Sample Projects

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#000099" TEXT="#F7F7FF" bgproperties="fixed" background="03a006e0erkqpg.png"> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#A6CAF0" FACE="Verdana" ><B>                                                                         <IMG SRC="055f9410.png" border=0 width="249" height="65" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></FONT><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#FFCC00" FACE="Verdana" ><B>  </B><B> </B></FONT><B> </B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="ParkCentral Systems CONSULTANTS"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="About Us"><U><B>About Us</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Services Offered"><U><B>Services Offered</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Organization"><U><B>Organization</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id16.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Past Clients"><U><B>Past Clients</B></U></A><B>   |   </B><B>Sample Projects</B><B>   |   </B><A HREF="id6.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contact Us"><U><B>Contact Us</B></U></A></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#555555" TEXT="#080000" background="03bbec00diriop.png"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="073ac010.jpg" border=0 width="172" height="257" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#777777" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>Sample Projects</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>1) </B><B><U>Application Development Projects</U></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Telemarketing Volume Forecasting</U></B></div> <div> A decision support tool for a catalog company to forecast call volume by week by sales contact channel.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Crew Training Scheduling - Initial Flying</U></B><B><U> </U></B><B><U>(Confidential project for a Large Airline</U></B><B><U>)</U></B></div> <div> A complex system related to assigning student pilots to their initial flying experience after flight simulator school.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Flight Schedule Flow Simulation (Confidential </U></B><B><U>project for a Large Airline </U></B><B><U>)</U></B></div> <div> An ARENA-based simulation tool designed to “pre-fly” aircraft through their daily planned schedules, while reflecting probabilistic delays and catch-up efforts along the way. This tool quantifies the impact of schedule tightness in terms of delays and misconnected passengers and bags. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Telecenter Staffing System for a Large Catalog</U></B></div> <div> A system to forecast call volumes and determine staffing for a multi-skilled Catalog Telecenter. Offers a computer simulation of an Automated Call Distributor (ACD) for determining the best combination of staffing, skill mix, and call management rules to minimize staffing costs while meeting customer service goals</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Airline Tariff Project (Confidential project for a Large Travel Agency)</U></B></div> <div> A large research and development project involving analysis, design, and construction of a system involving airfares, rules, footnotes, and airline schedules. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>UPS  "ZONE-SKIPPING"  Optimizer for a Major Catalog </U></B></div> <div> Developed a system for a cataloger which optimally chose  (based on package volume) which set of UPS cities it could ship packages to in order to maximize saved UPS zone charges.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Optimal Purchasing Model for a Major Catalog</U></B></div> <div> This model optimizes the purchasing gamble taken by catalog merchandisers as they commit to inventory levels. The model reviews historical forecasting error, and the penalties of over / undercommitting and minimizes the sum of expected surplus and shortage costs. It can be applied to both soft and hard lines.  </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Forecasting Models for Two Large Catalogs</U></B></div> <div> Developed a number of preseason and in-season demand forecasting models for a very large catalog company. Models applied to both softlines and hardlines. Reapplied one of the in-season forecasting models at a large hardline catalog company. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Item Sales Forecasting for a Catalog Company</U></B></div> <div> A system for a gift food direct marketer to forecast sales volume at the item and department levels.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Crew Scheduling for a Large Class I  Railroad</U></B></div> <div> A system to assist top management in determining the feasibility of implementing the crew-scheduling concept in its approximately 50 local crew seniority districts.  The system simulates train movements using historical probabilities of delays, builds optimal on/off work patterns, simulates the crew-to-train assignment and flow processes, and then identifies the staffing levels required to cover trips while meeting operational goals. First of its kind in the railroad industry. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Seasonal Buying Model for a sporting goods company</U></B></div> <div> A decision tool to plan a whole season's purchasing at a time, while optimizing holding and procurement costs, quantity discounts, and the requirement to end the season with little or no inventory. The optimization is based on dynamic programming techniques.      </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Misc. Applications</U></B></div> <div> A database application for a large restaurant chain.  A database package for a large food brokerage firm. A project management role for an application at a large hair products manufacturer. A business analysis role for the crew management department of a large airline trying to develop a Long Term Manpower Planning System. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>2) </B><B><U>Market Research Projects</U></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Conducted Hundreds of Focus Group Sessions</U></B></div> <div> Formulated, administered, moderated, and summarized hundreds of focus group sessions spanning an enormous spectrum of research objectives across a wide variety of industries.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Customer Segmentation for a Major Catalog</U></B></div> <div> Applied pattern recognition techniques to classify catalog customers into segments of expected purchase value, based on the information at the time of their first purchase. Developed an optimization to determine the best strategy for when to cut off mailings to members of each segment. </div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Attitudinal/Behavioral Consumer Segmentation for Large Tax Service Provider</U></B></div> <div> Conducted a comprehensive consumer segmentation. Following a round of exploratory focus groups, identified and mapped the three major dimensions of Tax Preparation Space and the five clusters of Tax Preparation Styles that reside in the space. The insights gleaned from this segmentation  served as the foundation for marketing and advertising development as well as new product planning.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Complementary Market and Visitor Segmentation for Museum of Science & Industry</U></B></div> <div> Using data from a massive mail panel survey of Chicago and surrounding areas and a random visitor sample derived from a computerized questionnaire, we identified and mapped two complementary consumer segmentations and identified a total of 5 market clusters and 6 visitor clusters which we assembled into a comprehensive matrix of Museum Styles. The insights gleaned from this effort served as the basis for marketing and advertising strategies as well as the foundation for future exhibit purchase and design.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><U>Tracking Study for a Large Truck Manufacturer</U></B></div> <div> Using data gathered by the Moran Group from a survey of Long-Haul Truck Drivers conducted in truck stops around the country, we tracked the migration of client's brand image across a two-dimensional image space over a period of 5 years. Feedback from this tracking study enabled client to create advertising strategies and position new product introductions that significantly enhanced the client's brand  image among Long-Haul Truck Drivers. </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="768" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 70 ><NOBR><bR> <div> * SAS® is the registered trademark of the SAS Institute</div> <div>    Copyright © 2002   Park-Central Systems,  Inc.     </div> <div> _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________</div> <div> Office Telephone:   847.877.4438          E-mail : <A HREF="mailto:ggoldstein@parkcentralsystems.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:ggoldstein@parkcentralsystems.com"><U>ggoldstein@parkcentralsystems.com</U></A>       </div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>