Operations and Service Management Syllabus - MBA (PU)

Objectives of the Course

This course will introduce concepts and techniques for design, planning and control of service operations.

Course Description

This course is intended for the students who particularly want to learn about tools and gain knowledge to manage service businesses. Most of the present day businesses have services as an integral component in the day to day operations of an organization. In addition, service represents and contributes significant proportion in the present day economy. Some of the challenges and which differentiate service sector apart from manufacturing sector is its intangibility, uniqueness and extensive customer interaction. Hence, this course will provide tools, techniques and theories to integrate operations, strategy, marketing, technology, and organizational issues which the students have already come across in the past.

There will be interactive sessions and students are required to prepare themselves for the discussion by preparing the assigned readings/cases/articles assigned for the particular class.

Learning Objectives

• To introduce operations as a functional area of management and explore its links with other key functional areas of the firm
• To introduce the student to the management of a process that transforms inputs such as human resources, capital, material, and energy into outputs such as finished goods and services
• To develop an in depth understanding of the role Operations Management plays in a business organization
• To develop understanding of the fundamental concepts, analytical techniques and implementation issues involved in Operations Management.
• To develop the significance of linkages between operations and other functional areas like marketing, finance, and organizational behavior with a general management perspective.
• To develop an understanding of how:
  • as a operations manager one can analyze and improve a given operations process.
  • as a manager in other functional areas, identify the manner in which operations can play a major role in influencing the functional area strategy.

Course Outline

Module 1: Introduction and Strategy

1. Introduction: Services in the economy (1 Session)

• Importance of service sector
• Opportunities in service sector
• Characteristics of services
• Classification Frameworks

2. Strategic Positioning and service strategy (2 Sessions)

• A strategic Hierarchy and strategic consistency
• Strategic positioning: Industry and Competitor analysis approach to strategy
• Service Strategy: Competitive priorities, order winners and order qualifiers, Service concept and operating strategy, service delivery system
• Tactical Execution
• Strategically Planning for Service Growth: The Multi-Site Service Lifecycle, Industry Roll-Ups, Franchising

3. Internet Strategies (2 Sessions)

• Internet Marketing and Operations Advantages
• Differential Cost Drivers of Internet and Traditional Firms (Inventory, Personnel, Logistics)
• Strategies for Mixed Traditional and Internet Retailers
• Customer Service and the Internet
• Internet Service Design (Product, Processes, Technology, Task)
• Customer Contact Centers

Module 2: Creating Breakthrough Services

4. New Service development (2 Session)

• New service development process
• Service innovation
• Service system design and innovation
• Service system design tools (Service blue printing and Customer service utility models)

5. Managing service experiences (1 Session)

• Experience economy
• Creating successful and satisfying experiences
• Evaluating service experiences

Module 3: Managing Service Operations

6. Analyzing Process (2 Sessions)

• The need for process analysis in services
• Process flow diagram

7. Site Selection for Services (2 Session)

• Types of service firms
• Site selection for demand sensitive services, delivered services and quasi-manufacturing services

8. Service quality (3 Sessions)

• Defining service quality
• Measuring service quality
• Gaps in service quality
• Foolproof Service Using Poka-Yoke
• Measures of Customer Satisfaction
• Achieving Service Quality
• Developing a culture of service quality
• Implementing quality service
• Service recovery

9. Six Sigma for Service Process Improvement (2 Session)

• Variation
• Six sigma: Process Capability, the cost of poor quality, metrics and Strategic Consistency
• DMAIC cycle

10. Yield Management (2 Sessions)

• Capacity Strategies
• Yield management
• Overbooking
• Pricing
• Implementation Issues

Module 4: Tools and Techniques

11. Inventory management in services (1 Session)

• Services versus manufacturing inventory
• The need for inventory science
• Practical methods to reduce problems

12. Waiting Time Management (1 Sessions)

• Pervasiveness of Waiting Lines
• Lack of Managerial Intuition Surrounding Waiting Lines
• Qualitative Understanding of Waiting Lines
• Psychology of Queuing

13. Advanced Models: Data Envelopment Analysis (2 Sessions)

• Characteristics of Evaluation/Benchmarking Systems
• Advantages of DEA
• The concept of DEA

DEA Implementation Problems

Text and References

Service Operations Management, 3^rd edition, Metters,King-Metters, Pullman and Walton.

Service Management and Operations, 4^th edition, Haksever, Render, Russel and Murdick.

Modern production Operation Management, 8^th edition, Buffa and  Sarin.

Productions and Operations Management, 8th edition, Chase, Jacob and Aquillano.

Methodology

Students are supposed to come to class having gone through the reading material. The class will be based on the referred material and additional exercises. Students are expected to actively participate in the class. The sessions will be interactive and facilitated by the instructor to discuss in depth the subject being dealt. There will be lectures by the instructor, based on power point slides. Case studies and assignments by students will be integral part of this course.

Question Pattern

Evaluation System

Following is the breakup of the internal assessment for this course. As per the rule of Pokhara University, internal assessment has been given 60 percent weight in the final grading. The weight is distributed as follows: