Service Operations to Be Successful Must Adopt a Production Line Approach to Their Delivery - Essay Example

Service Effectiveness By Theodore Levitt describes how service operations effectiveness can be increased dramatically by applying tactics and logic that is implemented in manufacturing. He describes this in his articles, the "Industrialization of Service" and the "Production Line Approach to Service". Among his recommendations were the improvement of certain aspects such as the definition of clear labour divisions, the simplifications of certain tasks, less decision-making discretion assigned to employee thus more system design roles for the management and the substitution of systems and equipment to aid the employees in executing system designs. 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 considers services as something done by machines a thought that maps services to products in manufacturing where assembly lines are used as Yamada and Matsui (2003) posit. This approach is based on the belief that complex tasks would be handles more effectively if they were broken down into individual groups thus reducing chances of errors and to offer quick recovery options in case something goes wrong in one operation. It calls for the completion of a task in stages where each employee has one distinct duty to perform in the production of a product or in offering one service whereby at the end of the process the customer receives a product of service that is similar to the rest thus less chances of customer dissatisfaction (Yamada, and Matsui, 2003). The fast-food franchising industry has been the best example of a ‘production line approach’ implementation in service operations. This has been implemented successfully by implementing five key principles in each sector: specific value; flow; value stream efficiency, pull and perfection aspects. McDonald’s has been widely used as the best case study of production line approach to service operations mainly due to its success after its implementation in 1961 where its total sales increased by 900% from $54 million to $587 million by the end of 1970 (Conrad & Lashley, 1995). McDonald’s strategy was to ensure completely ensure that each of its products were uniform in quality, size and consistency. They achieved this by ensuring that all raw hamburger patties are pre-packed, premeasured and made from the same ingredients leaving out any discretion to his employees or any McDonald’s outlet in terms of size, material consistency and quality. They issue a predetermined mixture of all their products to ensure that their consumers have the same experience no matter where they are (Williams-Lee, 2008). The production process is not the only part that the production line approach can and should be applied in order to maintain a fully automated and controlled environment, marketing should also be automated and controlled. According to Levitt (1972), McDonald can be used as the perfect example because it ensures its service operation techniques are employed in marketing. Using McDonald’s as the case study, numerous theorists have revealed how it implements production line approach in marketing. McDonald’s production and preparation of materials is done in Detroit, this ensures that all the products from fries to hamburger patties are consistent as their production is handled technologically through automation. It then supplies these pre-prepared and precooked products to all the outlets. For example, since French fries quickly become soggy and unattractive, McDonald’s provides all its outlets with partially fried potatoes so that employees can deep-fry them at their respective outlets. This ensures that customers receive fresh fries each time they purchase. In marketing, production line approach of management is carefully planned, designed and executed at each of its outlets. Their machines are designed to produce uniformity in all aspects, for example, the fryer used in each outlet empties its contents onto a flat, wide tray located next to the service counter. The location gives and impression of abundance while at the same time serving to catch spillage and prevent from reaching the floor. McDonald’s aims at giving an impression of abundance but excessive overfills tend to be costly thus each bags quantity is controlled by using a scoop that fills the bags to the intended level thus the company ensures that the quantity is controlled, the place is clean and the customers get a sense of generosity while using less of the employees assistance thus achieving discretion. As seen in McDonald’s case study, the implementation of Production line approach has been successful in that not only has it created a more sophisticated instance of technology but also a manufacturing approach has been established and the employees style of thinking has been altered to suite the production line approach used in manufacturing thus they have become more people-intensive. They have also set the standards in their industry by the use of automated machinery to produce standardized products with unskilled employees tending the machines but producing a ‘highly valuable and polished product’. Although the design and preplanning the facilities to suite the production line approach requirements was costly the firm eventually achieved its intended standards as everything is integrated into the machine thus the employees have little say in the operation other than to operate them and deliver the products exactly as the management had intended. Bibliography Bowen, D. and Youngdahl, W. (1998). “Lean” service: in defense of a production‐line approach. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 9(3), pp.207-225. Conrad, L, & Lashley, C 1995, Empowerment through delayering: a pilot study at McDonalds restaurants, International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 7, 2/3, p. 29, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 March 2015. Gallouj, F. and Weinstein, O. (1997). Innovation in services. Research Policy, 26(4-5), pp.537-556. Levitt, T. (1972). Production-Line Approach to Service. Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1972, pp.41-52 Levitt, T. (1976) Industrialization of Service, Harvard Business Review, September-October, 1976, pp.63-74. Taylor, B. And Russell, R. (1982). A simulation approach for adapting a production line balancing procedure to a probabilistic environment. International Journal of Production Research, 20(6), pp.787-801. Yamada, T. and Matsui, M. (2003). A management design approach to assembly line systems. International Journal of Production Economics, 84(2), pp.193-204. Williams-Lee, A 2008, Accelerated leadership development tops the talent management menu at McDonalds, Global Business & Organizational Excellence, 27, 4, pp. 15-31, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 22 March 2015. Read More