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Case study Clean Sweep, Inc

Clean Sweep, Inc. (CSI), is a custodial-janitorial services company specializing in contract


maintenance of office space. Although not a large company compared with its primary
competitors, CSI does have several major contracts to service some of the state government's
offices. To enter and stay in the custodial service business, CSI adopted the strategy of having a
small workforce that performs high-quality work at a reasonably rapid pace. At present,
management feels that CSI has a staff that is more productive on an individual basis than those
of its competition. Management recognizes that this single factor is the key to the company's
success, so maintaining a high worker productivity level is critical.

Within the staff, the organizational structure is divided into four crews, each of which is composed
of a crew leader and six to nine other crew members. All crews are under the direction of a single
crew supervisor. Within the state building complex, there are nine buildings included in CSI's
contracts, and the custodial assignments have been distributed as shown in Table 1 to balance
the work-load distribution among the crews (on the basis of gross square feet of floor space per
member).

Table 1. Custodial Assignments. (*excludes crew leader)

Crew No. of Members* Buildings Assigned and Gross ft2 Total ft2 Assigned
1 6 A, 30.000; C, 45.000; F, 35.000 110.000
2 8 B East, 95.000; H, 55.000 150.000
3 9 B West, 95.000; G, 85.000 180.000
4 8 D, 40.000; E, 75.000; I, 42.000 157.000

The responsibilities of each crew involve the following general tasks, which are listed in no order
of importance: 1) vacuum carpeted floors, 2) empty trash cans and place trash in industrial waste
hoppers, 3) dry-mop and buff marble floors, 4) clean rest rooms, 5) clean snack bar area{s), and
6) dust desk tops.

Each crew works an 8 1/2-hour shift, during which it gets two 15-minute paid rest breaks and one
30-minute lunch break, which is unpaid. There is some variation among the crews in choosing
break and lunch times, however, primarily because of the personalities of the crew leaders. The
leaders of crews 2 and 3 are the strictest in their supervision, whereas the leaders of crews 1 and
4 are the least strict, according to the crew supervisor.

CSI's management is aware that the department of the state government overseeing the
custodial service contracts makes periodic random inspections and rates the cleaning jobs that
CSI does. This department also receives any complaints about the custodial service from office
workers. Table 2 contains the monthly ratings and number of complaints received (by building)
during CSI's current contracts. Because the renegotiation of CSI's contracts is several months
away, company management would like to maintain a high level of quality during the remaining
months to improve its competitive stance.

Questions

1. Prepare an x̅-chart and R chart for complaints, and plot the average complaints for each crew
during the nine month period. Do the same for performance ratings. What does this analysis
reveal about the service quality of CSI's crews?
2.) Discuss possible ways to improve service quality
3.) Describe some potential strategies for reducign csi's staffing problems.
Table 2. Complaints and Ratings of Cleaning Crews

Building
B
Month A B East C D E F G H I
West
Total no. of
1 2 5 7 3 2 3 2 4 3 4
complaints
Rating 7 5 3 6 7 5 6 5 4 5
Total no. of
2 1 6 8 2 1 1 2 3 2 5
complaints
Rating 7 5 3 6 6 5 6 5 5 4
Total no. of
3 0 6 8 1 0 2 2 4 0 1
complaints
Rating 8 5 4 6 8 5 6 6 6 7
Total no. of
4 1 5 4 1 0 1 1 4 1 3
complaints
Rating 7 5 5 8 8 6 7 5 6 6
Total no. of
5 1 3 2 2 0 1 1 3 1 2
complaints
Rating 6 6 6 7 8 6 7 5 6 6
Total no. of
6 2 5 3 0 1 0 0 2 1 0
complaints
Rating 7 6 6 7 7 8 6 5 5 7
Total no. of
7 0 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
complaints
Rating 8 7 7 6 6 8 8 6 7 7
Total no. of
8 1 2 4 2 1 0 1 2 1 1
complaints
Rating 6 6 5 7 7 8 7 5 6 7
Total no. of
9 1 2 4 1 1 0 1 1 3 0
complaints
Rating 7 7 5 6 7 8 6 5 5 8

Solution

1. Prepare an x̅-chart and R chart for complaints, and plot the average complaints for each
crew during the nine month period. Do the same for performance ratings. What does this
analysis reveal about the service quality of CSI's crews?

Building

B B X-bar
Month A C D E F G H I R (Range)
East West (mean)
1 2 5 7 3 2 3 2 4 3 4 3,5 5
2 1 6 8 2 1 1 2 3 2 5 3,1 7
3 0 6 8 1 0 2 2 4 0 1 2,4 8
4 1 5 4 1 0 1 1 4 1 3 2,1 5
5 1 3 2 2 0 1 1 3 1 2 1,6 3
6 2 5 3 0 1 0 0 2 1 0 1,4 5
7 0 4 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0,8 4
8 1 2 4 2 1 0 1 2 1 1 1,5 4
9 1 2 4 1 1 0 1 1 3 0 1,4 4
∑ 𝑋̅ 3.5 + 3.1 + 2.4 + 2.1 + 1.6 + 1.4 + 0.8 + 1.5 + 1.4
𝑋̿ = =
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑠 9

𝑋̿ = 1.9778

∑𝑅 5+7+8+5+3+5+4+4+4
̅=
R = =5
𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑏𝑒𝑟 𝑜𝑓 𝑜𝑏𝑠𝑒𝑟𝑣𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑜𝑑𝑠 9

̅ = 1.9778 + 0.3080 ∗ 5 = 3.5178


UCL = 𝑋̿ + A2 * R
̅ = 1.977 − 0.3080 ∗ 5 = 0.4378
LCL = 𝑋̿- A2 * R

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