Introduction
LensCrafters is an international optical company with about 860 special service shops with production firms in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. The company creates and delivers eyeglasses within one hour, using readily available resources in their store. LensCrafters are focused on creating customers consistently throughout by offering exceptional customer service, growing the employees and leaders, making the best quality eyeglasses within an hour and delivering value to its customers, in an attempt to achieve its mission. This essay is structured in seven parts. The first part is an introduction of LenCrafters and the essay structure; part two evaluates the LensCrafters’ operations strategy and how it seeks to gain a competitive advantage and an examination of how operations management activities affect customer experience is done in part three. LensCrafters value chain and its effectiveness are explained in part four of the essay. The performance measurement tools are discussed in part five, and the technologies adopted by LensCrafters discussed in part six. Part seven is a brief summary of the essay.
Operation strategies reconcile market requirements with a company's operations resources by; satisfying market needs and allocation of operations resources. The operations resources include raw materials, staff, facilities, equipment, and technology. LensCrafters' operations management has made both structural and infrastructural strategic decisions. The manufacturing process and service delivery are done in one place, the stores, to ensure quick response to customer orders. The stores, located in high traffic areas like shopping centers and malls, have five sections which include; merchandise display areas, retail area, the examination area, fitting station and the laboratory area. The resources needed in the manufacture are right there in the store. The process begins by customers visiting the stores, they are warmly welcomed, gets examined by an optician, they select frames, are measured for fitting eyeglasses and the eyeglasses are manufactured within one hour, as they watch. This strategy of manufacturing and service delivery in one place enhances efficiency in terms of time management, due to the systematic arrangement of the processes. The design enables LensCrafters to gain a cost advantage by one; saving on some costs that may have been incurred, like lease fees for separate stores and transportation costs of materials and finished eyewear. Secondly, LensCrafters use the most technologically advanced equipment in the manufacture of the eyeglasses, and the staff is well trained, highly qualified and professional. The eyeglasses which are high quality are made according to customer specification and are tailored to a customer’s needs. The 30 day unconditional warranty period, which allows customers to replace or return their eyewear as many times as they wish, within 30 days of purchase creates a competitive edge for LensCrafters.
How Operation Management Activities Affect Customer Experience & Operation Management Challenges and Solution
Operations management's main concern is to convert inputs into output by functions like; location of facilities, plant structure, and material handling, the design of products and processes, controlling quality, managing materials, and maintenance. All these functions are directly linked to the final product manufactured and service delivered, which in turn will affect the customers experience either positively or negatively, depending on the decisions made by the operations manager.
The decision made about company location, material allocation, product design and most especially quality control will impact heavily on customer experience. This is because, the decisions will be reflected in the quality of products manufactured, time within which they are manufactured and how easily and conveniently can customers get the finished products.
In their daily decision-making activity, operation managers face the following challenges; First, the practical challenge where operation activities are affected by the changing business activities and environment, which in turn changes the effectiveness of operations techniques and processes which have been applied in the past. The solution to this challenge is for operation managers always to consider these variables before they apply the tools of operation management to create value. The operation managers also need to be proactive to changing business activities and the environment. Secondly, the job requires high levels of skills in technology and problem-solving techniques. The managers lack understanding of what operation management is about in creating value, and the techniques, processes and tools applied in operations ("The Challenges of Operations Management for Business Managers", 2016). The operation managers must aspire to be competent in operations philosophies, techniques and methods used in operations. An understanding of other departments’ functions like the finance and the human resource is required because they are interrelated.
LenCrafters' Value Chain and its Effectiveness regarding quality, value creation, and customer satisfaction
The Value chain involves a series of activities undertaken by a company to create value by converting inputs into outputs. At LensCrafters, human resource regarding opticians' and associates' skills is combined with other resources like the equipment and glasses, to manufacture eyeglasses within one hour, as the customers watch. The manufacture is done by use of the most advanced equipment in the eyewear industry, by highly trained and qualified staff, which enhances quality eyeglasses. Service is delivered by first, examining the customers’ eyes after an appointment with an optician. The customer then selects frames and is measured for correct eyeglasses and frame fit. The eyewear is then made while the customer watches. In case a customer after paying for the eyeglasses realizes the eyeglasses do not suit them for any reason, they can return or replace it within 30 days of purchase. The systematic processes and the 30-day unconditional warranty have been effective in enhancing the manufacture of quality eyeglasses tailored to meet customers’ needs and specifications, which in turn ensures customer satisfaction. Customers can easily get LensCrafters' eyewear and accessories from stores which are usually located in high traffic areas like malls and shopping centers.
Types of Performance Measurements to measure Service Delivery (Two types) and justification
Performance measurement monitors an organization's processes, systems, and programs to reflect efficiency and effectiveness. The results are useful for controlling, self-assessment, improvement, and management assessment. The measures are grouped into six categories. First, effectiveness which measures how well the final products conforms to the requirement, second, efficiency to measure how systems use minimal costs possible, and third, quality which measures how a product meets customer needs and expectations. The fourth category is, timeliness which measures the time was taken to make a product correctly, the fifth is productivity, which measures value added to the final product and the sixth is safety to measure the health of organization and employees (Kumar & Suresh, 2009). The measures adopted should be able to address customer satisfaction, examples of measures to use is VOC (Voice of Customer) and NPS (Net Promoter Score). The measures should also address employee satisfaction using the SMART metric, productivity measured using ROI (Return on Investment), cash flow, measured using DSO (Days Sales Outstanding) and DPO (Days Payable Outstanding). The fifth metric is Gross margin which is measured by profitability. The most appropriate types of performance measurement for LensCrafters are the Net Promoter Score and the Gross margin. The NPS (Net Promoter Score) will measure customer satisfaction regarding how do the eyeglasses conform to their needs and expectation, how efficient is the system and how timely is it based on waiting time before they can get their eyeglasses without any defections. The Gross Margin will measure LensCrafters' profitability. If the service delivery system is effective, LensCrafters' profitability will be high, but if the system is not effective, they will make losses.
Types of Technologies Applied to LensCrafters’ Service Operation and how they Strengthen Value Chain
Service operations have been impacted on by advancement in technology like improved automated equipment and high-speed information transmission. Integrating the right technologies into an organization enhances efficiency in operations and increases productivity. The first technology that LensCrafters has applied is the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. The stores are integrated into manufacturing and service delivery systems. LensCrafters, therefore, uses a uniform software platform and database that coordinates activities in the manufacturing and service delivery systems. LensCrafters has also applied different communication technologies to relay information between the service delivery system and manufacturing. The information regarding prescriptions, bills, and receipts easily flow within the information systems installed and shared on the personal computers present in the stores. The technologies strengthen the value chain regarding timeliness and efficiency. One staff does not have to walk another's desk to deliver results of the examination carried out or the required information. The information is easily received at the other end, at a touch of the button. This facilitates the processes and activities to be carried out in a faster way and serve customers promptly.
Conclusion
The dynamic nature of technology has led to the emergence of integration of goods and services in one system. The system seems to be working as evidenced in LensCrafters case study, whose eyeglasses are only manufactured and delivered to a customer within one hour. Observation to be noted is that; the system is very efficient, saves time and increases productivity. To measure the efficiency, timeliness and effectiveness of the design system operations, LensCrafters can use performance measurement types like Net Promoter Scorer (NPS) to measure customers' satisfaction, Gross Margin to measure profitability and so forth. The integrated system is also supported by the application of technologies such as ERPs which facilitates the convenient flow of information and resources within the organization. LensCrafters, however, need to research on the best methods of manufacturing the eyewear and the best manufacture equipment to gain a competitive advantage in case competitors like Walmart decided to join the industry.
References
An Integrative Case Study of LensCrafters Case
Kumar, S. A. & Suresh, N. (2009). Operations Management. Ansari Road, Darayaganj, New Delhi: New Age International (P) Limited, Publishers.
The Challenges of Operations Management for Business Managers. (2016). Academia.edu. Retrieved 1 May 2016, from http://www.academia.edu/6239512/The_Challenges_of_Operations_Management_for_Business_Managers
