Services operations management

Case study - Fermat Numérique

Prashant Thakare - 122

1. What should be Alain’s priorities for strategic improvement?

● It was mentioned in the case that Alain decided he would investigate network
operations. It is also mention that there were that the complaints relating to site issue
mainly because of front line engineer and team. Installations were subject to large
number of customer complaints too. EAP received a lot of customer complaints about
its network performance and installation. By looking at this he should break down the
structure to understand different problems and then apply the appropriate strategy.
● It will be beneficial to classify all the complaints in categorical manner and track down
one by one as under:

● The focus should be on improvement as soon as the customer calls the operator or
enters the service operation. As stated in the case the call handlers tended to rely on
scripts, but the scripts were relatively unsophisticated so they should be rectified and
changed. And the customer care dept is not also of regional language and thus it also
becomes hard for the customer to explain and for customer support to interpret and
help accordingly.
● Attitude of the team employees should be changed by giving instructions and proper
training. A standard sop should be there.
● Though having SOP there is not a real-life training to CCC to interpret and tackle. So,
if the CCC comes back to native zone then it will reduces the customer complaints.
● Strategic approach can be to attend the field problems first and if possible clubbing
the activity of installation survey on phone with on-site survey reducing the confusion
on any inputs from customer support.
● Alain also devised the committee which consist of people who are having no
experience in the field though with vision of getting new and fresh perspective there
should be few people with expertise as to keep on the feasible solution are produced
and reducing the cost for mistakes during its implementation.
● For the people working at site and focusing on the attitude of Alain could devise strict
protocols and SOP of operations including the 5S rules for cleanliness and proper work
allocation of work.

2. The acquisition of EAP and Équipe 25 was intended to provide Fermat Numérique
with Several advantages in terms of strategic positioning. What were the possible
disadvantages to the acquisition?

● As stated in the case Cindy Moreau, chief executive of FN, thought that the acquisition
of EAP would be a good way to learn the ins and outs of the cable TV business. But,
Operations Director Alain Viret had some reservations. Because EAP operations
consisted of sales, network operations, and installations.
● FN was new to network operations and installations. And the acquisition of EAP by
Philadelphia Media had severe implication because of shifting the call centres from
Bayonne and Perpignan to India and Philippines to cut down on cost.
● Though that move saved the cost of labour but on contrary resulted in increase in
customer complaint because of language barrier and the on-field scenarios in France
while sitting in India or Philippines.
● One of the big problems was that the call centre handlers could not appreciate the
nuances of the French language and did not understand local constraints and
conditions. According to the rumour Philadelphia Media had only bought EAP as a
means of eventually acquiring all of Équipe 25. So, they were not focused on EAP. So,
if they want to correct this mistake it was going to cost them to change the bad service
and reputation.
● In order to bring back the customer care centre it would cost the company and would
drop their profits but in long run would give benefits to them.

3. Assess the value stream maps for the simple and complex installations. What
improvements would you suggest to Alain?

While improving the process he should look at the following things:

● Bottlenecks / Constraints
● Long Process Cycle Times
● Poor Uptimes
 ● Excessive Setup Times
● Poor Quality / Rework

As stated in the case after observing about 15 installations, the team noticed that
there were two clear categories of installation.

● Category A was the mainstream and straightforward installation, which usually

required just a simple connection from the street distribution cabinet to the
residence. Where many of these installations were able to utilize existing
connections and cable run from street cabinet/drop to the house.

● Complex installations, or category B installations, were those that required

major groundwork or sometimes external attachment of cables over several
floors of apartment buildings. The groundwork would typically involve laying
cable under long runs of various surfaces to the customer’s residence.

After looking at the VSM we can see the different activities, the time is taken to
complete them and who is considered for carrying those activities.

● If we look at category A there are 2 parts pre-installation and onsite activities.

In pre-installation, making up installation kits is the bottleneck activity which
takes 45 min to complete. Alain can look into this matter and improve this by
using techniques like 5s and preparing the kit one day before only he can
make different sets according to the need which will reduce the time and
eliminate the waste.
● There could be separate installation kits for simple and complex installations
with standard tools and equipment’s necessary according to the job.
● In category B the above problem of setting up DVR Is the same, another
problem in this which was taking time was all equipment bookings go
through Manilla CCC or Hyderabad CCC. Foremen usually had to wait in
queue for two or three minutes. This could be improved by doing a proper
schedule. Rework and inspection should be eliminated by using poka-yoke
and six sigma.
● Also while eliminating the waste he should see if it is impacting the quality of
the service.