Course outline
Course objective
To enable participants understand, appreciate and successfully incorporate operations management principles and insights into the management of services
Course pedagogy
The key pedagogical tools used during the course would include in-class discussions, case analysis, term paper presentations and business simulation exercises.
Evaluation scheme
Case analysis – 30%
Group term project – 20%
Mid Term Exam – 25%
End Term exam – 25%
Group term project – 20%
Mid Term Exam – 25%
End Term exam – 25%
Group/individual term project
- Course participants can do this project either groups or individually. Groups can have utmost 4 members.
- The groups/individual could identify a pair of organizations in the same (or similar) industry and compare their operations strategies, systems design and performance grounded in the concepts dealt with during the course.
- While a comparison study is merely suggestive, the groups/individuals are free choose any topic of their interest that should necessarily be related to the scope of the course.
- The topics and the groups need to be finalized by the Mid Term examination.
- Submission would include a presentation to be made in presence of the class and a report to be submitted to the instructor.
- The in-class presentation would be held during the last week of the course to be held on 10th January 2014. Each group/individual would have 20 minutes to present their work followed by upto 10 minutes for Q&A.
- Based on feedback during the presentation, a final term paper report is to be submitted no later than a date that shall be declared at a later point of time.
Case analysis reports
- Students should form 5 groups of 4 and 1 group of 3. Groups have
to be finalized and made available to instructor by the 12th November 2014.
- Each group is required to submit a not-more-than 3 page analysis of the case BEFORE
the beginning of the session in which the specific case would be discussed. 3 pages include
- Late submissions would be accepted but penalized based on the discretion of the instructor.
- Groups would randomly be selected to lead the discussion on the case during the session. For effective discussion, the groups might make use of power point slides.
- Odd numbered groups (1, 3, 5) are allocated the following cases: CVS, Starbucks, Ritz-Carlton, Shouldice, ITC
- Even numbered groups (2, 4, 6) are allocated the following cases: Benihana, American, Zipcar, Aravind, Wipro
- Evaluation of the case analysis would be on the following parameters: 1. Appropriate and accurate answers the case questions, 2. The depth of analysis 3. The presentation made during the class and/or the inputs provided during the class 4. Extra credit for any relevant and useful analysis beyond the questions asked.
- Each group has 5 cases allocated to them. They would be graded on a scale of 10. Their final case score would be a sum of the three best scores out of the five scores they would receive for the five cases.
Weekly course plan
Week 1
Introduction to service operations
Service characteristics & strategies
Readings
Week 2
Service Process Design
Readings
Week 3
Service quality
Chapter 6 of Textbook
Week 4
Servicescapes
Service facility location
Week 5
Managing waiting lines
Capacity planning and queuing models
Week 6
Managing capacity and demand
Week 7
Service Supply relationships
Week 8
Healthcare delivery systems
Week 9
E-commerce, IT outsourcing
Week 10
Group Project presentations
Introduction to service operations
Service characteristics & strategies
Readings
- Heskett, J.L. (1991), “Lessons in the service sector” in The Service Management Course: Cases & Reading, Free Press, 47 – 64.
- Chapters 1,2 & 3 of Textbook
- Bitran, G. R., & Lojo, M. (1993). A framework for analysing service operations. European Management Journal, 11(3), 271-28
- Heskett, James L., and W. Earl Sasser Jr. "Southwest Airlines: In a Different World." Harvard Business School Case 910-419, April 2010. (Revised January 2013.)
Week 2
Service Process Design
Readings
- Sasser, W. Earl. "Benihana of Tokyo." Harvard Business School Case 673-057, November 1972. (Revised January 2004.)
- McAfee, Andrew. “Pharmacy Service Improvement at CVS (A).” Harvard Business School Case, Prod#606015, Dec 14, 2005.
- Chapter 4 of Textbook
Week 3
Service quality
Chapter 6 of Textbook
- Moon, Youngme E., and John A. Quelch. "Starbucks: Delivering Customer Service." Harvard Business School Case 504-016, July 2003. (Revised July 2006.)
Week 4
Servicescapes
Service facility location
- Chapter 7 of textbook
- Bell E. David; Starr Dinny, “Fieline’s basement.” Harvard Business School Case, Prod#594018, Aug 1995 (Revised April 1998)
- Bell, David E., and Jose B. Alvarez. "Note on Store Location." Harvard Business School Background Note 593-112, April 1993. (Revised January 2011.)
Week 5
Managing waiting lines
Capacity planning and queuing models
- Chapters 12 and 16 of Textbook
- de Treville, S., Smith, I., Rölli, A., & Arnold, V. (2006). "Applying operations management logic and tools to save lives: A case study of the world health organization's global drug facility". Journal of Operations Management, 24(4), 397-406.
Week 6
Managing capacity and demand
- Dhebar, Anirudh; Brandenburger Adam. “American Airlines, Inc.: Revenue Management.” Harvard Business School Case, Prof# 190029, Jul 31, 1989 (Revised Jun 16, 1993)
- Chapter 11 of Textbook
Week 7
Service Supply relationships
- Frei, Frances X. “The Four Things a Service Business must get right.” Harvard Business Review 86, no. 4 (2008): 70 - 80
- Freit, Frances X. “Zipcar: Influencing Customer Behavior.”Harvard Business School Case, Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-605-054, Rev. June 30, 2005
- Hemp, Paul. “My Week as a Room-service waiter at the Ritz.” Harvard Business Review 80, no.6 (2002)
- Sucher, Sandra J. Stacy McManus. “The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.” Harvard Business School Case, Harvard Business School Publishing. Case: 9-601-163, Rev. July 11, 2002
- Chapter 13 of Textbook
Week 8
Healthcare delivery systems
- Heskett, James L. "Shouldice Hospital Limited." Harvard Business School Case 683-068, April 1983. (Revised June 2003.)
- Rangan, V. Kasturi. "Aravind Eye Hospital, Madurai, India: In Service for Sight, The." Harvard Business School Case 593-098, April 1993. (Revised May 2009.)
- Spear, S. J. (2005). Fixing health care from the inside, today. Harvard business review, 83(9), 78.
Week 9
E-commerce, IT outsourcing
- Upton David and Fuller, Virginia. “ITC eChoupal Initiative.” Harvard Business School Case, Prod# 604016, October 2003 (Revised Jan 2004)
- Upton David and Fuller, Virginia. “Wipro Technologies: The Factory Model” Harvard Business School Case, Prod# 606021, October 2005
- Huckman, Robert S., Gary P. Pisano, and Liz Kind. "Amazon Web Services." Harvard Business School Case 609-048, October 2008. (Revised February 2012.)
Week 10
Group Project presentations
Instructor's diary
9th November 2014
Well begun is half done! I think we started off well. The class was very vibrant and was constantly pitching in productive points into the discussion. As an instructor, I thoroughly enjoyed the first session with the PGPWEs. By the end of the second session, I found myself burnt out and not being able to deliver to the best of my potential. That's why the class was concluded ahead of schedule.
During the class, we began with a round of introductions. The class was then briefed about the website and the course evaluation components. Feedback was solicited regarding the course content and there was a request to add content dealing with refining of retail business models (like McDonalds etc). This request is being actively considered right now.
We began our discussion on services starting with the service-product continuum and the distinctive characteristics of services. We also discussed the various classifications schemes of services that have been proposed in the marketing and operations literature. We ended the class with a discussion on the importance of the service sector to the economy and Clark-Fisher hypothesis of economic development.
The Southwest airlines case would be dealt with in the next session. Following are the questions we would be dealing with:
Well begun is half done! I think we started off well. The class was very vibrant and was constantly pitching in productive points into the discussion. As an instructor, I thoroughly enjoyed the first session with the PGPWEs. By the end of the second session, I found myself burnt out and not being able to deliver to the best of my potential. That's why the class was concluded ahead of schedule.
During the class, we began with a round of introductions. The class was then briefed about the website and the course evaluation components. Feedback was solicited regarding the course content and there was a request to add content dealing with refining of retail business models (like McDonalds etc). This request is being actively considered right now.
We began our discussion on services starting with the service-product continuum and the distinctive characteristics of services. We also discussed the various classifications schemes of services that have been proposed in the marketing and operations literature. We ended the class with a discussion on the importance of the service sector to the economy and Clark-Fisher hypothesis of economic development.
The Southwest airlines case would be dealt with in the next session. Following are the questions we would be dealing with:
- Why has Southwest been so much more successful than its competitors?
- Why has no other competitor successfully imitated their strategy?
- How do you think they should continue growing in the future?
Week1_SO_PGPWE1415.pdf |
November 16th 2014
In today's session, we began with a discussion on "customer value" being the key driver of a service purchase decision. We briefly discussed the concept of Service Dominant logic.
After viewing a short documentary on Southwest Airlines, we discussed success factors of the Southwest Airlines. The class participated in the development of the strategic service vision for Southwest. I would like to thank Prof. Pierrie Dussauge from HEC, Paris for providing us with the Southwest Airlines video as well as the slides that were used for the discussion. More on Southwest can be found here and here.
We also discussed how strategic service vision could be used to make difficult strategic choices involved in the design of services. We discussed how the strategic service vision could be reconciled using both Porter and Prahalad view of business strategy. We briefly discussed the idea of Effectuation.
Our discussion on service design started with a description of the service package and its constituents. The generic approaches to services were covered before we discussed the service design factors and mapped each of these factors to the discussions in the coming weeks of the course.
The class ended with a service blueprinting exercise. Following is the best service blueprint submission I received. Appreciation to Amit, Subhadeep, Natraj and Sanjay for a job well done. More examples and details of Service Blueprinting can be found here.
In today's session, we began with a discussion on "customer value" being the key driver of a service purchase decision. We briefly discussed the concept of Service Dominant logic.
After viewing a short documentary on Southwest Airlines, we discussed success factors of the Southwest Airlines. The class participated in the development of the strategic service vision for Southwest. I would like to thank Prof. Pierrie Dussauge from HEC, Paris for providing us with the Southwest Airlines video as well as the slides that were used for the discussion. More on Southwest can be found here and here.
We also discussed how strategic service vision could be used to make difficult strategic choices involved in the design of services. We discussed how the strategic service vision could be reconciled using both Porter and Prahalad view of business strategy. We briefly discussed the idea of Effectuation.
Our discussion on service design started with a description of the service package and its constituents. The generic approaches to services were covered before we discussed the service design factors and mapped each of these factors to the discussions in the coming weeks of the course.
The class ended with a service blueprinting exercise. Following is the best service blueprint submission I received. Appreciation to Amit, Subhadeep, Natraj and Sanjay for a job well done. More examples and details of Service Blueprinting can be found here.
Week2_SO_PGPWE1415.pdf |
23rd November 2014
In today's class, we discussed two cases: Pharmacy improvement at CVS and Benihana of Tokyo. Group 5 presented the CVS case. and Groups 2 and 6 presented their analysis of the Benihana case.
Group 5 did a great job in the presentation. They displayed clear understanding of the case. I felt that they addressed the questions of the case accurately. Their responses to issues raised during the class was also commendable.
Both Groups 2 and 6 bungled up their service blueprint. Their strategic service vision did not include the four elements that were discussed in class: Target market; Service concept; Operating strategy and service support systems. Please refer to Chapter 3 of the textbook to understand more about strategic service vision and its elements. Apart from these technical issues, I thought that the presentations were very lively, involved the entire class and displayed a deep understanding of the case by the group. I cycle time analysis done by Group 2 deserves a special mention.
In today's class, we discussed two cases: Pharmacy improvement at CVS and Benihana of Tokyo. Group 5 presented the CVS case. and Groups 2 and 6 presented their analysis of the Benihana case.
Group 5 did a great job in the presentation. They displayed clear understanding of the case. I felt that they addressed the questions of the case accurately. Their responses to issues raised during the class was also commendable.
Both Groups 2 and 6 bungled up their service blueprint. Their strategic service vision did not include the four elements that were discussed in class: Target market; Service concept; Operating strategy and service support systems. Please refer to Chapter 3 of the textbook to understand more about strategic service vision and its elements. Apart from these technical issues, I thought that the presentations were very lively, involved the entire class and displayed a deep understanding of the case by the group. I cycle time analysis done by Group 2 deserves a special mention.
December 6th 2014
Today's session began with a very interesting discussion of the Starbucks case. We discussed about the success factors of Starbucks and factors that led to the recent dip in customer satisfaction. We critically evaluated the customer satisfaction measurement methodology used by Starbucks and tried to make sense of how the the proposed investment of $40 million in labor could be evaluated.
While Group 1 used a straightforward break even analysis, Group 5 considered the customer lifetime in their calculation. Group 3 went a step ahead and considered various other factors like adding new customers overall, increasing the product price in their analysis of whether the $40 million investment is sensible or not.
We then moved on to the discussion on service quality. We looked at the various dimensions of service quality and discussed about the SERVQUAL measurement methodology. We then discussed statistical process control, generation of the X-bar and R charts and the evaluation of the control limits. The class ended with a discussion of six sigma and what it means in terms of process capability.
Sources to explore
Today's session began with a very interesting discussion of the Starbucks case. We discussed about the success factors of Starbucks and factors that led to the recent dip in customer satisfaction. We critically evaluated the customer satisfaction measurement methodology used by Starbucks and tried to make sense of how the the proposed investment of $40 million in labor could be evaluated.
While Group 1 used a straightforward break even analysis, Group 5 considered the customer lifetime in their calculation. Group 3 went a step ahead and considered various other factors like adding new customers overall, increasing the product price in their analysis of whether the $40 million investment is sensible or not.
We then moved on to the discussion on service quality. We looked at the various dimensions of service quality and discussed about the SERVQUAL measurement methodology. We then discussed statistical process control, generation of the X-bar and R charts and the evaluation of the control limits. The class ended with a discussion of six sigma and what it means in terms of process capability.
Sources to explore
- Parasuraman, A., Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry. "SERVQUAL: A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality."Journal of Retailing (1988).
- Ito, Tiffany A., et al. "Negative information weighs more heavily on the brain: the negativity bias in evaluative categorizations." Journal of personality and social psychology 75.4 (1998): 887.
Week4_SO_PGPWE1415.pdf |
SERVQUAL form.doc |
December 7th 2014
In today class, we began our discussion with what was leftover of statistical quality control, its hands on usage and what it means for a company to be six sigma. We then moved on to the discussion on servicescapes and how the physical environment of a service facility impacts customers, employees and their interaction behavior. The class ended with a discussion on basic queuing theory and how simulation could be used as a tool to analyze waiting in an organization and making appropriate capacity decisions. We ended with a discussion on psychology of queues and how waiting could be made more pleasant using simple behavioral tactics.
Following are the links to the queuing theory simulations used during class.
http://www.runthemodel.com/models/run.php?popup=1&id=322
http://simjs.com/queuing/index.html
In today class, we began our discussion with what was leftover of statistical quality control, its hands on usage and what it means for a company to be six sigma. We then moved on to the discussion on servicescapes and how the physical environment of a service facility impacts customers, employees and their interaction behavior. The class ended with a discussion on basic queuing theory and how simulation could be used as a tool to analyze waiting in an organization and making appropriate capacity decisions. We ended with a discussion on psychology of queues and how waiting could be made more pleasant using simple behavioral tactics.
Following are the links to the queuing theory simulations used during class.
http://www.runthemodel.com/models/run.php?popup=1&id=322
http://simjs.com/queuing/index.html
Week5_SO_PGPWE1415.pdf |
December 20th 2014
In today's class we started our discussion of the Newsvendor model and elaborated on how this newsvendor model forms the basis for various capacity oriented decisions in the service industry as well. We then moved on to the generic strategies that are used to manage capacity and demand in service organizations. The discussion ended with a overview of Yield Management in Airline and hospitality industries. We discussed some basic yield management techniques: Littlewood's rule, EMSRa and EMSRb.
Towards the end of the class, we looked at videos pertaining to two cases Walt Disney and Manoco hotel and saw how the various concepts that were discussed in the class were put to use in practice in these service organizations.
In today's class we started our discussion of the Newsvendor model and elaborated on how this newsvendor model forms the basis for various capacity oriented decisions in the service industry as well. We then moved on to the generic strategies that are used to manage capacity and demand in service organizations. The discussion ended with a overview of Yield Management in Airline and hospitality industries. We discussed some basic yield management techniques: Littlewood's rule, EMSRa and EMSRb.
Towards the end of the class, we looked at videos pertaining to two cases Walt Disney and Manoco hotel and saw how the various concepts that were discussed in the class were put to use in practice in these service organizations.
Week6_SO_PGPWE1415.pdf |
December 22nd 2014
In today's class, we began our discussion in understanding the service encounter triad consisting of the employee, customer and the service organization. Zipcar case that was discussed first dealt with influencing customer behavior as the service encounter was primarily customer dominated. Ritz Carlton, the second case discussed, on the other hand focused a lot on employee empowerment and reduction of variability in the customer and employee interactions.
In today's class, we began our discussion in understanding the service encounter triad consisting of the employee, customer and the service organization. Zipcar case that was discussed first dealt with influencing customer behavior as the service encounter was primarily customer dominated. Ritz Carlton, the second case discussed, on the other hand focused a lot on employee empowerment and reduction of variability in the customer and employee interactions.
December 27th 2014
In today's class, we discussed two cases related to the healthcare service sector: Shouldice hospital and Aravind Eye care. The discussion drew parallels between two not-very-dissimilar healthcare organizations which have made their growth choices differently. The antecedents and consequences of these expansion strategy choices were the key focus of the discussion. Further, we also discussed how tight alignment of the service concept with the operating strategy and the supporting facility might impact impede expansion strategies and service concept dilution is an unavoidable eventuality while executing expansion plans.
In today's class, we discussed two cases related to the healthcare service sector: Shouldice hospital and Aravind Eye care. The discussion drew parallels between two not-very-dissimilar healthcare organizations which have made their growth choices differently. The antecedents and consequences of these expansion strategy choices were the key focus of the discussion. Further, we also discussed how tight alignment of the service concept with the operating strategy and the supporting facility might impact impede expansion strategies and service concept dilution is an unavoidable eventuality while executing expansion plans.
January 4th 2015
In today's class, we discussed two cases pertaining to the IT/ITES sector. In the wipro case, we discussed the barriers to standardization in the IT sector and how wipro was able to overcome them using the factory model. We discussed how the customization/standardization continuum is influenced by the competitive landscape.
The ITC echoupal case is an good example of how the service design need not have to be targeted to the final customer but also the internal customer in the form of the supplier. We discussed how ITC overcame the barriers to implementation by designing a system that would be deeply interwoven into the social fabric of the Indian Society.
In today's class, we discussed two cases pertaining to the IT/ITES sector. In the wipro case, we discussed the barriers to standardization in the IT sector and how wipro was able to overcome them using the factory model. We discussed how the customization/standardization continuum is influenced by the competitive landscape.
The ITC echoupal case is an good example of how the service design need not have to be targeted to the final customer but also the internal customer in the form of the supplier. We discussed how ITC overcame the barriers to implementation by designing a system that would be deeply interwoven into the social fabric of the Indian Society.
January 5th 2015
Following are the projects that are to be presented during the next week's session
The duration of each presentation would be 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for question and answers.
Following are the projects that are to be presented during the next week's session
- Service Line, Commercial Function, within organization to support operation and other prime functions.
- Study on Service Operation at Passport Seva Kendra: `
- Corporate Dhobi: Modern Laundry Service
- MY GET WELL STORE
- Review of Service Operation Strategies of a Public Sector Firm in India.
- "EGGXACTLY"- A proposed service model for a developing Indian city with a niche market
- Online Grocery Retailing
- Finding Root Cause of the Problems by WHY-WHY Vs Pinnacle Point a New Approach (SKG) Note: Relevance to services needs to be brought out explicitly for this topic.
The duration of each presentation would be 15 minutes followed by 5 minutes for question and answers.
January 10th 2015
Today, in the final session of the class, we had presentations from six groups presenting on diverse array of topics right from new service business ideas to analysis of public sector services and finally the use of service orientation in large manufacturing scale organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the presentations and the discussions that followed.
I sincerely thank all the course participants for the enthusiasm. I am humbled by your kind words towards the end of the class. It was an amazing learning experience for me and I am grateful to all of you.
I am hoping it would be possible to have a class picture taken during the end term examination to be held next week. Lets see.
Today, in the final session of the class, we had presentations from six groups presenting on diverse array of topics right from new service business ideas to analysis of public sector services and finally the use of service orientation in large manufacturing scale organizations. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of the presentations and the discussions that followed.
I sincerely thank all the course participants for the enthusiasm. I am humbled by your kind words towards the end of the class. It was an amazing learning experience for me and I am grateful to all of you.
I am hoping it would be possible to have a class picture taken during the end term examination to be held next week. Lets see.