Analysis of Air-Express Corporation
Discipline: Management
Type of Paper: Question-Answer
Academic Level: High school
Paper Format: APA
Question
Prepare a case
summary by answering the following questions below. Please provide full and
complete APA style responses (references, citation/cited) to the following
questions and bullets points.
Case Study of National Air
Express Below:
National Air is a competitive
air-express firm with offices around the country. Frank Smith, the Chattanooga,
Tennessee, station manager, is preparing his quarterly budget report, which
will be presented at the Southeast regional meeting next week. He is very
concerned about adding capital expense to the operation when business has not
increased appreciably. This has been the worst first quarter he can remember:
snowstorms, earthquakes, and bitter cold. He has asked Martha Lewis, field
services supervisor, to help him review the available data and offer possible
solutions.
Service Methods
National Air offers
door-to-door overnight air-express delivery within the U.S. Smith and Lewis
manage a fleet of 24 trucks to handle freight in the Chattanooga area. Routes
are assigned by area, usually delineated by zip code boundaries, major streets,
or key geographical features, such as the Tennessee River. Pickups are
generally handled between 3:00 P.M. and 6:00 P.M., Monday through Friday.
Driver routes are a combination of regularly scheduled daily stops and pickups
that the customer calls in as needed. These call-in pickups are dispatched by
radio to the driver. Most call-in customers want as late a pickup as possible,
just before closing (usually at 5:00 P.M.). When the driver arrives at each
pickup location, he or she provides supplies as necessary (an envelope or box
if requested) and must receive a completed air waybill for each package.
Because the industry is extremely competitive, a professional, courteous driver
is essential to retaining customers. Therefore, Smith has always been concerned
that drivers not rush a customer to complete his or her package and paperwork.
Budget Considerations
Smith and Lewis have found
that they have been unable to meet their customers' requests for a scheduled
pickup on many occasions in the past quarter. Although, on average, drivers are
not handling any more business, they are unable on some days to arrive at each
location on time. Smith does not think he can justify increasing costs by
$1,200 per week for additional trucks and drivers while productivity (measured
in shipments per truck/day) has remained flat. The company has established
itself as the low-cost operator in the industry but has at the same time
committed itself to offering quality service and value for its customers.
Discussion Questions:
1. Is the productivity
measure of shipments per day per truck still useful? Are there alternatives
that might be effective?
2. What, if anything, can be
done to reduce the daily variability in pickup call-ins? Can the driver be
expected to be at several locations at once at 5:00 P.M.?
3. How should package pickup
performance be measured? Are standards useful in an environment that is
affected by the weather, traffic, and other random variables? Are other
companies having similar problems?
Include thoughts and comments
based on the following bullets:
- State any business problem
that the enterprise needs to resolve.
- Briefly summarize relevant
background information from the case.
- Describe how the enterprise
dealt with its issues, if relevant.
- Comment on the
appropriateness of these actions based on your reading and understanding of the
case content.
- Respond to the case
questions included at the end of the case in the text.
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