• What do the seasonality indexes tell you? 

OPERATIONS ASSIGNMENT

There are two Disney cases that you must read to complete this assignment.  However, before you read the two cases, you must refresh your understanding of the six key  operations management functions (listed below for your convenience) discussed in the  course:

Forecasting Project Management

Quality Management Process Design

Supply Chain Management Inventory Management

1.Out of the six OM Functions, which, if any, were impacted by the sexual harassment controversies in Disney. How and why? (50 -100 words)

2. Leadership plays an important role in shaping up the operations of a corporation. Were the six OM functions impacted by leadership styles of Isner and Iger? How and Why? (100 – 150 words)

3. As you know that in a corporation, decisions made in one functional area [finance, Marketing, operations, HR practices (management)] impact on the other functional areas. Disney, like many corporations, is repositioning its business post Corona/Covid. There is a rumor that the operations budget will be cut. You are convinced that it will hurt the overall business including other functional areas. Develop an argument to defend your position. (One paragraph)

4. Background: One of Disney’s theme parks in Orlando is facing a problem with overcrowding especially in the summer months. Surveys have revealed public dissatisfaction with the long lines at the day-of-visit ticket counters at the entrance to the park. Once visitors arrive at the main entrance to the park, those with advance-purchase tickets are directed by a separate entrance to a parking lot where they park their cars and take shuttle buses to the entrances to the different rides and amusements.

 

Visitors who have not purchased their tickets in advance drive to another parking lot where they park their cars and walk the short distance to ticket counters where they purchase their tickets. The number of ticket counters that are open at any time is based on Disney’s forecast of the number of visitors they expect to see at that particular day and time of day. Disney maintains extensive data on the number of visitors arriving at the park, those with advance-purchase tickets, and those without. The number of visitors varies from day to day; weekends are the most popular days. Data for the last 5 weeks for visitors who need to purchase day-of-visit tickets is given in the file Arrivals.xlsx.

Question: For each day of the next week (June 30 to July 6) make forecasts of the number of visitors who will purchase day-of-visit tickets. Make sure your forecasts include any adjustments for trend and seasonality.

• Draw a graph of the data

• What do the seasonality indexes tell you?

• Is the number of visitors per day increasing or decreasing? By how much?

• What is the equation that describes the average number of visitors arriving on any given day?

• Create a table showing the number of visitors you expect each day of next week during each of the four-time periods.

• How will Disney use your forecasts in planning and managing park operations for the week of June 30th? (100 – 150 words).