Operations Management Chapter 12

queue management

A demand management strategy that is used to deal with excess customers.

franchising

A business practice that allows services to expand quickly in dispersed geographic markets, protect existing markets and build market share.

service delivery systems

A continuum of services that may range from mass-produced, low-customer-contact systems at one extreme (such as ATMs) to highly customized, high customer- contact systems at the other (such as expensive beauty salons)

service bundles

A group of attributes that are offered to customers when purchasing services, including the explicit service itself, the supporting facility, facilitating goods and implicit services.

walk through service audits

A method of monitoring a service system that is performed by management and covers service system attributes from the time customers initially encounter the service until they leave.

service layout strategies

A method that works in combination with location decisions to further support the overall business strategies of differentiation, low cost or market focus. Office layouts tend to be departmentalized; commercial airliner layouts segment customers; casino layouts are designed to get customers in quickly and then keep them there by spacing out the attractions; and self-serve restaurant buffet layouts are designed to process customers quickly.

Baumol's disease

A productivity growth problem named after noted U.S. economist William Baumol in the 1960s. For most services, automation can be a troublesome issue, and the labor content per unit of output can be quite high relative to manufactured goods. These two things can lead to a declining productivity growth rate as a nation's economy becomes less manufacturing oriented and more service oriented.

virtual queues

A queuing system in which customers' places in the queue are tracked by a computerized system that allows customers to roam the premises until their names are called.

closeness desirability rating

A scale used to rate how desirable it is to have two departments close together. The objective is to design a layout that maximizes the desirability rating for the entire facility.

state utility

A situation that occurs when services do something to things that are owned by the customer, such as transport and store their supplies, repair their machines, cut their hair or provide their healthcare.

chase demand strategy

A strategy that is used when the amount of capacity varies with demand. See also chase production strategy.

multiple channel queuing system

A system in which multiple servers act in parallel.

multiple-phase queuing system

A system in which multiple servers act in series.

level demand strategy

A theory for managing capacity that occurs when a firm utilizes a constant amount of capacity regardless of demand variations.

walmart effect

A theory postulating that the booming growth in information technology has allowed many big-box retailers such as Wal-Mart to realize large productivity growth rates.

microfranchise

A type of franchising concept that offers ready-made, low-risk starter jobs to people with no education and little available capital while giving established companies additional distribution avenues.

perceived waiting times

An aspect of queue management that occurs when customers think the wait time is much longer or shorter than it really is.

Five Dimensions of Service Quality

Five categories used by customers to rate service quality: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles.

reneging

Leaving a queue before receiving the service

front-of-the-house operations

Operations that are involved with interactions with customers, such as front desk operations.

facilitating products

Products such as computers, furniture, and office supplies that are not part of the services sold but rather are consumed inside the firm and must also be managed.

balking

Refusing to join a queue once it is seen how long it is.

pure services

Services that offer few, if any, tangible products to customers.

demand source

That part of the input process that deals with customer arrivals.

capacity utilization

The actual customers served per period divided by capacity.

mixed internet distribution strategt

The combining of traditional retailing with Internet retailing.

arrival pattern

The frequency with which customers arrive at a business.

service response logistics

The management and coordination of an organization's activities that occur while the service is being performed.

service capacity

The number of customers per day that a firm's service delivery systems are designed to serve,

queue discipline

The order in which customers are served.

queuing systems

The processes used to align, prioritize and serve customers.

queue times

The time that people or goods have spent waiting in line.

back-of-the-house operations

Those services that do not require customer contact.