With the tradition of annual summer promotion event, the manager of ONNIE Jewellers is

wondering how to improve the shopping experience for the customers. From the information
collected in the previous year, it’s apparent that cutting waiting time during the event has been the
priority to be considered.

Revealed by the flow chart, there are three specific waiting sections. Guests would wait for mixed
cocktail, service of unlocking cabinets and receipts. (Exhibit 1) Particularly, the capacity
utilization of receipt part is 135%, which made it the bottleneck of the whole process. (Exhibit 2)
So, specifically, ONNIE Jewellers should decrease the waiting time in these activities.

Regarding the overall operation, the value proposition of ONNIE is to provide differentiated,
high-end jewelry to the customers. With the differentiation strategy, Onnie hold the annal
promotion event in the form of a fancy cocktail party, of which the social function promotion
event is even more important than the sales function. For Onnie, offline shopping is more
highlighted while her daughter Victoria valued social media approaches. This summer event could
be seen as a compromise of their preference, online invitation delay is an efficient tool to decrease
the variability of guests amount and risk of insufficient inventory, thus promising a relatively high-
quality service and exclusive offline environment for guests.

For greeter and payment, their utilization rates are moderate enough. In the sales area, Onnie
segments the market and process invisibly. The customers who are only interested in relatively
cheap products do not need sales service, so the effective capacity of the four salespersons could
be spent on those more high-end customers. But it is still important to control the browsing time of
each guest. The bar is a useful way to buffer the guest flow in case everyone crowds in the sales
area, which relieves the hosting pressure of sales area. But it also forms new operation challenges
at the same time, since long waiting line for a drink also deteriorate the experience. The billing
section only applies labor work in relatively low efficiency so should be tackled to change.

To improve the shopping experience, here is my action plan for Onnie.

Increase the number of bartenders.
To provide a high-quality and fast service in this social event.
Increase the advanced-prepared mix cocktails in variety.
The specific recipes could be tracked from the previous data.
Add a display section in bar.
Customers could browse the products before going to the sales area. For guests only want the less
expensive items, they could even go to the payment section directly, while the other guests could
have a simple impression of the items, thus saving time later in the sales area. For those who want
to inspect specific items, they could inform the waitress and move to the sales area when
everything is ready. Not only could it decrease the waiting time for the customers, but the
salespersons could also unlock a cabinet for more people at one time since now they know who
are interested in the same item, thus decreasing the potential variability.
Equip salespersons with iPads.
To tackle the bottleneck, Onnie should purchase iPads, so there is no hand-written receipt
anymore. For the payment waiting line, the salespersons and Victoria now could communicate in
real time with iPads to know the lining situation, so customers could accommodate their time. The
iPad is multifunctional so can bring various benefits in the long term.

The most significant risk of this plan is the high cost. Hiring more bartenders, increasing more
prepared cocktails inventories, new display platforms in bar and purchasing iPads would cost a
great amount of money. Because the case did not mention their budget and their high-end value
proposition, I assume that Onnie is willing to invest into this plan to provide a better shopping
experience. Another risk is the uncertainty of how much the bar could buffer the guests to sales
area, so I recommend Onnie to change the display to Exhibit 3, in which the guests must pass the
bar before going to the sales area.

With the tradition of the annual summer promotion event, the manager of ONNIE Jewellers is
exploring ways to enhance the shopping experience for customers. The information collected from
the previous year suggests that reducing waiting times during the event is a priority.

According to the flow chart, there are three main waiting areas: mixed cocktails, unlocking of
cabinet services, and receipts (Exhibit 1). The receipt section has a capacity utilization of 135%,
which is the bottleneck of the entire process (Exhibit 2). Thus, ONNIE Jewellers should focus on
reducing waiting times in these areas.

ONNIE's value proposition is to offer high-end, differentiated jewelry to customers. To achieve

this, the company holds an annual cocktail party promotion event, which prioritizes its social
function over sales. Offline shopping is emphasized, while Victoria, the daughter of the manager,
values social media approaches. This summer event is a compromise between their preferences,
and an online invitation delay is an effective tool to reduce variability in the number of guests and
minimize the risk of insufficient inventory, thereby ensuring high-quality service and an exclusive
offline environment for guests.

Greeting and payment have moderate utilization rates. In the sales area, ONNIE segments the
market and processes invisibly. Customers interested in relatively cheaper products do not require
sales service, freeing up the capacity of the four salespersons to focus on higher-end customers.
However, it is still important to control browsing times for each guest. The bar serves as a buffer
for guest flow in the sales area, relieving hosting pressure, but also creates new operational
challenges due to long waiting lines for drinks. The billing section is only moderately efficient, so
changes are needed.

To improve the shopping experience, I propose the following action plan for ONNIE:

Increase the number of bartenders to provide fast and high-quality service during the social event.
Increase the variety of pre-made cocktails, using data from previous events to track specific
recipes.
Add a display section at the bar, where customers can browse products before going to the sales
area. This allows guests interested in cheaper items to go directly to the payment section, while
others can get a simple impression of the items, saving time in the sales area. Salespersons can
unlock cabinets for multiple customers at once when they know who is interested in the same
item, reducing variability.
Provide salespersons with iPads to tackle the bottleneck. This eliminates hand-written receipts and
enables real-time communication between salespersons and Victoria to monitor the line. The iPad
is multifunctional and will bring long-term benefits.
The biggest risk of this plan is its high cost, as hiring more bartenders, increasing cocktail
inventory, creating new display platforms, and purchasing iPads will be expensive. However,
given ONNIE's high-end value proposition, I assume the company is willing to invest in this plan
to improve the shopping experience. Another risk is uncertainty about how much the bar can
buffer guests to the sales area, so I recommend changing the display to Exhibit 3, in which guests
must pass through the bar before going to the sales area.

Exhibit 1

Based on the assumption that event is displayed in this way. Guests could move among different
sections flexibly.

Exhibit 2

Based on the assumption that guests would go to different areas after the greeting section, the
arrival time of guests could not be used to analyze the capacity utilization of each hour.
Based on the assumption that server would help guests in need the whole night.
Exhibit 3