Question 1 (22 marks)

The following excerpts are taken from websites of two hypothetical optician chains. Analyse this material to determine the competitive priorities of the two companies: Eyes Express and The 20/20 Vision Store.

Both companies are headquartered in NSW and have a strong on-line presence. In some respects, they are similar, in other respects they have different emphases in their            competitive priorities.

You need to use the framework of the six different competitive priorities given in the lectures. For each of the six priorities, describe whether it is important for these two companies and if so in what ways. For each company you should assess the relative   importance of the six priorities.

You should write carefully, using full sentences and not writing in note form.

Your answer for this part must be less than 700 words in length in total (including any   footnotes or tables). If your answer is more than 700 words in length, only the first 700 words will be marked.

Material from Eyes Express website

Eyes Express is one of the few optical retailers which provide the full range of optical solutions including Spectacles, Contact lenses and Laser Vision Correction.

Making the right choice can be difficult but at Eyes Express we are dedicated to providing      high quality eye care and exceptional customer service. Our knowledgeable and professional staff are on hand to assist you in finding the right optical solution to suit your lifestyle and     needs.

Eyes Express is committed to offering our customers “the best for less” . We offer the BEST prices, BEST customer service, BEST range of products, BEST equipment, and all from the   BEST locations.

Material from The 20/20 Vision Store website

When you're shopping for the best in quality eyewear you needn't go further than The 20/20 Vision Store. We take pride in our commitment to value for money, top quality optical care    and patient satisfaction.

We have a superb selection of the latest frames, and your new glasses can usually be made while you wait. Helping people to look great and see great is our top priority. If it's contact lenses you need, we have the most popular brands as well as many other specialist lenses  that are always in stock; so even customers with more unusual prescriptions can usually be supplied with the correct contact lenses on-the-spot.

At The 20/20 Vision Store we are dedicated to providing you with 20/20 vision (100% sight!) as far as possible utilising Nidek technology to accurately determine your prescription. In     order to thoroughly check your eye health, our Optomap retinal camera allows us to look at up to 200 degrees of the back of your eye. We use this in addition to conventional                 instruments to check the retina. The health of the front of your eye is checked using              microscopes giving magnification of up to 40 X zoom. We believe that communication is the key to your satisfaction at The 20/20 Vision Store and every attempt is made to ensure that you understand what is happening with your eyes.

We want your spectacles to look funky and suit your pocket at the same time, so interest-    free options and fabulous offers are always available. Contact lenses are available on direct debit as well as interest-free. As we believe that your time is valuable, we strive for an          efficient service within one hour. In keeping with this belief, our stock of contact and             spectacle lenses is so extensive that most of you will enjoy a same-day service!! We offer all of this 7 days a week.

Our emphasis on affordable contact lenses, free contact lens aftercare and swift efficient      service led to a rapid growth taking the George Street store from a staff of six in 2003 to        over one hundred by the end of 2007. Eyewear quickly became part of the equation and       now we boast possibly the largest selection of designer frames in a single store in Sydney. In July 2011, The 20/20 Vision Store became the first optometry store in Australia to offer the   revolutionary Optomap UWF retinal imaging as part of its basic patient care regime.

At a retail designer’s conference, Bernard Dooling, director of The 20/20 Interior Design bumped into Sandra Schulz, owner of The 20-20 Vision Store. Aside from sharing the same     business name, theirs was also a meeting of minds. So, Schulz gave Dooling the brief to come up with a new identity and design for its George Street store to be applied across the full        suite of the store interior, literature, and promotional material.

The primary objective was to design an optical store that was refreshingly stylish but the       complete antithesis to most everyday opticians. Instead of the customary uninspired clinical environment, the store needed to be like a fashion retailer with bright colours and super-     sharp graphics. ‘There’s no reason why you need the men in white coats – it’s just another   part of conventional retailing. The fact that they give good eye consultations is a given,’ says

Schulz.

Question 2 (18 marks)

IHugYou is company that manufactures a range of customisable teddy bears and “stuffies” . It employs 6 people in its order processing department. Arriving orders are recorded by

Felicity. On average this takes           minutes. After they are recorded, Gianna and Hanlin

split the work of estimating the time required in the four main stages of manufacture        between them, with each handling half of the orders. To carry out one estimate takes one

person an average of            minutes.

The next stage of processing depends on whether there are any materials required from

outside suppliers.           % of orders require outside parts; these are dealt with by Indira who

on average spends            minutes on this task. Jia deals with the other orders. Since these

orders do not need external coordination, it takes only on average only           minutes to do

the task. Kathy is the group lead and is not involved in the order processing process.

The company received an average of 26 orders per working day during 2022 and each           employee works for 7.5 hours per day, Monday to Friday, starting at 8:00am. There are         almost always more orders towards the start of the week compared to the end of the week. It is always the case that orders are finished by Friday and so there are never unfinished       orders on the following Monday.

(a)  Draw a simple process flow diagram of the process (5 marks).

(b)  What is the capacity of the order processing department in orders per working day? Round your answer to 2 decimal places. (3 marks)

(c)  Who is the employee (or employees) with the most time available for other activities? (2 marks)

(d)  The table below gives the orders received on different days of the week of August     1st . Assuming that the 70th  order that week does not require outside parts, estimate  the day and time that it will complete. State any assumptions you make and give you answer to the nearest minute – E.g. : Sat Aug 6th at 3:06pm (5 marks)

(e)  By altering the roster (but not increasing weekly hours), could management achieve any of the following for this process, and if so, how? (3 marks)

i.       Improve on the same-day completion rate (the number of orders that are completed on the same day that they are received).

ii.       Improve on the capacity of the group

iii.       Increase the number of orders completed in a week.

Use the last two digits of your SID and the following table to determine your values for the parameters U, V, W, X, and Y.