The Importance of Operations Management Problems in Service Organizations - Article Example

Operations management Article Review The importance of operations management problems in service organizations Purpose of the Article The article aims at evaluating operational problems considered by service organizations to be most important. The research requested managers to rank operational problems affecting the service organizations and uses Q methodology in meeting its purpose of determining their relative importance. Research Objective The research objective of the article is to provide an in-depth understanding on the important operational problems facing service organizations. The other objective of the research is the use of the results on the operational problems facing service organizations in developing frameworks for solving the important problems for service organizations from the study. The study also aims at the provision of the implications that the study will have on educating students in preparation for success in the service sector through having a thorough understanding of the important problems faced by the service sector. Important information in the article The data is enough in answering the research question because of the 54 responses with 51 responses fit for use in the study surpassing the 30 items of sample size required in the use of the Q methodology in research. The response rate at 10.3% also fits the marketing response rate acceptable norm of 10-20% depicting the usefulness and ability of the collected information to meet the requirements of the study (Wright & Mechling, 2002). The use of a wide range of service businesses and the presence of a large difference in the characteristics of businesses in terms of size, number of employees, and the management structure provides for the data to be comprehensive making them enough in meeting the needs of the research question. From the survey, the articles presents different operations problems facing service organizations including location, transportation, facility layout, simulating processes and planning, future planning, determining order quantities and inventory monitoring, and tangible and intangible factor use in decision making. Other problems are operation with little inventory, continuous improvement, complex project management, monitoring and management of quality provision, decision making with known probabilities, profit maximization, staffing, distribution, and competition action prediction (Wright & Mechling, 2002). The article uses the Q-methodology in the determination of the importance of these problems in service organizations according to the rank of the respondents from a sample of service organizations in the study. Main inferences and conclusions from the article The article’s results show that more than one of Schmenner’s service Types are contained in the factors, and there is a wide distribution of Schmenner’s types among the factors. The research concludes that the factors affecting the operations of service organizations are not related to the size of the organization or the position of the respondent in the organization. The general results include the importance of monitoring and measuring quality among the factors with only two factors viewing management and continuous improvement as important. Predicting future events, conditions, and demand and allocation of resources are the other important considerations evident from the article. A concern for resource allocation and utilization for service organizations is evidenced by the research. Measuring quality of service and use of tangible and intangible resources in making decisions are also important to service organizations. Nursing organizations provide staffing as an important problem in the survey and reflect the 24 hour 365-day operation of the facilities. Cleaning and insurance restoration company and machine sales and service company ranked management and scheduling of activities and staffing as important problems in their service provision. The article provides that the management of queuing lines for service organizations is important according to research on queuing despite the low rank evident from the article results. The problems that were ranked as not important to service organizations include facility layout, location, management of customer waiting lines, and determination of distribution lines. Reasons for these results include lack of service distribution; the low possibility of queuing lines, already determined location facility, and the inability of changing the layout location and waiting line systems in the short run. The article also provides the different ways in which the results of the research can be applied in educating prospective employees in the service industry to prepare them to deal effectively with the problems that arose from the article. A consideration of the most important problems cited by the participants provide a platform for matching different methods including forecasting, programming, and quality measurement methods to service provision, they will aid in determination of the bets methods relevant to teaching students expected to work in the service industry upon graduation. The results depict the unimportance of queuing, location, and layout implying fixed factors or depicting the lack of importance, but this can provide a platform for educators to emphasize to students the importance of these factors in success of service organizations in the course of their lectures. The need for imparting to students the general applicability of the methods for solving problems regardless of the service type is supported by the results depicting the commonality of problems in the service sector. The article suggests that the main problems that were ranked by service organizations as being of high importance include determination of effective resource utilization, prediction of future events, demand, and conditions, and quality service measurement and provision. With the problems that emerged as least important to service organizations being location, queuing, and facility layout. Key concepts to understand in the article Q-methodology which the author explains its purpose as allowing for systematic examination of the important service related problems since it places the subjective perceptions of the decision-maker from the most to the least important problems as central to the analysis (Wright & Mechling, 2002). Q-methodology is defined by the researcher as the method that allows “the respondent to model his/her viewpoints on a matter of subjective importance through the operational medium of Q-sort” (Wright & Mechling, 2002). The other concept to understand in the article is the Schmenner service process matrix typology because it is imperative for understanding the categorization of service operations in the article. The research states that “Schmenner service operation matrix typology categorizes operations into service factories, mass services, service shops, and professional services” in accordance to overlapping degrees of labour intensity and customization (Wright & Mechling, 2002). Main assumptions The main assumption in the article is that the managers have an understanding of the problems they face as service organizations even if they have no understanding of the measures to undertake in solving the problems. The other assumption made in the research is that service organizations are faced with similar operations problems from the fact that they provide services aimed at meeting needs of the consumer without offering tangible products. Consequences of ignoring author’s reasoning The main consequence of ignoring the author’s reasoning [would result in the misunderstanding of the reasons why the author provides recommendations for methods and techniques to solve the problems highlighted by the managers in the case. The reasoning that managers do not have methods or mechanisms to solve the highlighted problems forms the reason for the other objective of the study that is the provision of frameworks for solving problems highlighted by the management. Ignoring the assumption that service organizations face similar problems reduces the research to single organizations that cannot be considered using a similar instrument and the applicability of Schmenner’s service matrix typology in the research is lost on the reader. An understanding of the assumptions made by the research is important for the better comprehension of the purpose of the article and the application to better service delivery through solving operation problems and application of conclusion to instruction. Reference Wright, C. & Mechling, G. (2002). The importance of operations management problems in service organizations. The International Journal of Management Chance, 30, 77-87. Read More