Operations Management for Service Industries: Competing in the Service Era

(Hardback)

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Effective service delivery requires a transition from high-volume, long-run operations to low-volume, short-run output. In conventional terms, inefficiency is inherent in such a shift. The Japanese experience suggests, however, that this convention is in error; success is available if we can only organise operations away from capital toward labour intensiveness with emphasis on multipurpose machinery and multiskilled workers as the foundation. Wholly new devices that accept the inevitability of bottlenecks and focus on managing them are required for managing work flow. A century of mass production has set in place habits and concepts of operations management that are inappropriate to the need. A new vision is needed. This book aims to outline an operations vision based on proven principles of management and organisation science that can guide the way into an emerging service era. Glenn Bassett looks at a variety of service industries from the perspective of cost and quality management. He argues the basic inevitability of suboptimised plant and equipment utilisation. The potential for conflict between commodity and noncommodity dimensions of service is examined. Basic methods of cost control and work flow management are described. The varied and sometimes shifting bases of service quality are described in considerable detail, industry by industry where necessary. Methods for selecting and training effective service as metaphor and model for the service revolution is detailed. The focus always is on sound, cost-effective, high-quality service delivery using the best available operations methods. It is sound operations management that should contribute genuine value to tomorrow's service industries. The basics of that discipline are the subject of this book.

Reviews

This book is recommended to the most devoted students of service businesses who read everything they can about the subject.-Choice
"This book is recommended to the most devoted students of service businesses who read everything they can about the subject."-Choice

Author Bio

GLENN BASSETT is Professor of Management and Operations at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Conn., and a management consultant. Formerly a member of the General Electric corporate staff and a pioneer in human resource computer applications there and elsewhere, he is the author of numerous articles in major media and eight books, including Management Strategies for Today's Project Shop Economy (Quorum, 1991).