MountainMole Foods has decided to use the perfect order measurement approach to track its logistics performance. According to MountainMole, a perfect order is one that (1) is delivered on time, (2) arrives in one complete shipment, (3) arrives undamaged, (4) is correctly billed. MountainMole has the following performance figures for the past four years: (Assume that there is at most one error per order.)
Year
2000 2001 2002 2003
Total Shipments 250,000 320,000 360,000 380,000
On-time Shipments 190,000 290,000 340,000 345,000
Complete Shipments 198,000 275,000 318,000 350,000
Undamaged Shipments 196,000 270,000 346,000 378,000
Correctly Billed Shipments 180,000 235,000 268,000 282,000
a) Calculate performance for each of the four years. What is the overall trend in the performance, if any? What factors explain the results?
b) If you were looking to improve MountainMole’s logistics performance, what areas might you concentrate on based on these results?