 2/10

– More on databases, metrics, aspects of technology– JIT, “lean,” and supply chain

• Static view vs. how work systems change over time


Next week:

• Emerging technology paper– Hard copy and electronic

• Presentation– Email before class to avoid wasting time

• work system snapshot #3– Possible topic for work system analysis paper

• Bring WSM because we will look at Chap. 5 while discussing the work system analysis paper

• Use laptops to look at template


Avoiding pitfalls on the emerging technology paper

• Does it use the required template?• Main question for grades : How

would I evaluate it as a first cut analysis in a business setting?

• Is it convincing?• Is it internally consistent?• Does it contain “red flags” … indicators

of sloppy work or sloppy thought?


Typical indicators of sloppy thought and superficial analysis

Hype: endless possibilities, unlimited impacts, etc.

Unclear timeframe: “The future will be great.”

Unclear overarching definitions and themes.

Lack of connection between sections, paragraphs, sentences

Poorly chosen examples


3.1. Cash for Clunkers

• Who are the participants?• Where does the process start and

end?• Metrics?

General aspect of performance

Specific measure of performance

Current value (estimated)

Realistic desired value (estimated)


3.4 Work system details vs. work system

strategies

• Work system details (graphical representations)– Work system snapshot– Flow chart – Fig. 10.1– Swimlane diagrams – Fig. 10.2– Data flow diagrams – Fig. 10.3– Database schema – Entity relationship diagram

• Design issues/ characteristics/ strategies– Big picture issues: amount of structure,

complexity, rhythm, treatment of exceptions and errors, etc.


Group exercise: USF’s decision process for

admitting undergraduates• Extent of work system

– Starting point: USF receives applications for freshman undergraduate admission

– End point: USF makes initial decision: accept, reject, or wait list

• Your task: List the steps in the decision process. Also, identify metrics and estimate their current and desired value.General

aspect of performance





Group exercise, Part 2

• Look at Table 10.1 on pp. 136- 137.• Identify 5 design characteristics/ strategies

that might be relevant for thinking about your USF admissions process

• For each one, describe how your work system would be different if it moved in one direction or another as shown in Table 10.1,– E.g., more structured or less structured– E.g., more complex or less complex


Database ideas (again)

• Define the database in advance• Build in rules to support desired transaction

logic• Minimize redundant data

– E.g., Company name and product name appear only once in the database, but can be displayed on many forms and queries.

• Use existing database information to maintain integrity of new information

• Define queries and reports • Reuse queries and reports• Create new queries and reports


Structure of a (relational) database

• Tables of information– Customers, supplies, employees, orders

• Relationships– An order has one customer– A customer may have multiple orders– A product has one supplier.– A supplier may supply multiple

products.


Keys

• Primary Key is a field or combination of fields that uniquely identify each record in a table.

• No two records in a table can have the same value in the primary key field. Records are automatically sorted based on the primary key.

• Foreign key: A data field in one table that refers to a primary key in another table.– Customer ID is the primary key of the Customer

Table– Customer ID is a foreign key in an order table

because it refers to the customer ID in the Customer table.


Cases for 2/3: Success stories and problems

• 2.1. Apple’s App Store• 2.3. Cirque du Soleil• 2.4. Harrah’s• 2.5 TradeBot• 2.6 Seven Eleven-----• 2.7 Jet Blue• 2.8 Autopilot problems• 2.9 IT’s Hardest Puzzle (plus CRM intro)


2.1. Apple’s App Store is a reminder of issues related to

infrastructure

• Assume that a work system uses iPhones for important activities.

• What infrastructure does the work system rely upon?


2.4. More on Harrah’s database and customer loyalty

• What is Harrah’s database? … What info does Harrah’s collect about customers?

• Source data vs. derived information– What is the source data from the loyalty cards?– How can we think of that as a relational database?– What is the derived information for management?

• Backward looking analysis– Customer segmentation– Correlations of customer segments and preferences

• Forward looking analysis– Experiments


2.6. More on Seven Eleven

• What are the key metrics for – Seven Eleven as a company?– Seven Eleven’s distribution centers?– Seven Eleven’s stores?

• How do information systems help Seven Eleven achieve metrics at all three levels?






2.7. JetBlue

• What are JetBlue’s key metrics as airline?

• What are key metrics for operational recovery at JetBlue?

• How do information systems help JetBlue achieve metrics at both levels?






2.8. Autopilots on airplanes

• What are some of the problems?• What are the implications related to:

– automated control of transportation? – automated decision making in general?

• Identify several guidelines for situations in which automated decision making is justified, other things being equal


Read “Toyota and the Curse of Software”

• How is this article about software in cars related to the autopilot article?


Next step in the autopilot example

• How would you feel if you heard the following announcement from the flight attendant?

• “Congratulations, you are on the first totally automatic flight from SF to LA. An autopilot will control the takeoff, flight, and landing. One of your flight attendants is a trained pilot who will take over if the autopilot detects any problems.”


• Pull processing• Perfect first-time quality• Waste minimization• Continuous improvement• Flexibility• Building and maintaining a long term

relationship with suppliers• Load leveling• Production flow and Visual control.

Typical principles of lean manufacturing


Ideals of the Toyota Production System

• Defect free• Delivered one request at a time• Supplied on demand• Delivered immediately• Produced without waste• Produced in a safe, clean

environment


Types of waste

• Unnecessary transportation of material• Unnecessary inventory • Unnecessary motion by people • Waiting for the next production step• Overproduction (production ahead of demand)• Over processing (excess activity due to poor process or product design)• Defects (resources wasted in inspection and correction)• Manufacturing goods or services that do not meet customer demand or

specifications


Just-in-time

• Don’t do things before they are needed

• Examples of how this would apply in the real world

• Advantages and disadvantages of JIT

• Operate near full capacity (very little slack)


3.2 JIT/ lean approaches for inventory management in

hospitals (?)

• Many hospitals have a 30 day supply of drugs

• Example: N95 hospital masks ran out during SARS scare

• Metrics related to inventory?• What should hospitals do, i.e., what

should be the rules of the replenishment systems hospitals use?


3.3. Supply chain problems during the U.S. Army’s initial

push toward Baghdad

• What is a supply chain?• How is a supply chain a work

system?• Supply problems encountered on

the way to Baghdad?• Any relation to technology used in

the supply chain?


Work System Framework

• Static view of a work system: How it currently operates

• Additional view: How work systems change over time– Work system life cycle model– Discussed in detail in Chap. 7


Work System Life Cycle Model

Initiation

Implementation Development

Operation & Maintenance


2.9. CRM – customer relationship management and

“IT’s Hardest Puzzle”• What is CRM?• Is CRM fundamentally about customer

relationship management?• What is the work system (or work systems)

in the case study “IT’s Hardest Puzzle” ?• What went wrong in the story and what

might have been done to avoid the problems discussed in the case?

• See Figure 7.1 and 7.2


3.5. The Cigna case: The Goal

• Integrated system for enrollment, eligibility and claims processing so that customers would get one bill, medical claims could be processed faster and more efficiently and customer service reps would have single unified view of members


Important work systems in the Cigna case

• Design specific insurance products;• Market insurance products to

employers• Enrollment of employees• Receive claims and make

reimbursements;• information exchange with hospitals,

doctors and drug storesGeneral aspect of performance





Modifying the existing work systems

• Build an AS400 infrastructure,• Hire CGEY to help implement the

change management and business process involved.• Purchase Siebel software to handle call center

function and select a Computer Sciences Package for claim processing.

• Migration of data from the legacy system to the new platform.

• Lay off customer reps and consolidate 20 primary and specialty service centers into nine regional centers.

• Retest and improve the platform


Interpretation of the Cigna story

• WSM, Chap. 7• Work System Life Cycle Model in

more depth• Figures 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5


3.6 Propose practical, enforceable guidelines for web filters that the State of California could use for state employees.

• What are appropriate metrics for evaluating the use of those guidelines (Hint: This can be viewed as a work system.)


3.7 How could the State of California implement web

filter guidelines?

• Start with Figure 7.1


Reminder about take-home final exam

• Think about the cases we have looked at

• Identify some of the lessons• Start the draft of your take home

final exam


Next week, 2/17:

• Emerging technology paper– Hard copy and electronic

• Presentation– Email before class to avoid wasting time

• work system snapshot #3– Possible topic for work system analysis paper

• Bring WSM because we will look at Chap. 5 while discussing the work system analysis paper

• Use laptops to look at template

© steven alter, 2010, all rights reserved 02/10/10 next week reminder about the take-home final...

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