BOSTON
UNIVERSITY
METROPOLITAN COLLEGE
DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCES
RIBUTAN ENGINEERING 1
At 9 PM on a Friday evening. Orlando Phong was in his office returning e-mails from irate engineers at
Ributan Engineering, who were frustrated with the annual engineering PC refresh effort. Orlando, who
has been working at Aflex Computer Consulting (ACC) for about 3 years, is the project leader who is the
main liaison between ACC and Ributan Engineering. After having a similar experience one year ago, he
wondered if this would be an annual event or if something could be done to avoid it.
ACC provides a broad range of IT services. They were hired by Ributan Engineering 8 years ago when
many of Ributan’s IT processes were outsourced. As part of an IT infrastructure agreement, ACC keeps
computing devices up-to-date by: (a) replacing computing devices every three years, and (b) operating
the annual PC refresh process.
Ributan Engineering is a supplier of machined parts to aerospace manufacturers. Each year, the refresh
involves about 100 devices, representing one device for each engineer and technician. These customers
work in one of 5 core engineering departments within the firm - Design, Process Engineering,
Applications, Support, and Administration. It appeared to Orlando that the engineering PC refresh
process was satisfying many customers at Ributan, but failing to meet the expectations of many others.
Although he recalls the same frustration a year ago, after the PC refresh process was completed other
tasks got in the way of him addressing the situation.
The engineering PC refresh is an annual project. It is intended to keep staff members’ personal
computers up-to-date with latest operating systems and applications software. Prior to the initiation of
this process 10 years ago, important work was delayed due to poor IT integration often caused by
incompatible software interactions across (and within) the five engineering departments. By ensuring
that all engineers and technical staff used the same hardware and software systems, these delays were
reduced substantially. It was common knowledge, however, that some individuals were not allowed to
use applications that they preferred in favor of standardized applications used by everyone. Ributan
managers believed that these sacrifices were outweighed by better alignment with business objectives
and improved productivity. Orlando was responsible only for the engineering departments, whose
applications were the most complex. Other non-core engineering departments (e.g., finance, legal, HR,
etc.) are not involved in the PC refresh process.
A few weeks later, Orlando asked for and was granted approval to begin work on improving the
engineering PC refresh process. It turns out that engineering managers had been complaining about the
process periodically and ACC’s contract was up for renewal, so the time seems appropriate.
The major steps in the engineering PC refresh process are:
1. A notice is sent to individuals indicating that they are eligible for a refresh. The notice contains
an instruction sheet that the Ributan staff member (i.e., the customer) must complete before the
appropriate software (and, if necessary, the replacement device) can be identified.
2. The customer completes an online survey and runs a scan on their current device to confirm the
installed software configuration.
1 This case was developed by John Maleyeff and Henry Tran based on their work in service process analysis. All
references to people and organizations are fictional. © 2019 All rights reserved.
Ributan Engineering Case Study
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The information provided by the customer is reviewed by an ACC hardware technician. The
review identifies which type of hardware is appropriate based on software needs. The technician
completes a master spreadsheet that includes detailed information about each customer’s needs.
The information provided by the customer is reviewed by an ACC software technician. The
review identifies the software that requires updating with new versions or software that is
obsolete. The technician adds content to the master spreadsheet that maintains detailed customer
information.
Once the device and software are identified, the master spreadsheet is reviewed by the ACC
project manager. A refresh service request is created and entered into the ACC project
management system. This initiates acquiring any new devices from the central warehouse.
The ACC project manager sends a notice asking the customer to accept/modify the planned
refresh actions, and schedules a time/place to complete the refresh.
An ACC software technician arrives at the scheduled time/place to complete the refresh. The
current device’s software (and files) are transferred to the new device or updated if a new device
is not required. This activity can take from about 1 hour to 4 hours to complete, depending on
the complexity of the transfer, and any problems or disruptions that are present.
All of the replaced devices are returned to the central warehouse.
Orlando also attempted to get a better understanding of how the customer (i.e., Ributan engineers)
interacted with the service. His intent was to create a consumption map showing their actions and
emotional reactions at various stages of the process. To this end, Orlando interviewed several Ributan
engineers with whom he was especially friendly. Over a series of lunch meetings, he asked each engineer
to detail what they did and how they felt at each stage of the engineering PC fresh process – just prior to
the initiation of the process, during the refresh activity, and after the refresh was completed. He was
surprised to hear that, although he interviewed them in an open-ended manner with no predetermined
list of questions, their experiences were remarkably similar.
Orlando was able to detail the customer (i.e., Ributan engineer) experience as follows:
1. The costumer receives an e-mail indicating that they are eligible for a refresh. At this point, some
customers are typically happy to be receiving a newer device to replace their existing older
device. Customers with newer devices may consider the refresh process somewhat of a nuisance.
Newer Ributan employees are often confused – they may consult with their colleagues or contact
the refresh liaison at ACC for clarification.
2. The customer follows the instructions outlined in the e-mail by completing the attached survey
containing refresh-related information. This information is used by ACC to determine what type
of software is used and at what frequency, as well as the customer’s present and anticipated job
duties. Some customers need to be reminded to complete the survey. The customer also is asked
to run a software scan on their device to extract information for use by ACC – some Ributan
engineers run the scan incorrectly or forget to run the scan.
3. The customer waits while their request is processed by ACC (at ACC, the appropriate device and
software are determined based upon the survey, scan data, and job functions). At times, the
ACC liaison contacts the customer because of missing or confusing information, especially on the
survey forms. When ACC is ready, the refresh liaison sends an e-mail to the customer to begin
scheduling the refresh visit.
4. The customer responds to the scheduling e-mail by entering a date/time/location for which they
will be available for the refresh visit. Because the ACC liaison is scheduling many refreshes
simultaneously, there may be several emails or telephone calls to confirm the appointment.
Many customers express concern to ACC regarding their special requirements, such as secured
data transfer for work involving government contracts, where tight regulations are present. ACC
has implemented a “three-strike” rule. If a customer does not schedule the refresh after three
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attempts by ACC, they are deferred from the refresh until the following year. The Ributan
engineering department frowns upon these situations and therefore engineers often contact ACC
in a panic after falling victim to this rule.
The customer waits while the ACC project manager enters the refresh appointment information
into a “master refresh spreadsheet,” obtains the new device (if one is required) from the central
warehouse, and either readies OS and software updates or loads the new OS and software
applications onto the new device. The project manager assigns a software technician to perform
the refresh at the customer location. A confirmation email is received by the customer, outlining
specific requirements for the refresh activity, including the name of the ACC software technician
and confirmation of date/time/location.
The customer attempts to ensure that they will be available at the scheduled time and place. The
appointment may need to be rescheduled if a valid business reason exists for the customer to
miss an appointment. Rescheduling has become common due to the expansion of Ributan’s
global supply chain, which necessitates that engineering personnel travel to remote locations,
sometimes on short notice.
The ACC software technician arrives to perform refresh duties such as setting up the new device,
transferring data, loading updated OS and software onto existing devices, removing obsolete
hardware, and replacing unnecessary peripherals. The technician will briefly train the customer
on any new software changes or hardware nuances, although this training is not always effective.
The customer is provided with the software license information in case they need to reinstall any
software.
In the days or weeks after the refresh is complete, some customers realize that some software
applications may be missing. Sometimes new applications are not fully understood. They will
ask their colleagues for assistance or contact ACC for help, although sometimes terminology used
by ACC technicians confused them.
Although they interacted with the service in similar ways, customer opinions about the process’s quality
differed. Some of the differences were likely due to variations in performance of various ACC
technicians or other staff member, while other differences were likely due to varying knowledge and
expectations across engineers.
A Few Months Later
Orlando Phong and his managers were happy with the progress of the project to improve the engineering
PC refresh process that Aflex Computer Consulting (ACC) offers to Ributan Engineering. At this point in
the project, the way customers define value has been determined and listed as a set of performance
dimensions. In addition, the customer experience has been displayed with a consumption map and the
consumption map has been analyzed.
Today, a group of ACC technicians and Ributan engineers will meet to generate ideas for adding value
for customers of the engineering refresh process. The intent is to reduce some of the frustrations that
customers have expressed, including confusion, and to reduce the overall duration of the refresh process.
In addition, ACC managers would like to create more services associated with the refresh system that
would add even more value for Ributan customers. Their intent is to position ACC as an important and
trusted partner of Ributan Engineering.
Ributan and ACC leadership have specified only one restriction on the ideas that the group generates.
The group is asked to avoid the introduction of new information technologies. The use of new software
applications may be considered later to automate some of the ideas generated in this project team
meeting, but the idea needs to be tested in a more manual form in the near term. That is, leadership
wants to avoid automating waste, a situation they have encountered in previous projects.
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RIBUTAN ENGINEERING
1. Create a consumption map, with icons representing activities where potential value is or could be
added, where dissatisfaction or frustration occurs, where the customer waits, and any other
cognitive or emotional effects on the customer. Make any reasonable assumptions regarding the
cognitive actions and emotional reactions of customers.
2. Analyze the consumption map to identify where value can be added, in particular:
a. Where the customer wastes their time, or encounters uncertainty or frustration.
b. Opportunities to add additional services to complement the existing service.
c. Where queues exist (and their effects on process effectiveness) and ways in which queue time
can be reduced.
3. Create an innovative idea for adding additional value by modifying, creating, or expanding the
current service. Incorporate the random word approach to generate ideas. Use with the following
random words: rival, buck, searching, poem, lawyer, and quiet. Show how the random word
motivated the innovative idea. Do not create an IT application – detail the approach as if it was
done manually.
Turn in one Word file (on Blackboard). Make sure you put the course name, case study title, and date on
top of the first page. Put all analysis in detail in the Word file (i.e., do not attach an Excel file). You do
not need to write a case report – providing answers to each of the questions above will suffice.
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