Since the introduction of the IBM PC in 1981, the personal computer market experienced explosive growth. This growth in turn created an increasing demand for computer repair services. Devise a business strategy for a firm specializing in computer hardware repair. Choose the dimensions on which you will compete and articulate an operations strategy that supports your selected business strategy. Identify the key tasks for operations to accomplish. What infrastructural, structural, and integration choices would you make in support of the operations strategy? Some dimensions you may wish to consider include the following: • Spare parts stocking policy: Carry ample supplies of all parts? Some parts? Order as needed? • Capacity: Having capacity for peak demand will mean idle time and increased costs during low demand periods, but having capacity for average demand will mean backlogged customer orders. • Facilities: The number, types, and locations. • Specialization of labor. • Production control: If a customer calls and wants to know when his or her computer will be ready, how will you be able to provide an answer? This list is not meant to be exhaustive; it is meant to stimulate discussion of the critical dimensions of an operations strategy. Feel free to use your imagination and incorporate other dimensions as you see fit. The following information from marketing should be useful in formulating a strategy. Market analysis identifies several distinct groups of customers, each with the same profit potential: small business users, recreational home users, and specialized users. The small business PC market includes those who privately own PCs but use them for business purposes. These users exhibit two special attributes: They abhor any amount of downtime and can be greatly unsophisticated about their computers; that is, they want their PCs fixed immediately and don’t care what you have to do to get it going. Due to their lack of sophistication, many of the problems they need fixed are routine. Recreational home PC users are generally concerned foremost about cost and tend to be unsophisticated as well. Specialized users are the smallest segment but represent large potential per unit revenue. They perform routine maintenance themselves and call a repair service only when difficult problems arise. They typically have unique machine configurations and time-consuming, difficult repairs that require exotic parts.