The Detailed Report
The University Driving Range, located off Riverbend Road in Athens, Ga, recently
began receiving complaints from its employees that the driving range was taking to
much time to close down at the end of each day. The range attendants thought that
the solution was to close earlier so that they could begin clearing the range at an
earlier time. Management, however, did not want to eliminate profit gained from
late night golfers and believed that the actual ball picking process could be improved.
The Primo Rita consulting team was called in to investigate the problem and the results
are as follows.
The consulting team began by watching the range attendants close down one evening to
better understand what exactly had to be done each night before the attendants could
go home. The closing process was completed by two attendants and involved three main
components: picking the balls off the range; cleaning the golf balls; and clearing the
hitting area and putting green. The attendants began by clearing the hitting area of
baskets and trash while the remaining golfers finished up hitting balls. Attendant One
would then begin to pick the range with a tractor while Attendant Two waited for the
first load to come in. When the picker filled, the balls were transferred to baskets
and Attendant Two would use one of two cleaners to wash them, while Attendant One returned
picking the range. After the range was swept over once, it would have to be gone over
again to retrieve all the missed balls during the first pass.
In looking for possible solutions to the problem, the Primo Ritas employed several
useful analytical tools to pinpoint the source of the problem. A flow chart was used
to chart the process the attendants used to close the range in an attempt to discover
where most of the time was being spent. A fishbone diagram then helped to discover why
these parts of the process were taking so long to complete.
The results of the flowchart analysis showed that the majority of closing time was
divided between the picking and cleaning processes. It also showed that Attendant Two
was idle when he finished cleaning a load of balls and awaited another. The Primo Ritas
then turned to the fishbone diagram and began to ask "why?" are these steps taking so long.
The picking took as long as it did because of the second sweep to retrieve all missed
balls during the first pass. If this pass could be eliminated, then we felt a reasonable
solution would have been found. The manager, however, insisted that every ball be removed
each night. The ball cleaning took so long because only one person was doing the job.
The range had two washers, but one person can't physically operate both machines
simultaeously.
Once the problems were identified, it was time to implement a solution. The Primo Ritas
decided that by better utilizing the resources available, the attendants could easily
complete the closing job in a much quicker fashion. The solution begins by eliminating
the down time of Attendant Two by having him follow behind the picker and hit all missed
balls into the row of range to be picked next. When the entire range is completed,
the attendants then are able to use both ball washers to clean the balls in half the time.
The results of the new picking process have been very positive. The range attendants are
happy because they leave earlier and management is happy because of reduced labor costs.
Overall, the closing process from the time they start picking to the time they leave
was reduced by an average of 56 minutes, a reduction of 42%!
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