Discuss How Service Operations are Different from Manufacturing Essay

Discuss How Service Operations are Different from Manufacturing Operations - Essay Example Waste in the process or fail points are not obvious in service operations that efforts to reduce cost and control quality before they reach the customer can be very difficult (Wienclaw 2008). This makes the operations of many service oriented companies costly with many customers dissatisfied with the service they received. The need to align service delivery in accordance to customer expectations and the market imperative to reduce cost to remain competitive in the market, however, compels the operations of service oriented industry to adopt and implement manufacturing approaches and systems. By implementing manufacturing approaches and systems, the cost of operations in service oriented companies are being reduced such as the case of McDonalds as stated in this paper. The implementation of quality control system such as Six Sigma also enabled Bank of America not only to increase the level of its customer’s satisfaction but also saved the company $2 billion in expenditures rela ted to areas where Six Sigma was implemented. II. How service operations are different from manufacturing operations.   The most obvious difference between a service operations and manufacturing operations are the products they produce. Service operations sell service that has no physical presence while manufacturing operations produces concrete products that has a physical existence. Unlike manufacturing operations that produces concrete products whose quality can easily determined by its specifications, service operations differs from manufacturing operations because its output is often evaluated in terms of customer experience. Activities of a service operation are often based on the quality, speed, competence and courtesy of its delivery that is not easily quantifiable that could be subjected to the relativity of customer’s experience (Wienclaw 2008). The factors that determine a good service cannot be easily quantified because of the difficulty of operationally definin g what makes a good service delivery. Unlike in manufacturing where fail points in its process can be easily determined and substandard products can be readily rejected before reaching the customer, service operations outputs are subjected to perceptions and expectations of the customer which are relative (Wienclaw 2008). For example, walking through a novice customer in a step by step computer troubleshooting procedure may be very helpful that would constitute a good customer service but the same could also be annoying to a technically proficient customer that could affect the overall customer satisfaction. The differences of service operations from manufacturing operations can be categorized in the factors of intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability that make services difficult to control and improve. Intangibility – plainly, service cannot be recognized by any of the five senses. Unlike in manufacturing operations whose outputs are concrete, services rendered by a service oriented company cannot be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted (Kotler et al. 2004). It can only be