Bill’s Barbershop

Bill’s shop has been a popular place to cut hair in the vicinity and he has two barbers- Andrew and Mike.
Both the barbers are well-to-do in terms of name and fame mainly. Both of them do provide experience
and skill at almost at the same level; however, Mike was not as quick as Andrew. At the beginning of any
customer entering the shop to have a haircut, needs to walk-in mandatorily through B1 & B2. After the
process, one customer is marked to have haircut service from either Andrew or Mike (B3-a & B3-b
respectively). Lastly, the customer gets a wash service at B4 point and subsequently, ends his haircut
journey.

B3-a (15)

B1 (10) B2 (8) B4 (9)

B3-b (10)

Identified Bottleneck:

In this scenario, let's say the bottleneck is the initial stage. When a customer comes to have a decent
haircut, he/they are politely asked to maintain the cue. Despite, having a friendly gesture by the Bill’s
staff, there starts the bottleneck. Though the orders are being picked efficiently, but the entry is still
manual and very pragmatic that, in return, creates a long cue even to reach for B2 where every
customer is go through a very minimalistic hair examination. Apart from Mike-in action, stage B1 is
slower compared to other stages, limiting the overall throughput of the system.

Possible Causes of the Bottleneck:

Manual Input: As the entry system still involves manual processes without automation, it significantly
slows down the customer journey.

Dubious examination: Customers having a hair examination even before reaching the barber first,
necessarily leads to a bottleneck.

Inadequate Staffing: Insufficient staff or untrained employees in the examination area leads to delays.
Recommendations to Eliminate the Bottleneck:

Automation: Implement automated entry maintenance, such as digital/virtual ID number to speed up

the process and reduce reliance on manual labor.

Optimize Layout: Rearrange the service area layout for better flow and organization. Customer cues to
be managed through proper synchronization to reduce unnecessary movements.

Staffing and Cross-Training: Ensure an adequate number of well-trained staff are available during peak
hours. Cross-train employees to handle multiple tasks within the capacity.

Please note that these recommendations are general and may need to be adapted based on the specific
context of the process. For more precise and tailored recommendations, detailed knowledge of the
specific process and its surroundings is also necessary.

Reference:

Krajewski, L. & Malhotra, M. (2022). Operations Management: Processes and Supply Chain (13e). New
York, NY: Pearson Education, Inc.