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G.W Elgin Case Study Solution

Executive SummaryG.W Elgin Case Study Solution

G.W Elgin is involved in the business of supplying high-value sports bicycles both indirectly to the retail industry and directly to consumers under the name of Elgin Framistat since 1915, the business has witnessed four generations of personal relationships with the industry. The business operations have been of a niche supplier to the market and also supply some parts to other equipment manufacturers. The market stability of the firm is threatened by the changes in the commercial practices which include competitive pressures, industry overcapacity, Internet purchasing practices, and just-in time inventory management. These changes have affected the sales and in turn profit drastically.

The business has been running on personal relationships with the customers and taking their orders over the phone. The drawbacks of the current business operation included placement of order during standard business hours. The customers neither had access to any update of the status of their orders nor could they verify it in any way. The error rate and cycle time was increasing over time. The documents were transferred at a very slow pace via inter office mail and consumed a lot of time. The credit reports were received via fax. In order to overcome these problems a change was required in the way Elgin operations were carried out. This change should include elimination of all the paperwork and automate the process flow of the operations. Customers should be provided with 24 hour access to verify and order products.

The “to be” process is the same it is just that it has been automated. The operating system should be integrated well and updated. This would result in all the departments to be on the same page and they would be able to view all the updated details of an order and would avoid duplication of work and confirmation from customers. Elgin should bring flexibility to the system; they should have various means via which the customer could place the order. Maintain a record of customer’s data base and send them updated catalogues as soon as they arrive via email or by mail so that they know what’s available and what’s not. Plus the orders made by the customers should be updated on the operating system. The automated system would decrease paperwork, errors, and cycle time.

BPMN Model of the “as is” Process

The order processing consists of one high-level process and three sub processes:

  • High-level Sales Order process
    • Customer order
    • Obtain credit information
    • Review credit

The Sales Order method consists of the progression of taking the customer’s order over the phone, and scrutinizes it for credit being on hand for that customer. If credit is available (20% of the time), the order is fulfilled by issuing a work order. If credit is not available (80% of the time), then the process of getting the credit information is followed, where ratings are obtained from a credit rating agency. Upon receiving the report with risk classifications of high, medium and low, a process of reviewing credit is followed.

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