Quality Control for AllRepairs Mechanics
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES School of Economics ECON1203/ECON2292 Business and Economic Statistics Session 1, 2010
Major project: Quality control for AllRepairs mechanics
Outline
Congratulations! The prestigious consulting firm of Dynamic Econometric Consulting Services (DECS) has hired you and you have been assigned your first task. DECS has been approached by the firm AllRepairs that provides a wide range of repair services for households and businesses. It has a policy of systematically reviewing all branches of their organisation in order to maintain a high quality of service and to isolate any inefficiency in the provision of the various services they provide. The following are extracts taken from a memo sent by the CEO of AllRepairs to DECS: “Ultimately I need staff working efficiently and effectively. Could you please report to me on the efficiency of our repair staff as measured by the time it takes them to undertake their assigned jobs. In particular, is there any evidence of marked differences across staff undertaking the same tasks? I’m also keenly aware of the need to maintain good relationships with customers in order to maximize the chance of repeat business. That is why we engage consultants such as you to routinely survey customers to gauge their level of satisfaction. Over the years of conducting these customer satisfaction surveys we have established an agreed target whereby 80% of customers should be either satisfied or very satisfied with the services provided. Does your statistical analysis support the attainment of this target in each of the service branches?” You have been assigned to analyze data collected from the branch of AllRepairs that provides mechanics to repair refrigerators. There are several sources of data that will be useful in your analysis. When a call is lodged with AllRepairs, a dispatcher makes an evaluation of how difficult the job is likely to be and then assigns one of their four mechanics to the job. These
Major project: Quality control for AllRepairs mechanics
Outline
Congratulations! The prestigious consulting firm of Dynamic Econometric Consulting Services (DECS) has hired you and you have been assigned your first task. DECS has been approached by the firm AllRepairs that provides a wide range of repair services for households and businesses. It has a policy of systematically reviewing all branches of their organisation in order to maintain a high quality of service and to isolate any inefficiency in the provision of the various services they provide. The following are extracts taken from a memo sent by the CEO of AllRepairs to DECS: “Ultimately I need staff working efficiently and effectively. Could you please report to me on the efficiency of our repair staff as measured by the time it takes them to undertake their assigned jobs. In particular, is there any evidence of marked differences across staff undertaking the same tasks? I’m also keenly aware of the need to maintain good relationships with customers in order to maximize the chance of repeat business. That is why we engage consultants such as you to routinely survey customers to gauge their level of satisfaction. Over the years of conducting these customer satisfaction surveys we have established an agreed target whereby 80% of customers should be either satisfied or very satisfied with the services provided. Does your statistical analysis support the attainment of this target in each of the service branches?” You have been assigned to analyze data collected from the branch of AllRepairs that provides mechanics to repair refrigerators. There are several sources of data that will be useful in your analysis. When a call is lodged with AllRepairs, a dispatcher makes an evaluation of how difficult the job is likely to be and then assigns one of their four mechanics to the job. These