capacity – OM in the News

The Strategic Importance of Effective Capacity Management

The adage goes that effective (and efficient) supply chain management extends from “a supplier’s supplier to a customer’s customers.”

Manufacturers are all rushing to “win” the race to electric automobiles. With this comes literally thousands of new and unique parts, of which suppliers may not have the production and/or engineering capacity to meet.

According to Opsahl, “The capacity of a supplier to launch new stuff…isn’t so much dependent on machine tools and production capacity as it is on human […]

By James Kirby Easterling|2022-11-28T18:14:33+00:00November 29, 2022|Tags: capacity, collaboration, forecasting, strategic capacity planning, supply chain design, supply chain partnership|

1099-K Changes Impact Small Firms and Individuals

With the passage of the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021, an important provision related to the 1099-K tax form affects those who receive payments through third-party networks. Just a few examples of those who may be affected: anyone paid for a side hustle through Paypal, who sells on eBay, or who contracts with companies such as Uber and Lyft.

In this post, we’ll focus on the capacity and productivity impacts of this tax law change on a variety of stakeholders.

WHAT […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-08-15T04:27:35+00:00August 18, 2022|Tags: automated processes, capacity, gig economy, regulations, service processes, technology|

Grubhub’s NYC Free Lunch Failure

On May 17, 2022, Grubhub offered New York City residents a free lunch. Specifically, Grubhub offered $15 off orders placed between 11am and 2pm, not including tax, tip, or delivery fees.

The offer was tremendously popular. At one point, Grubhub received 6,000 orders per minute. Orders arrived at a rate six times higher than a similar promotion the company ran in 2021.

Unfortunately, instead of being a tremendous success, it turned into an epic failure. Almost immediately, the app failed […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-06-06T06:46:27+00:00June 14, 2022|Tags: capacity, fast casual restaurants, forecasting, queuing theory, quick serve restaurants, scheduling, service delivery, service recovery|

Santa Barbara Chick-fil-A Too Successful?

Santa Barbara’s Chick-fil-A restaurant has been so successful that cars back up onto the road in front of the restaurant for about 90 minutes a day, and up to 155 minutes a day on Saturdays.

The backups have become such a problem that the City is in process of declaring this Chick-fil-A a public nuisance.

Santa Barbara has an ordinance that bans the construction of new drive-thru restaurants, but this Chick-fil-A location was previously a Burger King restaurant with a drive-thru, and […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-05-17T06:06:37+00:00May 18, 2022|Tags: capacity, facility location, process design, queuing theory, regulations, waiting lines|