servmarkchpter4
TRANSCRIPT
OUTCOME
Identify & understand services’ unique delivery system
Importance of customer’s involvement in services
Know the basics of blueprinting
CUSTOMER’S INVOLVEMENT
Replace the work done by employees with work done by customers
Pro: convenient for customers, flexibility & accessibility
Cons: increased risk, less control & loss of human contact
MARKETING & OPERATIONS
1. Balance is critical
2. Service firms must be efficient (in a perfect world)
3. Applying the efficiency models
4. Art of blueprinting
1. BALANCE IS CRITICAL
A trade-off in terms of:
Type of demand; High-contact Vs. Low-contact
Cycle of demand; scheduling, production & capacity, planning & forecasting
Length of service experience
BALANCE: HIGH-CONTACT VS. LOW CONTACT
High-contact: operations must be near customers
Low-contact: operations must be placed near supply, transportation or labour
BALANCE: CYCLE OF DEMAND
Scheduling:
customer is part of schedule & must be accommodated (High-contact)
Customer is concerned mainly with completion date (Low-contact)
Production Planning:
Orders cannot be stored (High-contact)
Backlogging is possible (Low-contact)
BALANCE: CYCLE OF DEMAND
Forecasting:
Short term, time oriented (High-contact)
Long term, output oriented (Low-contact)
BALANCE: LENGTH OF SERVICE EXPERIENCE
High-contact: service time depends on customer’s needs
Low-contact: work is performed on customer surrogates (ex: forms), time standard can be tight
2. SERVICES FIRMS MUST BE EFFICIENT (IN A PERFECT WORLD)
i. Thompson’s Perfect-World Model
ii. Focused Factory Concept
iii. Plant-Within-A-Plant Concept
THOMPSON’S PERFECT-WORLD MODEL
Technical core: the place within a firm where primary operations are conducted
Perfect world: efficiency is possible only if inputs, outputs & quality happen at a constant rate and remain known & certain
FOCUSED FACTORY CONCEPT
An operation that concentrates on performing one particular task in one particular part of the service experience (specialization)
PLANT-WITHIN-A-PLANT CONCEPT
Breaking up large, unfocused activities into smaller units buffered from one another
Buffering: surrounding the technical core with input & output to shield it from outside influences
Done through smoothing, anticipating & rationing
APPLYING EFFICIENCY MODELS TO SERVICES
1. Isolating the technical core (decoupling)
&
2. Minimizing the servuction model (decoupling)
3. Production –lining the whole system
4. Creating flexible capacity
5. Moving the time demand
EFFICIENCY: PRODUCTION-LINING
Production line approach: application of hard & soft technologies
Hard tech: hardware that facilitates the production of standardized services
Soft tech: rules, regulations & procedures
EFFICIENCY: FLEXIBLE CAPACITTY
Part time employees
Cross-training employees
Sharing capacity with other firms
THE ART OF BLUEPRINTING
Flowcharting of a service operation:
1. Identify the directions in which processes flow
2. The time it takes to move from one process to the next
3. Cost involved with each process
4. Amount of inventory build-up at each step
5. Bottlenecks in the system
Point where customers wait the longest