Designing for Production

Short Paper

Designing for Production

Tools, Techniques, and Technologies

Primarily, Chewy will utilize lean-management techniques for the design of their online veterinary service. The company will leverage value stream mapping (VSM) to design and support the information, mapping out each event and stage of the service (Mukherjee, n.d.). The reason for this is due to the nature of the business idea. ChewyVet, will rely heavily on logistics technology, CRM software, and events that take place to bring about the customer outcome. The company will need  to display the flow of information to satisfy regulatory needs and customer needs. The information to provide the said service will need to come from various teams. For example, a critical event occurs when a customer calls Chewy or creates an account online. The information from this event will be needed to consult with the customer and eventually pass off to Chewy Pharmacy. It is necessary to map out all activities from the customer input to the pharmacy request. VSM and the use of value analysis will provide the most efficient and streamlined design. Furthermore, it will help improve team collaboration, prioritize customer experience, and improve company profits by limit cost and waste (Mukherjee, n.d.).

Lean Services

According to Meijer (n.d.), Lean refers to a methodology that embodies a mindset. The Lean Service goal is to deliver a customer value service efficiently with the use of optimizations and elimination of unnecessary actions. Lean Services will be integrated in the ChewyVet design plan to test processes, identify teams, prove customer value by solving a problem, and evaluate the entire process design. In production, Lean services will be integrated within the business environment to support lean goals. This includes improving internal behaviors, company culture, and optimize collaboration between cross-functional teams. Ultimately, Chewy’s goals will focus on delivering quality veterinary services at a favorable cost and the right time. After the launch of the service, Chewy will continue to leverage lean methodology to optimize time, cost, and value by implementing evaluation procedures geared to customer, business and lean goals.

Sustainability

During the planning and design phase, Chewy should consider ways to reduce waste. This will include identifying value-added activities and removing non-value-added activities. The reality is that the service provided is online however, there is still an environmental component to online/virtual services. During design, implementation, production and postproduction, Chewy will remain sustainably conscious by ensuring its workforce and environment advocates and enforces recycling, non-toxic materials, sustainable software, and contracting of sustainable vendors. Since Chewy’s business model relies heavily of delivery goods, the company should consider the environmental impact of their facilities, transportation of products, and impact of their retailers. The new business model in itself is sustainable, but the entire company will need to hold this value as ChewyVet will widen the company’s customer base that will subscribe to other products/services under the Chewy umbrella.

Involvement

The business idea for this service considers legal, cultural, and human involvement in the implementation of the plan. It does not heavily consider global aspects due to the current jurisdiction of Chewy; United States only. In each phase of the plan, Chewy will consider VCPR (Veterinarian-Client-Patient Relationship) laws as it relates to Veterinarian Telehealth. The law explains that telemedicine can only be practiced if the the relationship with the patient/animal was establish by non electronic means in order to receive long term medical care (AVMA, 2020). As a result, there will need to be human interactions in production and legal oversight during the design phase. This will ensure there are no risks to the operations due to flawed design.

Cultural considerations revolve around spending habits of Americans and increased pet ownerships. This is a culture trend that continues to rise each year. According to the American Animal Hospital Association, (2020) 12 million American households looked to online services and shopping for their pet. It is now predicted that by 2023 America will see a 23% increase online pet related spending.