Big Data - Question

Question Bank
5 Fresh ‘n’ Frozen

You work in the Lahore office of PJK Chartered Accountants, and having worked on the
audit of one of your firm’s clients, Fresh 'n' Frozen Co. (FF) for the last two years, you
have been seconded onto a team to work on an advisory project for this client.
Company background
FF was set up seven years ago by Qirat Sharif. The company specialises in the delivery
of frozen foods including ready meals, fruit, meat and fish products. Deliveries are made
to the homes of customers living within 25 kilometre of the central distribution hub in
the centre of Lahore. FF operates a fleet of 45 specially modified vans. Each van has
been fitted with a freezer unit allowing frozen goods to be transported at the required
temperature. Ensuring that the food does not spoil while in transit after leaving the
company's depot is of critical importance. Although Lahore has a well-developed
transport infrastructure, its rapidly increasing population is resulting in worsening traffic
congestion. This presents a growing challenge for the company's drivers as they are able
to fulfil fewer customer orders per day, due to time lost in traffic jams.
Online ordering
FF buys in frozen food products from a number of suppliers, and the products are then
packaged and marketed under the FF brand. Customers place their orders through the
company's website. When they make their order, customers also need to provide their
name, address, contact details and payment details. Customers are currently unable to
request a precise time of delivery as the company can only offer a 4 hour delivery
window. Once an order has been received, the Head of Delivery will allocate a driver to
make the delivery on the specified day within the agreed delivery window. The customer
is notified confirmation of the delivery date and time window by FF’s customer service
team, who often contact customers via landline telephone or text message.
In the event that a customer is not home to take the call informing them of delivery a
voice mail message and a text message is left, using the phone details provided. In the
event that the customer does not respond to the message, it is assumed that the allocated
delivery slot is to the customers liking and no further action is taken. Qirat has made it
a company objective that all deliveries must be fulfilled within four days of being placed.
Delivery route management
When new drivers start working at FF they are allocated a particular route from which
deliveries are made. Most routes were determined by the previous Head of Delivery who
retired from FF nearly two years ago. The routes were based on historic patterns of
deliveries made at the time, taking into account the anticipated distance covered to make
a delivery. Distance was determined by using a well-known mapping website which
provided the shortest distance between any two locations.
There have recently been some instances where a driver has been sent out with a partial
load of deliveries (defined as less than 10 drops) on their assigned route (See Exhibit 1),
whilst at the same time other drivers have had to return to the depot to reload their truck
to allow them to fulfil the orders placed on their assigned route. This has resulted in an
increased number of allocated delivery slots not being
fulfilled. When this happens, the customer’s order is taken back to the depot at the end
of the driver’s shift, and prioritised for delivery the following day.
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Drivers are paid an uncompetitive basic hourly rate, but this is supplemented by generous
bonuses that are payable on a monthly basis for meeting the company’s delivery success
target of 95%. As a result of the recent inefficiencies the company’s overall delivery
success rate has fallen below 90% for the first time, and some drivers are rarely receiving
bonus payments.
Management meeting
Due to dip in FF's delivery performance, Qirat held a meeting with her management
team, during which some concerns raised by Wahid Vali, the Head of Delivery, were
shared (See Exhibit 2). Dibba Mir, Head of Customer Services added:
'The points being raised here would support the findings from some recent customer
research that I carried out. A number of customers have started to complain about the
service they receive from us, with one customer stating 'I have used FF for a number of
years. However, the fact that I cannot specify a delivery time to fit around my work
commitments means I can simply no longer use this service. I have recently started using
the home delivery service of a supermarket due to the flexibility they offer'. Another,
customer said 'I am sick of waiting for my delivery to turn up only for it not to turn up
at all. When I contact FF I get told that my delivery driver was held up in traffic and that
my delivery will be dispatched again the following day'.
Dibba finished by highlighting the key findings from a business news article she had
read. 'This article mentioned something called 'Big Data' and 'Big Data Analytics'. The
journalist seemed to suggest that the widening use of data has now become as important
as the internet has become in modern business. I wonder if this could help us here at FF?'
Intrigued by the Dibba’s inputs, Qirat has contacted your firm requesting a report on the
role of Big Data and its potential use at FF.
Requirement
The senior manager working on the FF advisory project has asked you to draft the
following extracts to go into the report being prepared for FF
(a) Briefly explain and discuss what is meant by the term 'Big Data' and the 'Vs'
model. (4 marks)
(b) Explain how the management at FF could make use of Big Data and Data
Analytics to improve the company's performance. (13 marks)
(c) Discuss the practical implications that FF would need to consider before
attempting to capture more data about its customers. (8 marks)
Total = 25 marks
Exhibit 1 – Company Delivery Targets

Average number of deliveries per day 15
Average hours driven per day 7.5
Average hours paid per day 8.0
Overtime premium 50%
Target of deliveries on time, first time each month 95%
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Question Bank
Exhibit 2 – Email from Head of Delivery

From: Wahid Vali To: Qirat Sharif
Subject: Fleet problems Hi Qirat
As requested, I have been undertaking a review of operations in response to our falling
delivery success rate. My team of drivers has experienced an increase in the number
of delivery slots being missed. Customers appear to be unwilling to wait in to take
receipt of a delivery much beyond the allocated time slot. This generates a lot of extra
work for us, as the depot staff have to unload the undelivered food and make
alternative arrangements for delivery. Upon further investigation I have also
discovered:
1 – Since Imran Mullah, the previous Head of Delivery retired last year, the delivery
routes have not been updated.
2 – I have noticed an increase in the amount of fuel that has been purchased in the last
few months – this appears to be largely driven by the older vans in our fleet, which
are relatively inefficient to drive, as well as requiring more energy to power their
refrigeration units. We have had some issues with a couple of vans whereby the freezer
units were barely working at all on the hottest days.
3 – Morale amongst our drivers is very low since bonus payments became less
predictable.
I fear that without substantial investment in new IT systems and trucks we will not be
able to address the fall in delivery punctuality.
Kind regards,
Wahid
Tutorial guidance before you begin

Big data is very topical, both in the ‘real word’ and in examinations. You start to this
question is very gentle as you are asked to merely explain the meaning of this. You
may find that the ‘Vs’ model will help you here.
As you read through the scenario you will discover that the company is not very
‘mature’ in its development and deployment of IT. They have made some efforts to
modernise, but, are far from being market leaders in the way that they use exploit what
you may consider to be every-day technologies. As such in part b of this question you
should find that a careful scan of the question scenario reveals many simple
improvements that can be made. The ‘trick’ to this part of the question however is
how you tie-this back to the requirement. Be careful to think about how simple
technological improvements – such as modern Sat-Nav units – can be combined with
Big Data and Data Analytics. You must refer to Big Data and Data Analytics to score
in this section.
The final requirement gets you to think about practical aspects. Therefore you must
refer and relate your observations back to the specifics of the scenario – FF and its
current position. All companies would like to have world class IT, however, there are
numerous practical reasons as to why this is not always possible. Identify these issues
in FF to ensure your answer is scenario specific and addresses the requirement.
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Question Bank

5 Fresh ‘n’ Frozen

Exhibit 1 – Company Delivery Targets

Exhibit 2 – Email from Head of Delivery

Tutorial guidance before you begin

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