Customer Service at Woodson Chemical Company

                          PA1-   Study Case: Customer Service at Woodson Chemical Company

Senem Gaye Karacora

Westcliff University

Transporter & Logistics Mgmt

Professor: Jason Gatea

November 4, 2018

                                                                   Introduction

 Woodson Chemical Company (WCC) is a widely spread manufacturing company who is catering to chemical industries and personal needs. Foundation of the company is 1899, and currently WCC North America has manufacturing plants located across the U.S. with production of more than 1,500 products, five distribution centers, and 325 stocking points (Bowersox, Closs, & Cooper, 2002). Although, company’s great success in sales, there are certain internal processes in which WCC cannot maintain the same success. In this case study, problems will be examined and proper solutions to each problem will be presented.  Additionally, in conclusion it will be analyzed whether issues and related solutions are applicable for the WCC’s global operations.

Critical Issues

              Current main issue of the WCC is unsatisfying customer service and deficit of well-organized supply chain management.  It is seen that company’s success in communication – intra departmental as well as customer service/support - level is not catching their rapid growth in market in wide regions.  

Recommended Changes

            The main problem of client’s is reachability to status of the order.  

First of all WCC should implement qualified department which will maintain information transfer between customer and company. In this Knowledge Management department UpToDate logistic and customer information will be stored. Based on this data base, KM will be always able to support client’s promptly and effectively in case of necessity.  (Shakerian,

Dehnavi, & Shateri, 2016).

           Secondly company’s internal organization of communication level between supply chain department among other department’s should be rebuild. Transparent information flow must held beginning from receiving orders, inventory, production, and finalizing with transportation and should be analyzed where communication lost and ensure to be reconnected.  

Risks and Benefits

          Recommended improvements in organization may bring beneficial consequences in terms of Very well satisfied clients: once customer finds proper counterpart inside the company, trust and indulgence toward company increases. This level of satisfaction brings sustain in client’s buyer habits. (Tjahjonoet al., 2017).

          Internal Management: having a proper data base internally under KM brings an easiness of having clear overview about both level of customer satisfaction and how effectively running the departments. With in this case WCC Management could have proper action/planning in different levels of supply chain and be able to analyze cost/effectiveness in each organization. (Shakerian et al., 2016);

          It is certain that there are risks being taken while implementing new KM department into organization. 2 major hazards could be foreseen; 1. Capital risk, 2. Integration risk.

WCC is aware that a new department will bring additional investment in cash wise. Since the company already has spending in management. However, each investment is to be considered futures income with true budgeting, this capital risk can be minimized.

On the other hand, implementing new department needs a significant effort to be integrated into other departments. Since main activity will be based on internal communication, each detail must be held very attentive and cooperation with other department’s management.

To be mind that any possible failure in implementation or handling in implementation process of this department might directly affect customer’s level of satisfaction and could turn out lost of clients.

Impact of Recommended Changes

           Once the implication of KM department held in successfully, this will bring many positive aspects to WCC. First of all as mentioned satisfied clients will tend to buy frequently since necessary confident to WCC is consisted. Client will always be sure that in case of any information needed, WCC will be always reachable. This sustain approach of clients will pay off the capital investment in long term.

          Additionally, since management will have clear overview about the departments in every aspect; necessary decisions could be make in more effective way. Information flow, running of operations, costs and effectiveness can be observed and related decisions could be made of this overview.

Recommended Changes in Information Processing Arrangements

          In this study main problem is pointed out as inventory management and distribution network due to its complex organizational structure. In order to deal with high distribution volume with minimum problem as possible IT technologies such as radiofrequency identification (RFID) and automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) Tjahjono et al. (2017) should be used.

          Implementation of IT to organizations is seen as necessity of the century thus smart logistics concept is considered basic tool among industries (Barreto, Amaral, & Pereira, 2017; Merlino et al., 2017). Additionally, organizations are taking advantage of technologies for efficient product delivery tracking, inventory control as well as performance analyze which is measured by key performance indicators (KPIs) such as “order fulfillment status”, “time from receiving to pick location”, and “time to market” (Tjahjono et al., 2017; Witkowski, 2017).