A pizza company with stores located citywide uses one order call-in phone number for the entire city,
Callers regardless of their address, can phone XXX-1111 to place an order. Based on the caller’s
phone number, an automated switching service directs the call to the appropriate store.
On a recent Friday evening, the pizza company lost as many as 15.000 orders when a malfunctioning
mechanical devices made calls to their phone numbers impossible.
From about 5:30 to 8 P.M., when caller hoping to place an order phoned, they were met with either
silence or a busy signal. This is not the first time this malfunction has occurred. Just two weeks
earlier, the same problem surfaced. The pizza company and the company that installed the system are
working to ensure that situation doesn’t repeat itself. They believe a defective call switch is to blame.
Based on what you have learned in this chapter, why is a structured problem-solving process
critical to the success of finding and eliminating a problem? What steps do you recommend they follow?