Operations Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Operations Management - Essay Example It is evident from the study that service and manufacturing supply chains share a lot more in common than the way they differ. In the process of delivering service products, manual processes that require human beings is involved. So, the solutions that use standardization and automation in improving operation efficiency in the service industry are less applicable. In addition to this, the labor intensive industries require more advanced scheduling systems so that they can coordinate effectively the prefaces of commonalities. The customers in the service industry play a great role in the delivery of services during the delivery process or even the service initiation process unlike in the manufacturing business. A good example is the electronic repair service. The involvement of customer delivery has an impact in service heterogeneity and impacts the service quality. The distinctive needs by the customers do change the content of each service product offered. As a result, it makes the service quality hard to measure and also monitor. The service which is provided by the service industries is often intangible for instance; education is one of the services. Intangibility leads to three issues: First, it’s difficult to score, secondly, it’s difficult to account for and thirdly, it’s difficult to identify suppliers. An intangible good as many believes can only be stored in books. This characteristic then shifts the focus of management from buffering by inventory to ensuring capacity flexibility and also managing capacity. One of the ways in which service procurement can better be controlled is by implementing a two-way match of the service receiving process. Here, the purchasing documents as well as the invoices are matched upon receiving and this process includes matching of the invoice, purchase order and shipping document in manufacturing. Unfortunately, in the service receiving process, counting of physical goods is a missing link. It becomes difficult in the start of the procurement process to identify the suppliers. The service buyer is not always sure of the specification of the service been procured. In addition to this, due to the intangibility of the service, you find that the service quality is very hard to measure (Andrew & Michael 2005). Simultaneity of production and consumption: Unlike in the case of the manufactured good, the services are created and consumed at the same time. You find that once the service has been created, there is no lead time in the middle to buffer against uncertainties. Combined with difficulties in storing these services, it isn’t surprising seen that a flexible capacity is vital to the success of a service supply chain (Andrew & Michael 2005). Customer supplier duality: A good example to explain duality is the electronic repair service. Here, you find that a customer supplies the malfunctioning electronics and in return,