Management of Service Operations

2 credits · Owen Graduate School of Management

The service sector, e.g., the airline, hospitality, healthcare, banking, consulting industries among others, has become the dominant sector in the global economy. Managing service operations is particularly challenging, because of fundamental differences with manufacturing operations. For example, a primary challenge (mostly absent from manufacturing settings) is the operating role of the customer: customers participate in the "production" of the service and affect both strategic and day-to-day operational decisions. Thus, the task of achieving excellence in services requires specific strategies and analysis methods. In this course, we will focus on three aspects of managing service operations: designing service delivery systems, managing service operations under uncertainty, and improving services quality and growth. Prerequisite: MGT 6371. [2]