Bsm 405 - Hazel Case

Case 1- Hazel

Cam Thi Vu

Due date: 6 March, 2017

BSM 405

Submitted to

Prof. Mike Witiw

Case summary

Hazel had worked for Fortune 500 for 15 years. Even though has been with the company through the difficult period, Hazel was terminated due to the new CEO’s decision to downsize the company. After a time struggling to find a new job, she began to mow the lawns of her neighbors for income. When Hazel failed to find employment, she decided to put up a lawn mowing service business. In the beginning, the business was slow, but once the word got out about her lawn service business, she began to obtain many customers.

1. In what ways are Hazel’s customers most likely to judge the quality of her lawn care services?

Hazel’s customer will most likely judge the quality of her lawn through observing the area in which she had offered her services. Besides, customers might consider Hazel lawn care service through her credible with other clients.

2. Hazel is the operations manager of her business. Among her responsibilities are forecasting, inventory management, scheduling, quality assurance, and maintenance.

a.   What kinds of things would likely require forecasts?  

In my opinion, two things need Hazel to forecast which are weather conditions and the demand of her customer. Hazel needs to forecasts the weather and climate condition because it affects directly to her job. She should know if the weather is suitable or not to perform her job. Hence, Hazel also needs to forecast her customer demand such as the average number of request she gets daily or when her regular customer needs her service. By doing so, she can be able to arrange her job schedule to work more efficient.

b. What inventory items does Hazel probably have? Name one inventory decision she has to make periodically.

When engaging in lawn mowing services, Hazel probably has essential items such as lawn mower,   seeds, fertilizers, grass cutter and other gardening tools likes shovel or rakes. Fertilizers need to be purchased periodically. This type of item is bought in bulk because it’ll be cheaper and this is one of the main things needed in a lawn service. If she buys the fertilizers during off-peak, it’ll not be good for her business because the fertilizers will be wasted.

c. What scheduling must she do? What things might occur to disrupt schedules and cause Hazel to reschedule?

In my opinion, Hazel must schedule three things. Firstly, she must make a schedule for her regular customers, who prefer daily lawn mowing services, and her new clients. Secondly, she also needs to schedule working time for her employees. Lastly, she needs to plan the maintenance time for her machine to ensure the productivity.

Things that might occur to disrupt plans and cause Hazel to reschedule include weather, season’s condition or personal emergency.