Reference no: EM132283663

OPERATIONS ASSIGNMENT

The objective of the integrated semester is to help you extend your knowledge of how the finance, operations, management, and marketing disciplines work and how they integrate their functioning in the real world of business. This assignment is an assessment of how well you understand this integration.

Since its birth Southwest Airlines has been a one-aircraft airline. Every plane they fly is a Boeing 737. This gave them many advantages when they were a regional airline and flew short hops mostly.

Now they are not just a national carrier but have significant numbers of international flights. Other major airlines fly a wide variety of aircraft - from small 20 seater jets to wide-bodied aircraft like the Airbus 340 or the Boeing 747. This gives them a lot of flexibility - they can use small aircraft on small low-demand flights and larger aircraft on the longer more popular routes.

To gain this same flexibility, Southwest is considering using smaller planes on some of its regional flights of less than 90 minute duration. As a trial, flights between two small cities in Arkansas will switch over to a small 50-seater aircraft from the usual Boeing 737. This switch is scheduled to happen in June of 2019.

What does the operations function have to do between now and June to get ready for these trial flights?

Focus on any 4 of the following issues. For each issue, clearly describe what roles finance, marketing and HR have to play.

• Scheduling of flights

• Scheduling of personnel

• In-flight services

• Quality of service

• Gate operations

• Crew scheduling

• Maintenance