Ch06 service operations

Work Systems and the Methods, Measurement, and Management
of Work
by Mikell P. Groover, ISBN 0-13-140650-7.
©2007 Pearson Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, NJ. All rights
reserved.
Service Operations and Office Work
Sections:
1. Service Operations
2. Office WorkChapter 6

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reserved.
Service Operations
 Service operations provide a service to a client
or customer
 By contrast, production operations provide a
product

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Service Industries: Typical Companies
 Banking – Citigroup, Bank of America
 Communications – Verizon, Comcast
 Education – Lehigh, Penn State
 Entertainment – Walt Disney, Viacom, MGM
 Health Care – Aetna, Health Net, hospitals
 Hotel – Hilton, Holiday Inn, Ritz Carlton
 Insurance – New York Life, State Farm
 Retail Trade – Wal-Mart, Sears, Home Depot

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The Nature Of Services
 A service is intangible; it is experienced
 The time to deliver a service is variable and
usually unpredictable
 How long will it take for an auto mechanic to
diagnose an engine problem?
 How long will it take for an obstetrician to
deliver a baby?
 How long will it take for a mechanical
engineer to design a new part?

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reserved.
Comparisons: Products vs. Services
Products
Tangible
Products are
consumed
Minimum variations,
one unit to the next
Time to complete is
generally predictable
No customer contact
with manufacturer
Services
Intangible
Services are
experienced
Variations between one
service and the next
Time to complete often
unpredictable
Customer contact with
service provider

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Service Quality Factors
 Customer interaction
 How well did the customer get along with
the car salesman?
 Quality of workmanship
 Did the customer get a good haircut?
 Waiting time
 How long did the customer have to wait
before being served?
 Service time
 How long did the service take once it began

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Types of Service Providers
1. Service Organizations – service is the main
business of the company or organization
2. Internal Services – department provides a
service within the larger company
 Example: Accounting Department
3. Product Companies that also provide a
service
 Example: Dell Corp. sells PCs but they
maintain a service call center for
customers with problems

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Scheduled vs. Random Services
 Scheduled Service Operation – customer
arrival times are scheduled
 Examples: doctor and dentist
appointments, airline passenger service,
college courses
 Random Service Operation – customers
arrive randomly
 Examples: hospital emergency rooms,
retail stores, fast food restaurants

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reserved.
Facilities- vs. Field-Based Services
 Facilities-based services – customers must be
at the service provider’s facility for the service
to be rendered
 Examples: banks, barber shops, hotels,
movie theaters, retail trade
 Field-based services – service is rendered at
customer’s location
 Examples: custodial services, household
appliance repairs, garbage collection

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reserved.
Level Of Customer Contact
 High-contact services – customer is involved a
high proportion of the service time
 Each service tends to be different
 Examples: hairdressers, dental offices,
restaurants
 Generally associated with facilities-based
services
 Low-contact services – little direct contact
between customer and service provider
 Examples: postal delivery, tax collectors
 Generally associated with field-based
services

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reserved.
Implications of Level of Contact
 High contact services:
 More difficult to plan staffing requirements in
random service operations
 Good interpersonal skills required of service
providers
 Low-contact services:
 Possible to analyze the work process and
make methods improvements
 Technical and analytical skills are more
important

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reserved.
Manual Work vs. Service Work
Manual repetitive work
Processing of material
Worker attributes are
physical
Blue collar worker
Work is performed in
factories, warehouses,
construction sites
Associated with primary
and secondary
industries
Service work
Information processing
Worker attributes are
mental, communication
White collar worker
Work is performed in
banks, offices, stores,
restaurants, hospitals
Associated with tertiary
industries

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reserved.
Standards & Staffing for Service Work
Setting standards and determining staffing levels
is more difficult for service operations than for
repetitive work because
 Services are variable, so service times vary
 Random arrivals - difficult to predict workloads
 Customer contact affects service time
 Intangible work units
 Details of the service are not known in advance
 Creative work cannot be measured directly

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reserved.
Standards Used In Service Work
 Hospital staff nurse – standard = number of
patients for which nurse is responsible
 Salesperson – sales quota
 Dental hygienist – 45 minutes per patient
 Dentist – different appointment times for
different categories of dental work
 Caseworker – standard = number of cases
 College faculty – standard = three courses per
semester

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reserved.
Office Work
An office is a place where the business-oriented
activities of an organization are transacted
and/or its services are rendered
 Office work is concerned with business
processes and functions
 Design
 Sales
 Accounting
 Scheduling

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reserved.
Office Activities
Physical and mental actions performed by office
worker while performing an assigned task
 Examples:
 Answering and making telephone calls
 Calculating
 Decision-making
 Participating in meetings
 Photocopying
 Reading

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reserved.
Office Applications
Related to the business processes of the
organization and oriented toward end results
 Examples:
 Accounts payable
 Engineering drawing preparation
 Payroll
 Preparing and making presentations
 Production scheduling
 Sales forecasting

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reserved.
Routine vs. Creative Office Work
Characteristics of
routine office work:
Tends to be easy
Less education
required
Repetitive
Predictable
Defined procedures
Characteristics of
creative office work:
Tends to be difficult
More education
required
Non-repetitive
Problem solving
Problems are unique

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reserved.
Routine Office Work Activities
 Filing papers
 Carrying things
 Collating and sorting
 Mail handling
 Photocopying
 Typing and keying

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reserved.
Creative Office Work Activities
 Analysis
 Calculating
 Decision-making
 Drawing conclusions or inferences
 Drawing or sketching
 Proofreading or checking
 Thinking

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reserved.
Routine Plus Creative Work Activities
 Answering telephone calls
 Making telephone calls
 Participating in meetings
 Reading
 Writing

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reserved.
Knowledge Workers and Support Staff
 Knowledge workers – office workers who
accomplish the creative information-
processing activities and applications in offices
 Two types:
1. Managerial
2. Non-managerial
 Support workers – provide administrative and
staff assistance for the office
 Perform routine office tasks

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reserved.
Job Titles of Knowledge Workers
Managerial:
Chief executive officer
Vice president
Manager
Superintendent
Principal (school)
Dean (college)
General (army)
Admiral (navy)
Non-managerial:
Engineer
Lawyer
Medical doctor
Research scientist
Editor
Chemist
Marketing analyst
Professor

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reserved.
Job Titles of Support Personnel
Administrative assistant
Administrative
associate
Bookkeeper
Clerical worker
Data entry operator
Editorial assistant
Equipment technician
Receptionist
Secretary
Stenographer
Telephone operator
Typist

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reserved.
Knowledge Work
 Routine office work can be subjected to
analysis, mechanization, and automation
 Knowledge work depends on uniquely human
traits that cannot be automated
 Creative abilities – required for creative work
 Discretion – knowledge worker must decide
how to approach a given problem or task
 Self-pacing – knowledge worker works at
own pace
 No machine pacing

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reserved.
Allocation of Workloads
Ideal allocation of workloads between
knowledge workers and support staff

of Work
reserved.
Allocation Reported in Research
Study
Actual allocation of workloads between
knowledge workers and support staff as
indicated in a 1988 study of office work

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reserved.
Why Professionals Do Routine Work
 The work is easier
 Results measured more readily
 Can predict the time required
 Support personnel are assigned to managers,
not professional staff
 Support personnel are not available
 Support personnel do not do their jobs
adequately
 Support personnel are not trained properly

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reserved.
Office Automation
Modern implementation of computers and other
business machines to automate much of the
routine and repetitive information-processing
work accomplished in offices
 Mainframe computers introduced into
business in 1950s
 PCs introduce into offices in 1980s

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reserved.
Characteristics of Office Automation
 Its purpose is to assist workers in
accomplishing their information-processing
activities and applications
 It consists of hardware (PCs, telephones,
photocopiers) and software (word processors,
spreadsheets)
 It is a networked environment
 It represents the convergence and integration
of three traditional office technologies

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reserved.
Three Traditional Office Technologies
 Office machine technology
 Typewriters, adding machines, dictation
machines, and photocopiers
 Data processing technology
 Computers, data storage devices, printers
and other output devices
 Communication technologies
 Telephones and teletype machines.

of Work
reserved.
Computer Augmentation of Office Work
Use of computer systems to enhance worker
capabilities in low-volume creative work
 Concerned with increasing and improving
 Effectiveness of the process
 Convenience of the worker
 Quality of the result
 Access to needed information
 Communication with colleagues and co-
workers
 Procedures for performing creative work

of Work
reserved.
Office Automation vs. Augmentation

of Work
reserved.
Examples of Computer Augmentation
 Design engineer - CAD workstation
 Writer – PC word processor software
 College professor – PC slide preparation
software
 Commercial artist - computer graphics terminal
 Lawyer - legal documents on a word processor
 Process planner - process planning software
 Time study engineer - specialized work
measurement software

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