CVS Case Study
Analyze the firm's performance relative to each item in the "Cycle of Capablity." Identify appropriate areas for improvement.
"Well, we can't have 67 solutions for the 67 problems indentified."
CVS has a difficult environment in which it must operate -- literally people's lives may be on the line. Some drug-to-drug interactions can have serious consequences for their consumers. Furthermore, customers typically do not like to wait long for their prescriptions to be filled. Therefore, CVS's fulfillment must be flawless and efficient. The company was losing customers because they were having significant services problems. For example, during an eight hour shift, 40% of customers voiced a complaint and approximately 16% of customers had some problem with their pickup. One of the biggest challenges was to conduct the insurance check and data entry that slowed the fulfillment process.
Utilizing the service issues identified in Exhibit #2, please construct a Pareto chart of the most frequent customer concerns.
CVS Fullfillment
Area of concern
Drop Off
5
5.00%
DUR
10
10.00%
Insurance Check
40
40.00%
Production
5
5.00%
Pickup
40
40.00%
3. For the most frequent complaint item, as identified in the Pareto chart, develop a cause-and-effect or "fishbone" diagram.
4. Based upon the process outlined in the case study, please create a service blueprint or flow-chart of the current prescription fulfillment process.
Drop-off
Data Entry
DUR
Insurance Check
Production and QA
Pickup
5. Identify the bottlenecks in the process (from the flow-chart developed above).
The primary bottlenecks appear to be in the beginning of the flow. Once the order is processed it seems that production, QA, and pickup can operate relatively efficiently....
For example, if there is no refills allowed on a prescription then it can take an average of a day to get authorization from the doctor to allow for a refill of the prescription.
6. Create a revised blueprint or flow-chart based upon any changes that you recommend that CVS makes to the process. Explain or rationalize these changes.
Drop-off -- Data Entry -- DUR -- Insurance
I would combine all of these steps into one process that a highly trained employee could act like a specialist to clear up the potential bottlenecks. For example, when a customer requests a prescription to be filled, the CVS drop-off specialist can perform the data entry for the prescription with the customer still there. They can also conduct the DUR as well as check for insurance coverage. If there are any problems with any of these steps, having the customer present will help them clear up these issues quickly and efficiently. Furthermore, if the customer is aware of any potential problems with their request at the drop-off point, then they will be able to have more accurate expectations for their order. For example, the customers will not show up and be surprised that they are unable to get their medication because of an insurance problem. They will already be aware of this problem during the drop-off and can potentially help expedite the solution.
Production and QA
The production and QA steps seem pretty straight forward and are not the primary problem.
Pick-up
Taking care of more of the problems that were occurring on the front-end of the process during the drop-off should clear some of the bottlenecks that were preventing efficient pick-ups.
7. Utilizing all of this analysis (completed in items #1-6 above), prepare a list of specific recommendations, in addition to the process changes identified in item #6, that you have for CVS to improve the prescription fulfillment process. Please utilize the "Cycle of Capability" to structure or…
