SOM

Service Operations Management

Service Operations Management

Question 1: (25 marks)

Effectively managing operations in industrial or a service business requires expertise in the design and construction of integrated systems of people, materials, information, equipment and energy. These skills have their foundation in mathematics, physical and social sciences, which are combined with the principles and methods of analysis and design of systems in order to specify, predict and evaluate the results. Thus, the operations manager working in industry (project, job shop, batch, flow, process) or services (hotels, hospitals, banks, public administration, large commercial buildings, etc..), With the aim of continuously improving the quality of products and services and productivity of organizations. Briefly, the operations manager brings together expertise in the following areas of work: analysis methods, times and costs of operations, Cost Accounting, Inventory management of materials and analysis of their performance; Quality control of products and processes , Analysis and redesign of layouts; Analysis of performance management systems; Statistical analysis of operating systems; Technical simulation systems (operational and management); Economic and financial analysis of investment projects; Analysis multicriteria decision alternatives; Curative and Preventive Maintenance of equipment, Health, Safety and Hygiene at Work, Energy Management, Planning and Control of Operations, Planning and Control Projects; Technologies Industrial Production, Robotics and Automation ... and uses software support - from popularized the tools of office automation to the specific software that allows you to plan and control operations, analyze existing systems or designing new systems (creating models and simulating its operation).

Services underscore the need to add 3 more P's; Process, People and Physical Evidence, such as defined in Table 1 (BITNER and Zeithaml, 2003). Various methods and techniques can be used in the development of the three basic aspects Service (concept, process, and system). Table 3 lists some methods and techniques which application is suggested in the reference indicated. It is worth mentioning the importance of considering the design of the service is affected by two key variables: processing volume and variety of services offered. According Silvestro et al. (1992) and Silvestro (1999), from these two variables service operations can be divided into three basic types, namely: Professional Services, Shops and Service Mass Services. Each has its own operating characteristics, such as described in the following sections. 2.2.1. Mass services The fundamental characteristic of a mass service is the sheer volume of people prosecuted per employee attendant. Services that fall under this category, the processes are run very frequently and repetitively. Usually present guidance to equipment due to the low degree of interaction and customization process; low.

The vast majority of projects seeking low cost and high quality as goals Performance. These objectives depend in large part on operational procedures well planned. In this sense, the adoption of various concepts and tools usually treated in Production Engineering as drivers for operational excellence (such as Service Lean, TQM, Zero Defects, Design for Six Sigma, etc.) can be foreseen during the design of the business as a means to ensure these goals. However, this practice was not observed in the analysed ...