The Order Entry Department of a Ahura Associated Industries Is

Essay

The order entry department of a Ahura Associated Industries is considering improvements in the order entry process, which includes preparing quotations based on customers' requests (via the sales representative) and processing orders received from customers.
A typical sequence of events might begin with a sales representative meeting with a customer to discuss the type of system desired. The sales representative then fills out a paper form and faxes it or phones it in to an order entry associate, who might make several subsequent phone calls to the sales representative, the potential customer, or the manufacturing department to prepare the quote properly. These phone calls deal with such questions as exchangeability of parts, part numbers, current prices for parts, or allowable sales discounts. Order entry staff then keys in the configuration of the desired system, including part numbers, and informs the sales representative of the quoted price. Each quote is assigned a quotation number. To smooth production, manufacturing often produces systems with standard configurations in anticipation of obtaining orders from recent quotes for systems. The systems usually involve adding on special features to the standard configuration. Production in advance of orders sometimes results in duplication in manufacturing, however, because customers often fail to put the assigned quotation numbers on their orders. When order entry receives an order, the information on the order is reentered into the computer to produce an order acknowledgement. This order acknowledgement is sent to the manufacturing department, which produces the system ordered by customer. When the order acknowledgement is sent to the invoicing department, the information is reviewed again to generate an invoice to send to the customer. Domingo Perez, the order entry manager, has received many complaints from the order entry department's internal customers regarding quality and timeliness problems, and is considering ways to improve the efficiency and quality of the order entry process.
Required:
(a) Develop some indicators that Perez could use to assess the performance of the order entry process.
(b) List four possible errors that might be found in the quote and/or the order acknowledgement (i.e., the outputs of the order entry process).
(c) What do you think are the likely causes of delays and quality problems?