Theorists have argued that in order for service operations to be Essay - 1

Theorists have argued that in order for service operations to be successful, they must adopt a production line approach to their delivery - Essay Example According to Gallouj and Weinstein (1997), discretion of products is the core enemy to its order, standardization, and quality. A production line approach aims at emulating an assembly line in production in that no products are discretely prepared by the employee to reduce the risk of poor quality or differentiation as the employee will engineer the product according to his personal interests thus the outcome is highly unpredictable same as the customer response to the same product. On the other hand using a completely automated and controlled production line approach will ensure consistency in all the products thus the consumers will always know what to expect in terms of quality and consistency. The advantages of a production-line approach to service operations include increased, efficient, cheap, high volume lucrative service operations and an increased satisfied customer database. According to Levitt (1976), if a service operation takes place with a management rationality and tactics copied from the manufacturing division it is bound to prosper because the manufacturing sector tends to think and act technologically while the rational service operations approach tends to look for solutions in the empowerment of the person giving the service. The conveyor belt/production line approach in service operation is considered as an old but effective method in increasing a films production as exhibited by its use in fields such as banking, airlines, and maintenance. This approach has been implemented in companies and firms such as IBM which produces computers for worldwide consumption, Citibank which is one of the biggest banks worldwide and McDonalds. These strategy approach is an efficient, capital-intensive system, automatic and discrete system that involves preplanning and routinizing employee activities to ensure consistency and simplicity of the process. Theorists argue that this approach