A customer purchasing a Sears Roebuck appliance, such as a washing machine, can also

purchase a three-year service contract for an additional fee. The contract provides free
repair service and parts for the specified appliance using an authorized Sears service
provider. When a person with a Sears service contract needs an appliance repaired,
such as a washing machine, he or she calls the Sears Repairs & Parts department to
schedule an appointment. The department makes the appointment and gives the caller
the date and approximate time of the appointment. The repair technician arrives during
the designated time frame and diagnoses the problem. If the problem is caused by a
faulty part, the technician either replaces the part if he is carrying the part with him or
orders the replacement part from Sears. If the part is not in stock at Sears, Sears orders
the part and gives the customer an approximate time when the part will arrive. The
part is shipped directly to the customer. After the part has arrived, the customer must
call Sears to schedule a second appointment for a repair technician to replace the
ordered part. This process is very lengthy. It may take two weeks for the first repair
visit to occur, another two weeks to receive the ordered part, and another week for the
second repair visit to occur in which the ordered part is installed.
Answer:

PART-1 • What is the impact of the existing process on Sears’ operational efficiency
and customer relationships?

The impact of the existing process on Sears’ operational efficiency and customer
relationships as follows:

 Operational efficiency: since, the optimization process in the story is not done, then
the process/ operation will slow and might be late.
 Customer relationship: since the customer appointment is schedule on time and it
will lead to decrease the customer intimacy.

Part-2: • What changes could be made to make this process more efficient? How could
information systems support these changes? Diagram the new improved process.
The changes could be made for increase the efficiency of the process is:
 If they can’t optimize their story, they can outsources parts of repair appliances.
 If the every customer query can’t be solved then they should need to hire more
employees.
 If the customer is not satisfied by the service then for maintaining the better
relationship with customer, they should return some amount of money to customer.
 Technician, must taken care the parts of processes.
 They should give one-to-one year contract instead of giving long contract like 3 or 4
years.
These information is helpful for:
 Create healthy relationship between customer and vendors.
 Through the online service, the work process may become efficient.
 They also post the repair type and time schedule and every necessary information
which is important should be available on the web page.
The new improved process of sear’s service repair contract:
PART-3 Diagram the existing process.