Real-Life Decision Making
You are a musical instrument repairer. You are self-employed. You rely on keeping your clients satisfied and keeping costs down.
"Decisions are continually being made in every aspect of a business," says musical instrument repairer John Vossos. One decision that Vossos says always comes up is "which repair to do first and what would be best in each particular case."
Your passion for violins comes first. Whenever someone brings in a violin for restringing, cleaning or repairs, you are eager to start working on it.
You have just finished working on a trumpet. The local band teacher has asked you to repair five of the band's trumpets. They all need to be cleaned, so that means you will be using the same equipment a number of times.
When the band teacher first came into your shop, he asked you to only clean two of the band's trumpets. That same afternoon, someone brought in a violin that you are anxious to work on.
You know that you have all the parts you need to fix the violin, but it will be a lot of labor. The owner of the violin accepts your quote, and you say it will be ready in one week.
The next day, the band teacher returns with three more trumpets. You were just finishing the second one, anxiously awaiting the time you were going to be spending working on the violin. The violin owner isn't in a rush. You quoted one week and could easily do the three extra trumpets and the violins in the set amount of time.
Both the violin and the trumpets will be completed on time. You simply must decide the order in which you will do them. Violins are your favorite instruments to repair. But you must also consider which move will be more cost-effective.
What do you do?