How bad can a day in a service centre get? Let’s be honest, nobody is going to die, not unless they are spectacularly unlucky and trip over a trailing cable What does a bad day look like? A bad day looks like this: Your colleagues in Marketing or IT or Pricing do something stupid to […]
Pink Shirts and Bullwhips
People wear pink shirts, they like pink shirts, but there are really only so many times you can wear a pink shirt in a week. The market for pink shirts is pretty much stable. This is a problem if you sell pink shirts for a living. The solution, run a promotion, 2 for 1, give […]
Loo Break
Here is a super graph. It shows water consumption in Edmonton Canada on the day of the Olympic hockey final and compares it to the rather smoother usage the day before. A little analysis will no doubt show this is the inverse of beer consumption. Demand spikes are a common problem whether you are supplying […]
The Perfect Storm
Imagine you run a hospital. One of your responsibilities is staffing, making sure there are enough nurses and doctors. Then the country is hit by a flu epidemic, you are inundated by sick people, demand soars through the roof. It gets worse, your staff get sick as well, they take time off. Not only do […]