Service Operations Management

In customer service, the telephone is the second most important link (Lucus, 2015). Modern business use telephones in their day-to-day operations and to communicate with both internal and external customers (Lucus, 2015). Traveling to meet with customers and vendors face to face can be expensive and time-consuming (Lucus, 2015). With the technology of today, you can dial a telephone number or type a text into a cell phone and connect to a customer or vendor half-way around the world almost instantaneously (Lucus, 2015). With fax machines and computer modems, documents and information can be sent in a matter of minutes to customers and vendors miles away (Lucus, 2015). With all those tools, readily available more companies have set up both inbound and outbound telephone staffs (Lucus, 2015). Companies are expanding their customer contacts and are more likely to reach total customers satisfaction through those types of trained specialist (Lucus, 2015).

This course focuses on services management in general and service operations in particular. It explores the elements that unite services, that differentiate service processes from non-service processes and that differentiate various types of services from each other. Customers generally participate in the service process, often with direct and uncensored interactions with employees and facilities. The resulting

This is an introduction to the case study of Somerset Furniture. The main talk of the event would be about global supply chain and its impact towards Somerset furniture. In this case study we reverse the history, background, and anatomy of Somerset Furniture. From the introduction of the company we learn about the journey needed in developing and manufacturing the product lines. The journey of Somerset Furniture will dictate on why the company started to outsource and also learn about the time frame involving in planning, processing, developing, shipment and manufacturing of the product lines.

Consider a firm with a daily demand of 100 units, a production rate per day of 500 units, a setup cost of $200, and an annual holding cost per unit of $10. Suppose that the firm operates 300 days per year. How many units of inventory must their storage area be able to hold?

Veal, A. J., 2006. Research Methods for Leisure and Tourism. 3rd ed. Beijing: China Renmin University Press.

There has to be an understanding of the complexity of services before one can begin to determine what challenges face the service industry and the most efficient means of facing those challenges to maintain success. A service organization provides intangible services for a monetary value as perceived by the consumer (Lovelock & Wirtz, 2011). A simple definition is that there are no physical items exchanged in a service transaction as opposed to retail where an item is given in exchange for a predetermined price point. This paper will provide

Q1: A manufacturer’s average work-in-process inventory for a certain part is 1,000 units. The workstation produces this part at the rate of 200 units per day. What is the average time a unit spends at this workstation? Inventory, , Throughput, . Thus, Flow time, . A unit spends an average time of 5 days at this workstation. Q2: The Wilcox Student Health Center has just implemented a new computer system and service process to “improve efficiency.” As pharmacy manager, you are concerned about waiting time and its potential impact on college students who “get no respect.” All prescriptions (Rxs) go through the following process: Drop-off ! Fill Rx ! Pick-up ! Cashier Assume that students arrive to drop-off Rxs at a steady rate of 2 Rxs per

Gioe Melaney is the general director of Southern Toro – a subsidiary company included in the distribution system of Toron Coporation in Galveston, Taxas.

The service industry interacts with our lives on a daily basis. Services can be defined as deeds, processes and performances. When considering the differences between products and services, intangibility and the fact that a service cannot be touched, tasted, viewed or tried on are terms often used (McColl-Kennedy & Kiel 2000). Services differ from goods in essentially four ways: (1) intangibility; (2) inseparability; (3) heterogeneity; (4) perishability (Kotler, Brown, Adam, Burton, Armstrong 2006). To deliver a quality service, managers also pay attention to the importance of tangibles that support service delivery as well as service delivery blueprinting. Managers must also accept that service failures occur and be able to

In order for a company to survive in a competitive market an abundance of planning must occur. A company must use forecasting and service design to maintain proper supply levels. The capacity must be evaluated in order to ensure an adequate amount of supply is available to meet the demand. Well outsourcing might be incorporated into daily operations, which does not always fare well. A successful company has determined how to separate itself from the competition well infiltrating the proper market.

3.1 For each hotel, what is the role of technology and the role of operations

The lean principles can be applied to service operations, as service operations are “organized systems of production processes” with the same potential for improvement through implementation of lean precepts as manufacturing operations (Benson, 1986 in Duclos et al., 1995). Manufacturing employ processes that add value to the inputs used in creating final products, which is in a way similar to services (Canel et al., 2000). Silvestro et al. (1993) classified service processes into three major headings of professional, service shop and mass. These three majors headings are further classified into six different dimensions of equipment/people focus as the main element of the service delivery is provided by equipment or people; customer contact time per transaction; the

Service customer interaction can also be between the customer and technology. The customer may be required to interact with technology in a technology based service encounter to experience the service on offer. In such a service encounter the customer is in control and might be willing to participate but not possessing the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to operate the machinery for example for a customer to purchase goods online or book a hotel reservations using the company’s website requires the customer to be computer literate hence when not and fails to place an order the service on offer would be deemed by the specific customers as of poor quality. Lovelock and Gummesson (2004) suggest that the service offer and encounter are less variable when machine-intensive technologies are utilised in service encounters since variability of the service encounter posses a great threat to the quality of service on offer. In a case where the customer successfully interacts with the technology in the service

As I entered the remaining classes in my concentration, Operations Management, I realized how each particular class subject had all come together, and how each was interrelated. Each class, each subject became more important to me as I realized their importance in the role of an operations manager.

On one hand, standardization represents a way of reducing the costs, increasing productivity, lowering the prices and systemizing innovations so that they can be reproduced (Sundbo, 1996; Gallouj, 1994; Sundbo 1998, cited in Sundbo, 2002). Customization on the other hand, increases the customer satisfaction ensuring the perceived quality, creates opportunities for rising the price. Furthermore it enables innovation to take place near the customer, which offers a great possibility to succeed on the market. The traditional economic theory highlights productivity gains as being the essence of any economic activity, implying economies of scale and cost reduction, while the theories of service development stress the importance of customer care in service activities, not reducing the costs (Normann, 1991; Gronroos 1990, cited Sundbo, 2002).