Southwest Airlines and the Value Chain Model

Porter’s Value Chain Model is a helpful management tool that businesses can use to systematically breakdown and evaluate a process. It can be used to isolate and determine a problem or potential failure and determine where strategic changes (often times, technologically-oriented) can be implemented. In this exercise, we will use Porter’s Value Chain model to to examine the problems leading up to and resulting in Southwest Airlines cancelling over 16,700 flights in December 2022.

Please be sure to have read chapter 1 about Porter’s Value Chain model before you get started. (Do not use AI to generate your answers.)

1. Read the case about Southwest Airlines on pages 15 and 16 of your textbook and the content about Porter’s Value Chain Model in your textbook. Using the case, answer each of the following questions. After reading the case:
2. Identify and explain an issue described in the case that falls in each of the primary activities:
3. Inbound Logistics: Examine how Southwest Airlines manages flight arrivals.
4. Operations: Analyze Southwest’s operational processes, including flight scheduling and crew management.
5. Outbound Logistics: Consider how Southwest delivers its services to customers and the impact on flight departures.
6. Marketing & Sales: Evaluate Southwest’s marketing and sales strategies and how the crisis affected customers’ perception and reservation sales.
7. Services: Investigate Southwest’s customer service response during the crisis. Identify areas where service delivery failed.
8. Identify and explain an issue described in the case that falls in each of the support activities: (About 2 very good detailed sentences for each.)
9. Firm Infrastructure: Examine Southwest’s overall management, leadership, and administrative framework of Southwest Airlines.
10. Human Resource Management: Consider how the Southwest manages its workforce.
11. Technology Development: Analyze the role technology played in the crisis. Consider how outdated systems contributed to the problem and suggest technological improvements.
12. Procurement: Consider how Southwest purchases resources and if there were any issues that may have added to the crisis.
13. Explain how Southwest could have used artificial intelligence (AI) to assist them with (a) one primary and (b) one support activity in the case.

• Identify the activity and then explain how AI could have been used and the support it would provie.