Operations Management - Product and Service Design - Research Paper Example

? Product and Service Design of the of the Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 PART 4 of the chapter 4 Name of the Author and Publisher 4 Objectives and Targeted Audience 5 Introduction 5 Background of the Chapter under Review 6 Issues or Ideas Presented in the Chapter 6 Evaluation/Analysis of the Chapter 11 General Comments 11 Rating 11 PART- 2 12 Title of the chapter 12 Name of the author and publisher 12 Objectives and Targeted Audience 12 Introduction 13 Background 13 Issues or Ideas Presented in the Chapter 14 Evaluation 16 Conclusion 16 General Comments 16 Rating 17 References 18 PART- 1 Title of the chapter In this paper, the researcher will write critical review of the book named as “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson. To be specific, this review will only cover Chapter number 4 named as “Product and Service Design” and the researcher will try to understand the content of the mentioned chapter from the logical and academic perspectives. Limitations of the review can be summarized in the following manner; The researcher is reviewing only chapter 4 but through reading of all the chapters is needed in order to provide comprehensive review of the book. Lack of knowledge about all the aspects covered by William J Stevenson might encourage the researcher to take subjective view while reviewing the book. The researcher is reviewing the 11 Edition (Global Edition) of “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson while Chapter number 4 named as “Product and Service Design” is the topic of discussion in the review. In this chapter, Stevenson (2011) has penned down topics like definition of product design, why companies go for product design, human aspects, cultural aspects, environment sustainability factors, design considerations, different phases of design and production and service design. Before going to the main discussion, let us try to understand credential William J Stevenson who is the author of the book. Name of the Author and Publisher Dr. Stevenson or William J Stevenson wrote the book “Operations Management” which was published by McGraw-Hill Education. McGraw-Hill Education is not only the publisher of the book but also they hold distribution right of the book. Dr. Stevenson is an associate professor of Decision Sciences in the College of Business at Rochester Institute of Technology (Stevenson, 2011). The author has years of teaching experience in the field of production/operations management, quality concepts, management science and quality applications and Dr. Stevenson wrote many articles in the field of Management Science and Decision Sciences (Stevenson, 2011). Dr. Stevenson earned M.B.A and PhD in the field of production/operations management from University of Syracuse. It is evident from such descriptions that there might be argument regarding the content of the book written by Dr. Stevenson but there should not be any argument exists regarding academic qualification of Dr. Stevenson. Objectives and Targeted Audience Every book is written taking into consideration of the requirements of target audience. Simple fact is that every book has its own target audience and success of the book is being considered whether the book meets the expectation of its target reader or not? Now, the question is that what is the objective of the book “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson? Another important thing is that who are the target audience for the book? Well, to be honest, the book has been primarily written for college students and university students who want to know about product and service design process. In the first place, the book can be considered as the rudiments of product & service designing process but cannot be considered as scholarly source that can be reviewed and criticized by other academic scholars and industry experts (Stevenson, 2011). According to writer of this review, the book has been written for teaching purpose and focus of the book is not to develop a new theoretical concepts. For example, each chapter of the book contains learning objective section which is created only for students, first time learners and novices. Hence, management students, students having specialization in operation management, first time learners, undergraduates, product engineering students want to know basics of operation management etc are the target reader of the book. Key objectives of the book can be summarized in the following manner; To provide basic concepts of operation management to target readers To act as rudiments of product and service design concepts which can be used by readers to gain knowledge access to higher level study materials To act as reference book for teachers teaching in colleges and universities Introduction The chapter number 4 named as “Product and Service Design” of the book “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson is being divided into small paragraphs under different sub headings such as What Does Product and Service Design Do?, Key Questions etc (Stevenson, 2011). The author tried to define all the concepts regarding product and service design in small sentences and not tried to write long scholarly theoretical arguments behind each topic. Interesting fact is that Stevenson (2011) used real life company or business case studies to clear out the concepts. In the introduction part of the chapter 4, the book defined the meaning of product & service design in context to marketing, operations, accounting, engineering etc and in the side notes, Stevenson (2011) gave definitions of manufacturability and serviceability. Although, Stevenson (2011) wrote the introduction of “Product and Service Design” chapter in succinct manner but the author might have incorporated the historical background of the concept of product & service design in the introduction part which might influence the readers to dig deep in the topic by accessing previous research works by different scholars. Background of the Chapter under Review It is not easy to summarize whole concepts of “Product and Service Design” chapter written by Stevenson (2011) under single paragraphs due to three reasons 1- the author tries to define different terms within the small space of the chapters, 2- multitude of concepts are being discussed without sticking to elaboration of single concept and 3- different case studies of different companies are being illustrated in different occasion by the author. However, learning objectives can be used to highlight the background of the chapter. For example, the “Product and Service Design” chapter written by Stevenson (2011) to illustrate concepts like strategic importance of product manufacturing, environmental consideration while manufacturing new products, understanding different phases of product design, key issues in service design, phases of service design, challenges in service design etc. Hence, background of the chapter is being created in order to address the mentioned concepts and briefly summarize all the pertinent theories regarding the concept. According to Stevenson (2011), product & service design should be closely tied with business level strategy of companies and the product & service design can be synchronized with finance, accounting, marketing, cost optimization and operations need of companies. Stevenson (2011) gave example of technology giant Apple’s ability to design products that can meet the requirements of customers and help the company to achieve competitive advantage. By providing the example, the author tried to highlight the importance of product design in order to help companies to achieve competitive advantage through design innovation or cost optimization. Writer of this book review believes that rising importance of product & service design in context to business strategy formation has created the background of “Product and Service Design” chapter written by Stevenson (2011). Issues or Ideas Presented in the Chapter After defining the term product and service design, Stevenson (2011) tried to answer the question “why companies develop new product or service” and answered the question from organizational requirement perspectives. The author highlighted issues like technological change, government policies, legal policy change, economic balance shift, drive for achieving new competitive advantage and social change etc are key motivators for companies to develop new product. To prove the above mentioned point, Stevenson (2011) gave examples of US Manufacturers and Dutch Boy companies which designed new product in order to achieve cost advantage or packaging innovation. Figure 1: Innovative Packaging of Dutch Boy Company (Source: Stevenson, 2011, p. 136) Stevenson (2011) highlighted the importance of generating new idea in new product development by pinpointing the concepts of reverse engineering and research & development (R&D). In such context, Stevenson (2011) gave example of Vlasic Foods International which experimented with the size of pickle in order to develop a new pickle. After that, Stevenson (2011) argued that product liability and uniform commercial code are two legal and ethical consideration issues that influence companies to develop new product. To prove the validity of the argument, Stevenson (2011) gave example of the influence of US Consumer Product Safety Commission in baby crib design. In this chapter, Stevenson (2011) stated that electronics companies should try to simplify the product operating in order to satisfy human needs. The Author also gave example McAloo Tikki Burger that was launched by McDonald in order to satisfy pallet of vegetarian customers in India (Stevenson, 2011). While discussing about role of environmental sustainability factors in product design, Stevenson (2011) used the term cradle to grave assessment or life cycle analysis which is being used to analyze environmental impact product during every phase of the life cycle. Stevenson (2011) gave example of End-of-Life (EOL) program of IBM in order to show how companies should collect the product after it has reached its end of useful lives. For example, the author gave example of giant electronic retailer Electronic Junk which uses recycling program by asking consumers to return the used electronic goods so that the company can recycle it to new product without depleting the environmental resources. In “Product and Service Design” chapter, Stevenson (2011) also described the concept of 3Rs [Reduce extent of activities that are negatively affecting environmental sustainability, Reuse or Remanufacture the materials that have been already used by the manufacturer while making the product in order to reduce wastage of resources and Recycle the used product to new one in order to reduce environmental emission] while describing role of environmental sustainability in new product design. To prove the mentioned points, Stevenson (2011) XEROX, Kraft Foods and Maria’s Market which uses the concepts like Design for disassembly (DFD) and design for recycling (DFR) to increase environmental sustainability of the value chain process. Figure 2: Recycled Cheese Product of Kraft Foods (Source: Stevenson, 2011, p. 144) In this chapter, Stevenson (2011) also discussed the concepts like product life cycle (PLC) accompanied by introduction of the product in the market, growth of demand for the product due to time specific technology integration, maturity phase when demand for the product reaches saturation point and decline of the demand of the product because previous technology gets outdated. Stevenson (2011) also gave examples of products like knives, paper clips and spoons which do not exhibit phases of product life cycle. Figure 3: Product Life Cycle Graph (Source: Stevenson, 2011, p. 144) Stevenson (2011) also discussed the concept like standardization, mass customization, modular design and delayed differentiation etc in order to brief how companies manufacture products which do not need customization and integration of variety. In the next part, the author described concepts like reliability, failure and normal operating condition in order to highlight issues regarding performance of newly designed product. The chapter also briefly covers issues regarding Taguchi’s approach of robust design, Quality Function Deployment (QFD) and Kano Model in order to find optimal product manufacturing process to ensure quality (Stevenson, 2011). Figure 4: QFD Model for Quality (Source: Stevenson, 2011, p. 154) In the later part of the chapter, Stevenson (2011) defined different product design phases such as feasibility analysis, product specification, process specification, prototype development, design review, market test, product introduction and follow-up evaluation. Concepts of concurrent engineering and computer aided design (CAD) are being also discussed by Stevenson (2011) in order to measure and design different components of products. In the final part of the chapter, Stevenson (2011) briefly defined service and highlighted the difference between product and services. The author defined different steps of designing service blueprint such as establishment of boundaries, determination of sequence of customer-service interactions, determination of time variability, development of plan to minimize service failure points. In this chapter, Stevenson (2011) defined characteristics of good service design, challenges of service design and procedures for developing successful service design. The author gave example of High Acres Landfill which has the license to treat commercial, nonhazardous or residential waste and the company uses operational strategy to perform the task. At the end of the chapter, Stevenson (2011) tested the understanding of readers about the topics covered by incorporating review questions. Evaluation/Analysis of the Chapter In “Product and Service Design” chapter, Stevenson (2011) tried to cover all the pertinent concepts regarding product designing and new product development briefly but the book never tried to go for comprehensive discussion regarding product engineering concepts. However, the writer of this review has found that the book “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson is not being created to cover complex mathematical and engineering concepts of production management rather the author tried to loosely cover major concepts regarding Product and Service Design. Conclusion From critical view, the book might not be suitable for students of production engineering who need more rigorous conceptual texts related to Product and Service Design. The “Product and Service Design” chapter very briefly covers the concept of service gap model or service design process. Despite such short comings, the book should be praised for its simple linguistic style, lucid integration of real life case studies and crisp definitions. One has to remember the fact that this edition of the book is its 11th version and in the last 10 editions, William J Stevenson explained core concepts of operation management with utmost care and practical examples and that is the reason why some readers believe that the book is the leader in its own domain. General Comments Format of the book is pretty much systematic and Stevenson (2011) also presented the idea in precise manner with the help of practical case studies. However, organization of concepts could have been better by incorporating conceptual quizzes at the end of each discussion. Introducing more number of exercise questions in the end of the chapter could have increase the depth of the discussion and understanding level of readers of the book. Rating On the basis of above critical review, “Product and Service Design” chapter of the book “Operations Management” written by William J Stevenson has been rated as 4 out of 5. Rating= 4/5 PART- 2 Title of the chapter In this section, the researcher will write critical review of the book named as “Production and Operations Management” written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007). To be specific, this review will only cover Chapter number 4 named as “Marketing and Product/Service Design” and the researcher will try to understand the content of the mentioned chapter from the logical and academic perspectives. Throughout the review, the researcher will try to identify, summarize and evaluate the ideas and information presented by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) in the book named as Production and Operations Management. In the “Marketing and Product/Service Design” chapter, authors defined the concept of product/service design from the marketing view point and customer perspectives. In this section, the researcher will review 6th edition of “Production and Operations Management” written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) while focus of the discussion will be on Chapter number 4 named as “Marketing and Product/Service Design”. Although, Kolli (2013) wrote book on the similar kind of topic but from academic viewpoint, book wrote by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) is far more comprehensive in comparison to Kolli’s (2013) effort. For this reason, the researcher has selected “Production and Operations Management” written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) to conduct critical review. Name of the author and publisher Three key authors of the book are Alan Muhlemann, John Oakland and Keith Lockyer and the book was first published in the year 1992. Trans-Atlantic Pubns was the publisher of the book from 1992 to 2006 while Pearson Education (Prentice Hall) is the UK distributor of the book. In this critical review, 6th edition of the book has been selected. Objectives and Targeted Audience Product and service design is not a new concept in the field of operation management and over the course of the time; the concept has been modified and developed by research works of different research scholars. Neely (2008) and Clayton, Backhouse & Dani (2012) highlighted the concepts vertical integration of Productization and Servitization through supplier partnership in order show degree of customization possible in product design. Hence, the field of product and service design is not only evolving but also books regarding the topic are upgrading their editions in order to remain relevant in context to demand of modern business world. According to the opinion of the writer of this review, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) wrote the book “Production and Operations Management” only for students and the book might not attract attention of industry professionals. Authors used the concept of project management, critical path method (CPM), project cost etc in the book but the chapter “Marketing and Product/Service Design” never used practical examples to validate the arguments. The chapter has been written in order to provide basic knowledge about project management driven product and service design concepts to targeted students. Hence, same as the Stevenson’s (2011) book, management students, students having specialization in operation management, first time learners, students having specialization in project management are the targeted reader of the book. Objectives of the book can be summarized in the following manner; To provide basic understanding regarding 5Ps model - Product, Plant, Processes, Programs and People of operation management to target readers. Help readers to understand the importance of project management in case of product & service design. To act as reference book for academic supervisors in the universities and colleges. Introduction Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) tried to define the concepts of product and services in the initial section of the Chapter number 4 named as “Marketing and Product/Service Design” and the authors also started the discussion by depicting sequential product development diagram. Entire discussion was done in context to marketing and project management perspectives. Authors also tried to use the concepts of value chain in order to define various aspects of product and service design. In this edition of the chapter, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) discussed issue like linear programming, short-term forecasting, reliability etc which were not present in the previous edition of the book. In the next part, background of the chapter will be discussed by the researcher. Background Background of the Chapter number 4 named as “Marketing and Product/Service Design” is created by discussion in the third chapter known as production and operation management. In the third chapter, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) defined tangible and intangible aspects of operation management and created the query in the mind of readers that how companies design product and services. According to the writer of this critical review, research papers of Rese, Strotmann and Karger (2009) and Schmenner (2009) might have taken idea from the book of Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) but concept of product and service design is very much popular among operation management scholars hence above mentioned claims needs proper evidences in order to consider as valid. Issues or Ideas Presented in the Chapter The chapter covers issues like how traditional product designing passes through sequential steps like 1- marketers send the requirement of new product to designer, 2- designer decide the practicality of the demand in context to availability of technology resources, 3- after approving the demand, product design is being sent to process designer, 4- process designer check the validity of design sent by product designer in context to real world market condition, 5- process designer works with the supplier in order to modify the product design, 6- raw materials are being purchased in accordance with product specification and budget of the company and 7- test marketing is being done in order to identify flaws in the manufactured product. Figure 5: Iterative Approach of Product Development (Source: Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer, 2007, p. 57) Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) also pointed out concepts like Computer Aided Design (CAD), Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) are not only used by companies to automate the design of components of the product but also used for communicating with value chain partners. In this chapter, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) segregated product designing program into following stages; Conception or generating the idea of new product development Acceptance or establishing tradeoff between product designing requirements and availability of resources Execution of the concept into pilot phase product manufacturing Translating the project in accordance with the organizational capabilities Checking and experimenting with system specification of the product Figure 6: Interaction of Five Dimensions of Product Design (Source: Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer, 2007, p. 58) The chapter also deals with concepts like critical path method (CPM) in order to define how to calculate optimal duration of the project, idle time, sequence of activities in the entire product designing phase. The chapter very loosely covered the concept of product designing cost calculation and merely described from external stakeholders perspective. Although, the author highlighted the importance of computer system and coding system in product designing but such discussions were redundant in context to agenda of the book. Interesting fact is that, the author tried to incorporate the concepts of change systems with product design process but the discussion was pretty much descriptive in nature. In the “Marketing and Product/Service Design” chapter, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) defined various characteristics of services such as intangibility, heterogeneity, perishability and simultaneity but surprisingly, there were very little talks about how to design services. Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) also created list of services and graded them on the basis of parameters like labor intensity, contact with customers, interaction of consumers in the service process, scope of customization of the service, nature of the service and recipient of the service etc. At the end of the chapter, Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) summarized the whole concept in bulleted points and recommended reading list is also being attached at the end of the chapter. Evaluation According to writer of this review, the chapter of the book written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) cannot be considered as complete work due to three reasons, 1- the author only discussed product/service design from marketing perspective while the authors should consider other aspects of management while discussing product/service design, 2- the chapter only briefed about key concepts of project management but never fully discussed it and 3- “Marketing and Product/Service Design” chapter of the book is completely devoid of real life case studies rather the book only repeated some theoretical concepts. Conclusion On the basis of the above evaluation, to be honest, book written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) has many loopholes such as lack of evidences, over use of operation management jargons which hinder the flow of reading and lack of coherence in the argument. In conclusion, it can be said that book written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) cannot be considered as the primary text in colleges rather the book might be used as supplement study material. General Comments Format of the book is pretty much haphazard and Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) failed to present lucid real life case studies in order to validate their arguments. Another thing is that the authors jumped from one topic to another topic without caring about coherence of argument. Overall, ample amount of scope exists for writers of the book to improve the organization, presentation and format of contents. Rating On the basis of above critical review, “Marketing and Product/Service Design” chapter of the book “Production and Operations Management” written by Muhlemann, Oakland & Lockyer (2007) has been rated as 2.5 out of 5. Rating= 2.5/5 References Clayton, R. J., Backhouse, C. J., & Dani, S. (2012). Evaluating existing approaches to product-service system design: A comparison with industrial practice. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 23(3), 272-298. Kolli, S. (2013). Production & operations management essentials. Piscataway, New Jersey: Research & Education Assoc. Muhlemann, A. P., Oakland, J., & Lockyer, K. (2007). Production and operations management. (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Financial Times/ Prentice Hall. Neely, A. (2008). Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing. Operations Management Research, 1(2), 103-18. Rese, M., Strotmann, W. C., & Karger, M. (2009). Which industrial product service system fits best? Evaluating flexible alternatives based on customers’ preference drivers. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 20(5), 640-53. Schmenner, R. W. (2009). Manufacturing, service, and their integration: Some history and theory. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 29(5), 431-43. Stevenson, W. J. (2011). Operations management. (11th ed.). New York City, NY: McGraw-Hill Education. Read More