7 Case Study

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7 Case Study
Finding a Balance between Peak and Off Peak Days
Every business has a varying number of sales done per a given period. During peak days, the demands may even exceed the available supply. However, during some days, there is very little demand as compared to what the company is capable of providing. Hotel chains are among the facilities that have high fluctuations between peak and off-peak days. Without a right balance between the two seasons, high losses could be accrued due to wastage of resources, or business opportunities could be missed.
The first step towards managing the fluctuations is by understanding the constraints on an organization’s capacity and the demand patterns. The hotel chain will, therefore, need to record on a chart the level of demands over a given period. As such, predictable cycles can be traced and it becomes easier, especially for those with noticeable patterns, to sort out peak and off-peak days. For organizations with computerized systems, more patterns could be generated by segmenting the consumer base. Computers help employees to edit and organize all issues regarding customers’ orders (Lovelock and Jochen 230). Thus, all customers can equally be attended and given quality services. With this information in place, the hotel chains can shift the customers away from the days when the capacity is exceeded. The best way would be to convince them to use the services when the demand is slow. As such, a facility will have a constant flow of customers throughout the seasons.

List of Services and List of Constraints Faced
The type of constraints faced depends on the services provided. For instance, medical, legal and consulting services are faced by the time constraint. The firms providing these services could also be limited by labor due to the staff needed to meet the demands. Technological services such as telecommunications mainly face the equipment constraints while hotels, hospitals, and schools may be limited by the available facilities or infrastructure such as the room.
Capacity and Demand Matching Strategy
To match the capacity and demand, an organization will need to collect factual data over relevant periods. The information will then be analyzed to find out the days when the requirements exceed the capacity and when resources go to waste due to slow demand. To match the two aspects, the management could come up with a plan of letting some of the customers enjoy the services during the slow demand days. By doing so, the excess demand will be shifted to the seasons when most resources are not fully committed. During this period, more advertisements could be done to ensure that the demands match the available capacity.
Work Cited
Lovelock, Christopher H., and Jochen Wirtz. Services marketing: People, technology, strategy. (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2011.