ot all firms will be challenged equally in terms of managing supply and demand. The seriousness of the problem will depend on the extent of demand fluctuations over time and the extent to which supply is constrained ( Table 13.1 ). 3 Organizations in some service industries will experience wide fluctuations in demand (hospitals,transportation, restaurants), whereas others will have narrower fluctuations (insurance, laundry, banking). For some, peak demand can usually be met even when demand fluctuates (electricity, natural gas, Internet services), but for others peak demand may frequently exceed capacity (hospital emergency rooms, restaurants near football stadiums, hotels next to universities). Those firms with wide variations in demand (cells 1 and 4 in Table 13.1 ), and particularly those with wide fluctuations in demand that regularly exceed capacity (cell 4), will find the issues and strategies in this chapter particularly important to their success. Those firms that find themselves in cell 3 may decide a “one-time-fix” (as discussed in Chapter 9) to expand their capacity to match regular patterns of excessive demand will sufficiently address the situation. The industries in T able 13.1 are provided to illustrate where most firms in those industries would likely be classified. In reality, an individual firm from any industry could find itself in any of the four cells, depending on its immediate circumstances.