Operations Management

CASE STUDIES


TOPICS COVERED


1 LONDON ZOO: NOTES FROM CASE STUDY


Objectives:

Recognise need to increase visitor numbers yet provide high quality of service.
Need to know what they’re doing right and wrong.
Need a way measure quality of service that they provide.
Need to organise operations to maximise their experience.
View that zoos are one of the problems rather than solution of animal conservation.
Measure if they’re giving customers what they want.
To ensure service is as wanted and expected; or exceeds expectations – halo effect – spread positive reputation, resultant increase in visitors.

Info: 
Good view of Regents Park.
Can see visitors arriving and walking to main entrance from car park or tube station.
Started off small; then expanded
rapidly to reach present size of 36 acres.
Collection expanded as did
mass building work from 1830 – 1930.
Listed buildings can’t be demolished and must be renovated within strict guidelines.
Severe lack of capital investment in infrastructure in 1960 – 1970.
Children’s & Petting Zoo rebuilt late 1980s (society)
Awarded £2m, to  build an education centre (society)
Wildlife attractions showed lowest consistent absolute growth, fall in percentage terms.
Decreasing market size, increasing number of new entrants and competitors, other visitor attractions expanded rapidly.
Last 25 years lack of investment, new attractions, facilities, educational, conservational development or its image.
Major deficit in mid 1970.
Following one off government grant and a number of strategy reports; major changed announced.
80% of revenue produced from gate receipts but due to private donations received ramined open.
1992: Focus on conservation of animals with  breeding programmes for endangered species.
Change from “good day out” to focus on “peoples intelligence”.
Large infrastructural changes and reorganisation required / finance and the consequences of these.
Developments include: childrens zoo, education centre, restoration of terraces and reintroduction of bears.
Staff redundancies and size of animal collection reduced.
Emphasis on cost cutting evaluation of species in the collection.
Reorganisation in 1994: into departments with definied roles and responsibilities.
Largely decision to visit was at request of children.
Strongly influenced by the weather on the day.
Apes, Monkeys, big Cats, Elephants, Penguins were most popular.

Operation of the Zoo:
8 Departments; heads report to Director (Dr Jo Gipps).
161 Staff; Catering and Other Franchise staff employed by outside contractors.

Recording Attendance: 
Watch
stream of people on pavement; busy days - queues at ticket kiosks.

Huge Fluctuation in Daily Numbers: 
Busiest times
weekends, summer holidays (attendance between 4000, 6000).
Easter and August bank holidays (10,000).
Christmas Eve (anticipated 48).
Fashion and public interest increased and introduction of new exhibits and developments, car ownership, growth of foreign travel.
Declined due to: lack of investment, socio-economic changes; inflation, leisure preferences, increased competition.

Capacity:
When capacity peaked at 18000,
operational chaos, queues everywhere, running low on food.
When trough was at 48,
ghost town, loss atmosphere and no staff around.

Data available:
Age range, group size, average length of visit, where visitors come from, even which newspapers they read. Also know which animals they like; monkeys, big cats, elephants, penguins are popular.

Attitude to animals:
Society’s attitude to animals, questioning the role of zoos in society; animal rights and welfare and conservation. LZ has always dedication to animal welfare and conservation but in past had no need to emphasise this as society did not care. Many people worried about animal happiness, wellbeing and their conservation. Effect of caging animals on helath, behaviour, psychology. Morality, function and need for zoos questioned.

Questionnaire:
Determinants of service quality used.
Perceptions of quality of service recorded (1-5)
Rank top 10 statements of what they expect from a zoo
Significant variation between different attributes of quality.
Wide variation in the priority rankings.


1 LONDON ZOO: APPLIED NOTES

In the case of London Zoo it has been recognised the importance of ensuring customers expectations are satisfied or less than the actual experience of the attraction. They must ensure they remain consistent between their internal quality specification and the expectations of customers. After recent market research, and questionnaire they have identified areas that customers have prioritised and through alterations to London Zoo’s marketing, operations and service development the gap between expectation and perception will close; thus more guests leaving with a smile on their face, and likely to tell their friends or repeat visit, thus increasing visitor numbers.

 

The questionnaire expanded on the concepts covered in lectures from the six points of functionality, appearance, reliability, durability, recovery and contact, to 18 determinants listed in Appendix 3.2. The results of these can be found in the questionnaire.

Functionality – London Zoo has shifted its priorities over the years from being primarily an attraction (a day out) to now a more intelligential exhibition focussing on animal conservation and well-being. This is highlighted with its most recent expansions in capital development and shifts in mission statement. The number of animals has been downsized inline with popularity. It is also interesting to note high scoring values for care of animals and conservation organisation and education experience.

Appearance – London Zoo scored very low on its appearance; which could be a result of the expense required for renovation as many of its buildings are listed. Cleanliness and tidiness when the park is quiet is very good, but lacks when the park is busy.

Reliability – London Zoo consistently performs well over time, however quality decreases as visitor numbers increases especially in access, free movement, parking, conservation organisation, cleanliness and tidiness, time queuing.

Durability – The service is suffering from restricted finances, hard financial climates, low visitor numbers, and increased competition. The durability of London Zoo is very low; and without private funding there would be large deficits.

Recovery – Some problems at London Zoo are easy to rectify and steps have been taken already operationally to restructure the organisation and so forth. However with the financial restrictions, expanding attractions is costly and the organisation are struggling just to operate.

Contact – Contact with staff is very low; but seems to increase with visitors, perhaps staff visibility is higher when the park is busier. However contact with customers is good; as the majority rate contact friendly.

Measures have been put in place to improve Quality Assurance, such as management procedures and structures, and clearly with cost cutting measures, these will come with reviewing and auditing operational procedures. Attempts at TQM by evaluating customer needs and expectations have been made; with progress on transforming the concept of the zoo from primarily being a day out to an educational experience. With taking 18 key quality factors it is clear the management are trying to achieve TQM; to ensure costs remain low and satisfaction remains high for repeat visitors.

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Clearly there has been serious amounts of Data Capture and Classification of areas of importance. Through plotting performance against priority (Importance / Performance Matrix) areas have been highlighted for urgent action. Also allows for easier comparison against competitors. See coursework for more information.


Clearly this can be linked to the outcome of the Importance / Performance Matrix.


2 EXECUTIVE HOLLOWARE: NOTES FROM CASE STUDY


Info:

Quality Issue addressed in June 2002.
£12,000 p/m costs due to reworking and customer returns
Quality prioritised as important at EH since products aimed top end/high prices.
Hand made items.
Went from a wide ...

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