efficiency – OM in the News

Reduced Work Week and Productivity

A recent global study by nonprofit 4 Day Week Global found that participants in a 32-hour reduced work week experiment were very pleased with the results.

Employees were paid their normal 40-hour pay, but they only had to work 32 hours each week. While not all participants responded in the follow-up survey, employees who did rated the experience very highly, as did the companies they worked for.

Video Spotlight:

Should we move to a four-day workweek? (Aug 5, […]

By Lisa M. Spencer|2023-01-04T06:40:05+00:00January 4, 2023|Tags: efficiency, job design, productivity, working conditions|

Subway’s New Menu Revisited

OM in the News blogged about Subway’s new menu in July 2022. Subway changed its 57-year-old approach of having customers build their own sandwiches, and rolled out 12 chef-inspired Signature Series sandwiches to push customers to order by sandwich name or number.

Now the results are in. The results indicate an 8.4% increase in same-store sales from the quarter a year ago. For September 2022, the results are even better at nearly 11% year-over-year growth.

In 2021, sales improved […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-11-09T08:22:07+00:00November 9, 2022|Tags: efficiency, inventory management, limited menus, process design, product design, queuing theory, quick serve restaurants, service, supply chain management, waiting line|

Robots Help Fill Labor Shortage at Pharmacies

Robots are increasingly being used to fill prescriptions at Walgreens due to the nationwide shortage of pharmacists.

Walgreens is revamping its stores and redesigning pharmacists’ jobs to reflect current demand as well as constraints in the industry.

Video Spotlight:

Libiao Robot Helps USA Walgreens to Sort Pharmaceutical Prescriptions (Apr 6, 2022, Li Vince)
Walgreens Gets Robotic on Filling Prescriptions (May 7, 2022, rxless)

This post is based on the PYMNTS article, Robots […]

By Lisa M. Spencer|2022-11-07T01:41:41+00:00November 3, 2022|Tags: capacity planning, efficiency, facility layout, robotics, shortage|

Subway’s New Menu

Since Subway came into existence 57 years ago, customers have been able to build their own sandwich.

However, the company recently introduced a new product line, its Subway Series Sandwiches. Customers can choose to still build their own sandwich, or order one of the twelve Subway Series Sandwiches by number or name.

The twelve new sandwiches were selected from hundreds of options. Chef-developed, focusing on recently introduced ingredients, the Subway Series choices were based on digital order data.

This menu change follows last […]

By Ross L. Fink, Ph.D.|2022-07-22T20:58:30+00:00July 27, 2022|Tags: efficiency, inventory management, limited menus, process design, product design, quick serve restaurants, service, service blueprint|