Service Process Design

Tangible Services of Whitehouse Floors
Whitehouse Floors offer a huge selection of colors and patterns for flooring. Customers have the opportunity to visit the showroom with a lot of displays and large selection of samples to make their decisions. Additionally, customers are welcome to take any of these samples home or to their place of business to aid in the decision-making. We also provide refinishing services and hardwood and laminate cleaning kits, and if clients would like to install their own flooring, then we can furnish with just the materials. We love helping customers create the right flooring for their decor and lifestyle. We have a professionally trained crew, with all the members licensed and insured, in addition to criminal history checks performed on everyone. Customer can trust us with our superior flooring and services. Every customer is treated with the utmost care and experience. Whitehouse Floors LLC prides themselves on being extremely involved with their customers on every level, from picking out colors to laying out a design for their floors.

Psychological benefits of Whitehouse Floors
After several years of experience, customers feel satisfied with our variety of floors and customization. Costumers count on us for proper flooring materials as well as neat, top-quality floor and carpet installation. The fact that our installers are required to pass a criminal background check and be fully insured makes customers feel safe in opening their doors to our service. Service is supplied by professional trained, licensed and insured staff. Customers also feel assured being in the show room, by being given personal attention from the minute they walk through the door, until they leave. They are all offered refreshments and given all the help they could possibly need, while in the showroom. The showroom is meant to be a place where our customers feel comfortable to make all their flooring decisions now and in the future an easy and pleasant process.

Physical goods of Whitehouse Floors
-Carpeting (Residential & Commercial)
-Hardwood Flooring (Unfinished & Pre-finished)
-Porcelain Tile
-Ceramic Tile
-Natural Stone or Slate
-Cork Flooring
-Laminate Flooring
-Vinyl Flooring
-Hardwood Refinishing (New & Old)
-Cleaning Kits (Hardwood & Laminate)


Whitehouse Floors’ customers are offered customer-routed services where customers want a unique, highly customized experience. Customers have a great deal of decision making power to determine the components of the service. We facilitate an onsite-consultation and after customers decide how, when, and the sequence in which it is delivered. We provide personal service, one on one with each customer.
Whitehouse Floors uses high customer contact. For example, when customers enter the showroom they are immediately greeted face to face with a highly trained professional for all their flooring needs. They are also greeted to a neat showroom with a large variety of flooring samples. We use rarely technology is the service process design. For example, we have no bar codes, scanners or computers that track our inventory. The customization and practical work is done by employees with different type of machinery specified for each individual type of flooring and job needs.
Whitehouse Floors supports its employees; buy providing them with the most recent training in the industry and backing up their decision making. Employees at Whitehouse Floors are looked at as the front line to the business. They are there to ensure a pleasant and informative experience for all of the customers. Whitehouse Floors realizes the importance to content, well trained and trusted employees.
In terms of service recovery, Whitehouse Floors LLC does everything they can to ensure a job goes extremely well. However, there have been cases where a distributor will send the wrong product to the warehouse, therefore resulting in a postponement of a job which was due to completed with in upcoming days. This is handled by immediately verifying the material, re-ordering the material which was expected, scheduling pick up or a return authorization on the wrong material, and then rescheduling of the job. We also guarantee the job will be done professionally and properly. If this does not take place, Whitehouse Floors immediately sends their crew back out to the job site to correct any issues. Everything is done to ensure the customer that the job will be done correctly and Whitehouse Floors has every best intention in mind.
When looking at service guarantees, Whitehouse Floors always checks stock before placing an order. This ensures the customer with a date the product will be arriving. A standard of 1 week is generally used; however, there are many cases where special order products take numerous amounts of weeks. By checking stock with the distributors prior to ordering and making customers aware of the products arrival date, gives the customer relief in knowing when their product will be arriving and that Whitehouse Floors is keeping track of every job. This immensely helps in improving the service process and eludes from any complications from the start of the process design.

Process Selection

Whitehouse Floors LLC uses a product flow process known as the batch flow. Once the product or in this case, flooring, is brought to our warehouse it is then and only then, the product is owned by Whitehouse Floors. There are many different operations or work centers that are used for each different type of flooring. For carpet there is a different process in which one installer is responsible for and the same goes for wood, laminate, tile, and refinishing processes. Each group or category of flooring has its own individual process for installation, yet at the same time all have the common goal to lay the floor properly and professionally. Each group uses their own machines; however, are all floor laying machines. Because there are different operations to laying each individual floor, the flow path varies depending on the type of flooring being laid. Other characteristics which would change the “work centers” would be items such as the type of sub floor, what type of product the customer prefers, as well as, other personalized issues for each job.
Whitehouse Floors LLC uses a make-to-order customer order process. Because each customer has many different preferences and job specifications, each is tailor made to the customer specification. In addition to this, the jobs in process are extremely dependent on the customers’ wants and needs. Another characteristic Whitehouse Floors holds with the make-to-order customer order process, is the fact in which the cycle of production and order fulfillment beings with the customer order being placed. It then follows through the MTO process exactly until the cycle is completed.
Using this information, when looking at the process characteristics matrix, it is clear that Whitehouse Floors LLC falls under the batch and job shop and the make-to-order cell.
Factors which influence Whitehouse Floors process selection are very common to the flooring industry. Usually, most installers specialize in a particular type of flooring. Because of this, they know how to use each piece of machinery, etc. The customer itself is a huge factor. Each customer has different preferences as to what type of flooring is put in their home. Along with that, there are many different types of sub floors, requirements which must be met, and wants and needs from the customer.
When considering mass customization methods, it does not seem reasonable for Whitehouse Floors LLC to adopt any. There is not a common process in which one can use to lay all types of flooring. Because each different floor type requires different techniques, tools, labor, and attention it is highly difficult to arrange a common process for all categories of flooring.

Inventory Management

Whitehouse Floors LLC has many different forms of inventory. Of course there is flooring that is kept in stock, however there are also supplies which keep the office running and open for customers. For both forms of inventory Whitehouse Floors uses a technique very similar to the Periodic Review System, where we periodically check stock and order only the amounts needed to keep a set amount of inventory. The system that is currently in place for flooring that is held in stock is very simplistic. The only items that are stock are unfinished or raw wood. Every other type of floor is ordered based off of what the customer chooses. Whitehouse Floors LLC always keeps two pallets of wood in their warehouse. One pallet consists of 2 ¼” unfinished red oak, while the other consists of 3 ¼” unfinished red oak. This wood is commonly used for repairs and refinishing projects. The process is fairly simple. The office manager orders a pallet of both types of wood. An invoice is kept aside and as jobs come in which require the wood, the quantity used for the job is subtracted from the original pallet square footage. Once either of the pallets reaches half of their original square footage, another pallet is ordered. The reason there is not a set system in place for the re-ordering of the wood, is demand. There are slow seasons in the flooring industry as well as busy times. Wood is easily available from the distributors and only takes at a maximum 1-2 days to arrive at Whitehouse Floors’ warehouse. Whitehouse Floors does not inventory any other type of flooring, as mentioned before; all other types of flooring are specially ordered for the specific job needs.
Whitehouse Floors does however inventory other types of materials. The showroom is another side of the business. This is where people come in and actually choose the flooring for their projects. This showroom has many different forms of inventory. Deal jackets (Manila Folders), pens, printer paper, toner, post-its, and brochures are just a few examples of the types of inventory kept at the showroom. Every two weeks it is the office managers’ responsibility to update the inventory within the store. This is done by evaluating how much of the inventory has been used up and predicting how much will be used over the next two weeks. The amount ordered to refurbish the inventory fluctuates each time, again depending on whether or not Whitehouse Floors is in a busy month or a slower month. The busier they are, the more showroom inventory they will need and vise versa. Materials are easily accessible with a lead time of approximately one day.