Study the following case situation and then answer all the questions that follow.
Jerry Davids is the supervisor of an association of more than 50 000 members. Along with standards and professional development, one of the prime services the association provides to its members is information like referrals, pamphlets, brochures, books, videos and other materials.
As seen on the flow chart, requests for information are handled first by the member Services Department, where they are separated according to type and the necessary internal forms are completed. These forms are then sent to the appropriate departments for sorting, boxing and mailing
There is evidence of a backlog in the Members Services Department. Videos are not being sent on time and delivery dates are as much as four weeks after the receipt of the request.
Jerry has checked with the despatch department and found that they receive the paperwork and then deliver the goods the same day.
Jerry has decided to call a meeting with David Wagner, who is in charge of the Member Services Department, to iron out the problem.
The following is their conversation:
Jerry: David, I am sure you are wondering why I called you in. It seems you have a rather serious backlog in processing requests for member information.
David: Well, I understand that, of course. As a matter of fact it is quite timely, because I was going to talk to you about it. One of the real problems we have is that we are getting tons of requests that we simply cannot handle.
Jerry: Our total volume hasn’t increased in over eight months. What seems to be the hold up?
David: Well, typically a request will come in from one of our members asking for more than one item. Let’s use video for example. We sort an order for a video that goes to the audio visual library and, if the request also includes such things as pamphlets, we make the order for pamphlet packaging. Usually, it also takes some kind of correspondence back to the member because they invariably ask for other kinds of information they can’t provide.
Jerry: I see. Well, what do you feel is the solution.
David: Because of the increasing volume of this type of order we simply have to have another employee if we are going to keep up with the demand.