Think through what aspects of your focal firm's service might suffer to do inconsistency/quality issues associated with customer inputs.
1. What are likely sources of problems?
The main source of customer-caused problems at Netflix comes from the treatment of the DVDs that are mailed to their homes. However, I feel that a larger problem is the treatment of the envelopes by the US Post Office. Since most mail is sorted through a machine, there is a high chance of receiving a DVD that was scratched or even cracked during the delivery process. So for this question, I'm going to respond to the question with the USPS as the customer.
2. Design a poka yoke to help reduce the frequency or magnitude of problems.
While Netflix currently uses "sleeves" to protect the DVDs they send out, sometimes they do not provide enough protection. Personally, I've received DVDs from Netflix that were cracked, and while Netflix does a good job of remedying the situation (they send a replacement DVD to arrive the next day when you report the problem), it is still an inconvenience.
If Netflix felt this problem was highly detrimental to their business, whether it be in perceived service, or the costs associated with scrapping damaged content, they could design a solution that involved hard casings that housed the DVDs inside the existing Netflix envelopes to provide a greater amount of protection during the delivery process.
3. What aspect of your focal firm's service could be made more productive or produce higher quality outcomes if the customer was required to do something different? If firm decided to implement this change, what is the likelihood that the customer would accept it and do their part?
Implementing this change would obviously be costly to Netflix, but it would also immediately provide a higher level of service, in the form of a reduction in damaged DVDs. I'm not sure what kind of postage rates Netflix has negotiated with the USPS, but the addition of a hard casing to each envelope may increase the rate that Netflix is charged by the Post Office for delivery and return of the content. I'm sure the Post Office would reject the change if it did indeed increase their costs without being compensated for it. This would be another potential increase in costs for Netflix.
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