Service Operations ManagementCourse Management Page
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This tab will host session summaries, slides and other relevant material.
Session 1At the end of the day, every business is a service business. Session 3Session 5Session 6In session 6, we wrapped up our discussion on SWA and service strategy. We saw how a perfectly aligned strategic service vision is not easy to achieve and expansion leads to dilution of the strategic service vision. We discussed how to appropriately plan and execute strategy dilutions without causing widespread disruption to current business practices.
Only a subset of the slides that were used in the session have been put up since they are proprietary. Here is the hilarious video I played during the session. Session 7&8Is service innovation as important as product innovation is the question we started with. With examples and more examples, we looked at innovations that have made good companies great, using service innovation, from startups to large companies. A key component in designing the right service experience becomes understanding the customer experience and enhancing it. The team activity in developing our own customer journey maps showed the creativity and imagination of the team in re imagining services. Session 9 & 10In a day of two sessions, we discussed three frameworks of service design. the 3T framework, the description of structural and managerial elements and finally the service package framework. All these three frameworks help describe everything that goes into successful service delivery. We used the Hotel Monaco service design case to further reinforce the learnings and insights from the frameworks. The concluded the final session before mid terms. Hope you all had a great time with the course. Do provide feedback using the link above. |
Session 11In the last session before the diwali vaction, we finished the theoretical discussion around service design. We looked at the behavioral aspects of service design and also the content from the reading "Four things a service business must get right." These four include Employee management, customer management, funding mechanism and the service offering. The future sessions will apply these insights into various case studies. Session 12 & 13Session 14In this session, we had a very engaging Benihana simulation exercise. Everything that we discussed as a part of the Benihana case could now be put to test through the various challenges of the simulation. You all should however understand that real life is however not as easy as clicking the simulate button. Making changes like the ones in the simulation would not be so easy! Session 15The ubiquitousness of waiting lines cannot be denied. Making customers wait and managing the wait appropriately is one of the key challenges faced by managers. The perception of service quality has been found to have a direct correlation with perception of wait time. It therefore becomes crucial for managers to manage waits effectively.
During the session, we first discussed the impact of customer induced variability on service operations. Using an interesting in-class activity where we verified the impact of queue pooling, we understood the dynamics of queue performance metrics. Finally, we discussed the psychology of queues and the various ways in which managers could address the perception of wait time using Disneyworld amusement part as a case study. Session 16Do you know what keeps hotel managers awake at night? No its not guest safety! It is an empty room! something they could have sold to a willing customer at the right price and made money out of! Seriously, I'm not kidding, watch this: www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2zg81CSZ64 In session 16, we discussed about the abilities of yield management techniques to make sure the right capacity is sold to the right customer at the right price. We considered issues of overbooking and capacity allocation problems (remember Jack and Rose) from a operational and regulatory standpoint. We understood that for all these approaches to work successfully, there needs to be a balance, between doing too much and doing too less. Overbook too much and you will end up with screaming customers, overbook less and you will loose revenue. Session 18 is going to explore this issue on the mathematical front. Finally, here is a link to an interesting TED talk about how yield management could be used for good! www.youtube.com/watch?v=GREOmIciZdY Session 17Well, this was one heck of a session. wasn't it?
We've all grown up hearing about the famous Mumbai Dabbawalas and how they are six sigma! In a fun classroom activity, few of you got to be dabbawalas delivering boxes to your classmates. Through the various iterations of the activity, I hope you got a clear understanding of how difficult the work is! And how maintaining such high quality is pretty much a miracle! In our followup discussion, we explored the various factors that make the dabbawala system click! These include, clear segregation of responsibility, with optimal volume of work per dabbawala, the customer and peer relationships developed by them through time and finally, camaraderie and a common belief system between the dabbawalas. We then moved on to discuss Aravind Eye Care, and how they have re-invented the service of eye care by rethinking task allocations, service boundaries, customer interactions and service delivery location. Here is a relevant TED talk which talks about how you could reinvent any service business using this simple, yet elegant thought process. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fPUIXJzZew |