Through the observation of ACME’s fulfillment process, we found three major areas that ACME can improve upon. ACME’s current process creates human error and dissatisfaction among clients. By improving the organization of ACME’s overall process, they will be able to ensure quality day-to-day operational decisions. To guarantee these effective changes, ACME must improve their technology used during the fulfillment process. The improvements we suggest will transform ACME into a centralized and transparent organization focused on the satisfaction of its clients.
The largest process problem with ACME’s fulfillment process is the excess and unnecessarily parallel stations that create disorder and confusion amongst the departments. At the start of the fulfillment process station one’s duties can be consolidated with stations two and three in order to allocate employees in a more effective manner. The employee from station one can then alleviate bottlenecking by assisting station four with its responsibilities. This major change will save time and resources that will create a more organized and effective process. To improve flow and efficiency, stations five through seven should be combined into one station. This transition can be better accommodated through fewer, but yet better trained, employees. Specifically, the solution would include combining the picking up, shipping and invoices, which will create a more streamlined process backed by well-versatile employees. Stations nine through eleven should be combined in order to decrease error rate between stations. This would include a process of checks and balances, where a manager would ensure the invoice and receiving documents contain matching quantities, and then sign off to approve the payment. This would help create a more parallel process to ensure a low error rate that can be created through a