Why Is Midas Successful
Qualifiers: Midas's qualifiers include: (1) Speed; (2) Specialisation of services; (3) Price; (4) Trust/Reliability; (5) Quality parts; (6) Customer service; (7) Guarantee; and (8) Location.
Winners: From the customer's perspective the winners which ensures they utilise Midas are Speed and Price.
In order to assess the anticipated impacts of the introduction of maintenance services on the existing business process it is necessary to analyse the potential fit of the new business with the existing areas. This analysis will indicate whether or not the process can be effectively integrated within the existing production process without jeopardising the company's existing winning qualifiers.
Potential negative impacts
Need to
new skills within taskforce training is necessary;
Complicates the operation process;
Demands on physical space and potential capacity constraints;
Pressure on storage space of inventory may require offsite storage which may complicate the operation process;
Additional labour demands;
Planning complexity;
New machinery will be required creating further pressures on location space;
More time is required to offer all services;
Possible bottlenecks in the operation process;
Customer awareness of new services needs to be addressed.
The problem with the proposed introduction of the maintenance services is that Midas is moving from specialised services, namely mufflers and brakes into more general services such as maintenance. The potential negative impacts have been outlined above, and the successful product line extension must be managed to ensure effective allocation of resources so that the existing businesses are not harmed.
Suggested implementation
We believe that the inherent nature of the maintenance services is different in form from the very specialised areas of replacement mufflers and brake servicing. Therefore we believe that effective product extension should be introduced in an isolated manner to ensure that the existing operation processes are affected as little as possible. Additional space, additional equipment and labour force retraining would be required in order to implement this new service.
Certain information should be gathered from the shop owners. Midas should find out the amount of available resources (labour, space, etc ) to gain a clearer picture of storeowners' ideas/feedback, and to engage them in the product line extension. The storeowners are closer to day to day operations and therefore are better suited to assess the viability of the extension.
Extension of the services should be restricted to those stores that have sufficient resources (including floor space, under-utilised labour, and inventory storage onsite) to allow product line extension so as to ensure that the Midas brand image in their main business of muffler and brake servicing are not harmed by capacity and service problems. Extension of the services should be monitored by preset criteria by the head offices in the various countries. If the service proves successful the viability of purchasing extra land to expand these services in other stores should be explored.
Winners: From the customer's perspective the winners which ensures they utilise Midas are Speed and Price.
In order to assess the anticipated impacts of the introduction of maintenance services on the existing business process it is necessary to analyse the potential fit of the new business with the existing areas. This analysis will indicate whether or not the process can be effectively integrated within the existing production process without jeopardising the company's existing winning qualifiers.
Potential negative impacts
Need to
new skills within taskforce training is necessary;
Complicates the operation process;
Demands on physical space and potential capacity constraints;
Pressure on storage space of inventory may require offsite storage which may complicate the operation process;
Additional labour demands;
Planning complexity;
New machinery will be required creating further pressures on location space;
More time is required to offer all services;
Possible bottlenecks in the operation process;
Customer awareness of new services needs to be addressed.
The problem with the proposed introduction of the maintenance services is that Midas is moving from specialised services, namely mufflers and brakes into more general services such as maintenance. The potential negative impacts have been outlined above, and the successful product line extension must be managed to ensure effective allocation of resources so that the existing businesses are not harmed.
Suggested implementation
We believe that the inherent nature of the maintenance services is different in form from the very specialised areas of replacement mufflers and brake servicing. Therefore we believe that effective product extension should be introduced in an isolated manner to ensure that the existing operation processes are affected as little as possible. Additional space, additional equipment and labour force retraining would be required in order to implement this new service.
Certain information should be gathered from the shop owners. Midas should find out the amount of available resources (labour, space, etc ) to gain a clearer picture of storeowners' ideas/feedback, and to engage them in the product line extension. The storeowners are closer to day to day operations and therefore are better suited to assess the viability of the extension.
Extension of the services should be restricted to those stores that have sufficient resources (including floor space, under-utilised labour, and inventory storage onsite) to allow product line extension so as to ensure that the Midas brand image in their main business of muffler and brake servicing are not harmed by capacity and service problems. Extension of the services should be monitored by preset criteria by the head offices in the various countries. If the service proves successful the viability of purchasing extra land to expand these services in other stores should be explored.