Operations Management in London Zoo - Essay Example

Topic: Operations Research < > and Section # of > < > London Zoo is a place that has been playing vital role in providing entertainment through the safely kept animals. People come to enjoy their leisure time by visiting the animals. The perception of animal (wild) care has been changed a lot as compared to the earlier era. People now show much consciousness towards the way the animals are kept. In early ages, earlier 1960’s, people were not so much interested to visit parks for entertainment. By the passage of time, as transportation problems resolved, people like to spend their leisure tie in different entertainment areas, The London Zoo too. Management of the Zoo has arranged the facilities and services for about 10000 visitors. But this year, more than 10,000 people visited the Zoo at the occasion of August Bank Holidays. Moreover on the World Animal Day, the number of visitors exceeded 18,000 visitors, about an average of 4000 visitors at a time. There were many problems faced by the management; food ran short, there was no space for free walk in the Zoo, no staff member was there in front of the visitors and there all were queues in the Zoo. Now the management wants to know about the customer’s feed back about their perception of the performance of the Zoo. They prepared a questionnaire for the visitors enjoying their time in the Zoo. Review of the content about design of a Questionnaire: The provided content provides sufficient information about the best practice in designing a questionnaire for any survey. A best designed survey contains the following features in its construction. 1. The questionnaire is planned for the information which can’t be gathered from any other resource. 2. The topics included in the questionnaire should be relative to the requirement. 3. The language of the questionnaire should be simplest and easy to understand for a respondent of any age group. 4. The questionnaire should be planned in an appropriate design. 5. It should be piloted and reviewed carefully. 6. Most of the questions should be placed in such an order that they can be answered within the form. 7. There should be option of choosing “others” category in an MCQ type of question. The above are the characteristics of a best practiced questionnaire that should be followed while deigning a questionnaire for a survey. Comparison of the Zoo’s Questionnaire to the best practiced Questionnaire: In the following lines a comparison is given of the questionnaire of the Zoo with the best practice described in the given content: The questionnaire’s design is pretty attractive for the respondents. It covers more information of the required data. Introduction is given in quite informative way for the respondent. Rating criteria is good enough. Open end questioning is done in the questionnaire which helps the respondent to answer according to its will. The language is easy to understand. Strong Parts of the Questionnaire: The Questionnaire, as given in Appendix 3, has the following good parts. The tables explaining the requirement of the questionnaire. Rating criterion that makes easy for the respondent to response exactly according to the requirement. Introduction page containing the information regarding the questionnaire’s aim and questions carried in it. More information is tried to cover in the form. The above are the areas where the questionnaire shows itself a better compliant tool for the required information about the reputation of the Zoo. The design of the questionnaire is pretty good. Weaknesses of the Questionnaire: According to the criteria of the design of a questionnaire, there are some faults in the structure of the questionnaire as given in the following text: 1. There is a long list of questions listed in the questionnaire 2. The questionnaire requires sufficiently large time to be responded accurately. 3. It is instructed in the starting in a table (the table containing the information about the rating) that the respondent can leave the option blank. 4. The questions listed are required to be answered on a separate answer sheet. Other Ways adopted to gather the data: The management of the London Zoo can use some other ways of collecting data on their required information about the service quality. They can use the group focusing technique to gather the information. The groups visiting the Zoo can be requested to answer few of their questions. This style of activities can be done in quite attractive way announcing some gift hampers for the groups answering their questions and recommending some suggestions for the improvement. Interviewing technique is also a useful way to gather the data. But this technique might be not much useful or beneficial here. An interview requires mental preparation of the respondent which can not be adopted here as people come to the place for relaxation and enjoyment, they would not like this way. Recommendation: Reviewing the all aspects of the advantages and disadvantages of different techniques and methods of collecting data, the best approach recommended is the “Mixed Approach”. The management should adopt different ways on different occasions in order to find real feed back of their customers. As at different occasions customer observes the service in different perception. Analysis of the figures from Appendices 3 and 4: There are 28 categories for which the management of the Zoo tried to know the feed back of the customer through the survey. These 28 categories (as described in the case ) are as follows: 1- parking area 2- way around Zoo 3- Access, Free Movement 4- Visibility of Animals 5- Happiness of Animals 6- Appearance of Zoo 7- Staff ‘s behavior 8- Availability of staff 9- Arrangement of animals and different presentations 10- Care of animals 11- Conservation organization 12- Care of visitors 13- Educational experience 14- Cleanliness 15- Efficiency of the staff 16- Animals comfort 17- Availability and cleanliness of toilets 18- Quality of food 19- Commitment to visitors and animals 20- Availability of information 21- Professionalism 22- Friendliness 23- Overall as day out 24- Compliance to the aim 25- Quality of events 26- Time queuing 27- Safety of Groups 28- Value of money The above are the categories upon which information were gathered. The rating was asked from 1 to 5 with 3 as an average. The figures from the Appendices 3 and 4, it is observed that the customers rank the Zoo as an average service provider as the average of the ranking is 2.90 ~ 3. This value shows that the customers feel that the Zoo is providing entertainment of an average level. The management seems to be more dedicated towards the improvement of the progress of the services’ quality. The management realizes its responsibility that they have not only to provide amusement but the Zoo symbolizes the care of wild life. This care is reflected through the questions putted in the questionnaire form. Importance Preference Matrix: The matrix is basically constructed to allocate the available resources. It helps us to find out the areas and the amount or cost spent on these areas of a company. Through this matrix it can be easily judged for what area the services need improvement? Moreover it tells about the level of improvement required. Construction of IP matrix: Zones of IP matrix: Urgent action Zone comprises here of the following factors: Happiness of animals, contacts with staff, quality of catering, and comfort of animals are the areas that need urgent action to be applied. Pareto chart analysis can also be used in order to identify the part of the factors. Factor analysis is also a technique can be used here. These all techniques would help to find out the most attention requiring areas. Here from the analysis through IP matrix, the above described are the areas where customers showed that they are less satisfied with the services of the Zoo. Improvement Zone: The factors lying in the improvement zone are listed below: parking area way around Zoo Access, Free Movement Visibility of Animals Happiness of Animals Appearance of Zoo Staff ‘s behavior Availability of staff Arrangement of animals and different presentations Care of animals Conservation organization These are the areas where customers gave the rank around 2.0 that shows that there needs more improvement. Rest factors that are given the rate of 3 and above 3, so they are considered to be at satisfactory level but they need improvement too for more good reputation. Sequence for Improvement: I would like to start improvement in different areas in the following sequence: 1- Treatment with animals 2- Availability of the staff 3- Behavior of the staff 4- Customers care 5- Area for free movement of the visitors The above sequence is adopted because the Zoo presents the entertainment through the animals in the cages. Now due to more awareness people want to see the better treatment of the animals in the Zoos. They want to see animals happily living in the Zoo. The placement of the cages should be appropriate to be viewed easily. The huts constructed inside the cages should be designed in such a way that the animals can be viewed easily. Staff’s availability is another important factor. Mostly the staff works behind the screen. But the presence of well dressed and soft speaking staff members is essential for good relationship with the customers/ visitors. The visitors want to be listening by the authorities. Unless or until the voice of customer is listened carefully, the reputation of the company can not be improved and sustained. The behavior of the staff also plays vital role in repute of any company, so for the Zoo. The staff members must be trained on urgent basis to deal with the customers gently and to listen them properly and to document the customers feed back negative or positive. Customer care is also the important factor affecting the name of any company. a company caring its customer will surely boost up in the market. Area for the free movement of the people is the important factor to be improved. There should be enough space in the Zoo especially near the cages so that people can easily roam. In the Zoo, children mostly visit the cages and animals and want to play here and there. In other words the major contribution of the customers is from this age group. So this area must be given importance to be improved. All remaining factors are improved after the above described elements. Critical Evaluation of IP matrix: An evaluation of IP matrix is required answering the given questions as described below: 1. The IP matrix provides sufficient information about the factors/components/area of improvement. Further more it describes the level of improvement required. i.e., it explains that which factors are lying in the Urgent and less urgent improvement zone. This helps in deciding the strategy of operation. 2. Pareto analysis and Factor analysis can also be used for evaluation. 3. Advantage of Pareto analysis is this that it gives the immediate result as it is constructed through graph. But at the same time the disadvantage is this that by viewing the graph just, exact contribution of a factor can not be measured. 4. Factor analysis also gives the effect of different parts. But it is not easy to interpret that analysis. 5. Improvements can be made in the IP matrix. It should be designed so that it can give explanation of the effect of factors or elements. Questionnaire As the Zoo management wants to know the customer’s feed back. The need of this feed back was realized after the occasion of World Animal Day, when their management failed to provide the services at the best level. So keeping that fact into mind the questionnaire will be planned that what were the feelings of the customer at that time. The following is the questionnaire as per requirement: 1 How do you rate the parking facilities (being able to find a parking space)? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 2 How do you rate being able to find your way around the zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 3 How do you rate the access and being able to move freely around the zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 4 How do you rate the visibility of the animals? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 5 How do you rate the happiness of the animals with their environment? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 6 How do you rate your overall impression of the appearance of the zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 7 how will you rate the behavior of the staff? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 8 what would you rate the efficiency of the staff? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 9 How will you rate the placement of cages of animals? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 10 How would you rate the condition of care of animals at the Zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 11 do you think London Zoo is saving the wild life? Please rate. a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 12 How would you rate the customer care of London Zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 13 Rate the impression of the London Zoo if you visit it as education trip? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 14 Rate the sanitary conditions in the London Zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 15 How do you rate the smart working of the staff at London Zoo? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 16 Do you think the animals are looking comfortable at the Zoo? Rate them. a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 17 Rate the availability and cleanliness of toilets in the Zoo. a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 18 Is there sufficient provision of catering? How would you rate them? a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 19 Do you think the London Zoo is a committed organization? a- Yes b- No If yes then rate for the following: 1- Animals a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 2- Visitors a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 20 Do you think London Zoo listen to the voice of the visitors? a- Yes b- No If yes then rate it: a- 1 b-2 c-3 d-4 e-5 Would you like to come back to the Zoo next time? Why or Why not? Give suggestions for the improved services from the Zoo you want. Justification: The changes in the above questionnaire are made due to the fact that the visitors would like to response for a short questionnaire. And the above questionnaire covers all the required information. Open end questions should be less in the number so that respondent does not get fed up of them. Besides it is difficult to convert the replies of such questions into numerical facts. Another strategy used in the construction is the option of Yes or No. in this way if the respondent thinks that he/she wants to answer simply No it can be given. And both the collector and the respondent are safe from the hazard as well as time is saved too. REFERENCES 1. Operations Strategy, Donald Waters, Thomson Learning; illustrated edition (June 30, 2006) 2. Operations Management for Competitive Advantage (Competitive Adventage, Competitive Advantage), Richard B Chase, F. Robert Jacobs), Nicholas J Aquiline, Nitin K Agarwal, the McGraw-Hill; 11th edition (January 1, 2006) 3. Operations Strategy: Principles and Practice, Jan A. Van Mieghem, Dynamic Ideas; 1st edition (2008) 4. Operations Strategy: Competing in the 21st Century (Operations Series), Sara Beckman, Donald Rosenfield, McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 1 edition (May 8, 2007) 5. Service Management (Irwin/Mcgraw-Hill Series in Operations and Decision Sciences.) , James A. Fitzsimmons, McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 5 edition (February 4, 2005) 6. http://www.allbusiness.com/business-planning-structures/business-plans/2524-1.html 7. http://www.businessinsights.biz/Sample%20Reports/PDF/SAMP001.pdf Read More