This is an unedited manuscript accepted for publication and provided as an Article in Press for early access at the author’s request. The article will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and galley proof review before final publication. Please be aware that errors may be identified during production that could affect the content. All legal disclaimers of the journal apply.
Amit Paul,
- Student, Department of MBA, Amity University Online, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
Abstract
This Study focuses on understanding how a wellness service provider company currently manages the process of assigning wellness professionals—such as fitness trainers, doctors, and mental health experts—to corporate clients, and where delays tend to occur within that process. As the organization follows an aggregator-based service model, it works with a wide network of freelance professionals spread across multiple cities. While this approach allows flexibility and rapid expansion, it also makes coordination and timely deployment more challenging. The study is based on a single-organization case study and closely examines the actual steps followed during the deployment cycle. Twenty-six recent service requests were reviewed in detail. For each request, timestamps were tracked from internal emails, CRM records, and WhatsApp communications to calculate how long each stage of the process took. In addition to this data, informal discussions with operations team members were conducted to better understand the practical reasons behind certain delays. The analysis clearly shows that the most time-consuming stage is the period spent waiting for service providers to confirm their availability. This sourcing and confirmation phase accounts for more than half of the total deployment time, making it the primary bottleneck in the workflow. Based on these findings, the project recommends practical and achievable improvements, such as pre-identifying preferred providers, setting clear response-time expectations, and improving visibility of provider availability. These changes are expected to reduce overall lead time and make the deployment process more reliable and easier to scale.
Keywords: Wellness Provider Deployment, Bottleneck Analysis, Process Mapping, Service Provider Availability, Operational Cycle Time
References
1. Chase RB, Shankar R, Jacobs FR. Operations and supply chain management. 15th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Education; 2018.
2. Goldratt EM, Cox J. The goal: a process of ongoing improvement. Croton-on-Hudson (NY): North River Press; 1984.
3. Ellram LM, Tate WL, Billington C. Understanding and managing the services supply chain. J Supply Chain Manag. 2004;40(3):17-32. doi:10.1111/j.1745-
493X.2004.tb00176.x.
4. George ML. Lean Six Sigma for service: how to use Lean speed and Six Sigma quality to improve services and transactions. New York: McGraw-Hill; 2003.
5. Slack N, Brandon-Jones A, Johnston R. Operations management. 8th ed. Harlow, England: Pearson; 2016.
6. Damasio J, et al. “The use of business process mapping to improve organizational efficiency.” International Journal of Business and Management. 2014.
7. Crush Fitness India. Operations logs and deployment data [internal company records]. New Delhi: Crush Fitness India; 2025.
8. Hammer M, Champy J. Reengineering the corporation: a manifesto for business revolution. 1st ed. New York, NY: HarperBusiness; 1993.
9. Womack JP, Jones DT. Lean thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. 2nd ed., rev. and updated. New York, NY: Free Press; 2003.
10. Johnston R, Clark G. Service operations management: improving service delivery. 3rd ed. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall; 2008.

Journal of Production Research & Management
| Volume | 16 | |
| 02 | ||
| Received | 21/03/2026 | |
| Accepted | 14/08/2026 | |
| Published | 31/08/2026 | |
| Publication Time | 163 Days |