Applying Quality Framework to Service Oriented Businesses of Mandarin Restaurant - Dissertation Example

Operation management is about how organizations produce and manage products and services in a way to ensure quality to the client delivered in an effective way that not only satisfies the customers but at the same time also costs little to the organization.
According to Greasley (2008, p. 3), “operation management is about the management of the processes that produce or deliver goods and services”. All organizations do not have a separate operations department but since every organization produces goods and services, it will always undertake the operation activities for management purposes (Greasley 2008).
Previously, operations management was mainly associated with the manufacturing field however as the scope of the service industry grew and as it started contributing more to the industrialized economies operations management activities started becoming important for service-oriented businesses as well (Greasley 2008). Johnston (1999, p. 104) highlights that it is in the 1980s when services have become a focal point in operations management and before that operations management field is only restricted to the manufacturing industry. A new term, i.e. service operations management is introduced and a new field emerged to cater to the operational needs of service-oriented businesses.
Service operations management specifically is concerned with how services are delivered to the customers or users. It involves understanding what the customers want, managing the process of delivering the service, making sure that the organization’s objectives are met while continuously trying to improve the services offered (Johnston and Clark 2007, p. 24).
Given the growing importance of operations management in the service industry this research seeks to explore a quality framework for service-oriented businesses by taking a case study approach. The case studied in this study is Mandarin restaurant which is one of the leading Chinese Restaurants operating in Nottingham for more than a decade now. In addition to this, it has been one of the topmost among all the other Chinese restaurants catering to both Chinese and Western clientele.
The ultimate aim of service operations management is customer satisfaction via offering quality services (Arora 2004, p. 654). Offering quality is becoming extremely important for service-oriented businesses and hence is the reason it is important managers understand how to manage and constantly improve quality. Pfeifer (2002, p. 4) points out that quality management today is dramatically different from what it was a few decades ago. He points that a very less percentage of dissatisfied customers will go to the point of reporting and communicating why they are dissatisfied. The maximum number of customers will never come back and will also share their grievances with other potential customers. Quality and more importantly quality management is slowly becoming the most critical factor where the survival of businesses is concerned.
Quality management is not just an individual approach, rather it is spread throughout the organization no matter how small or big the organization is (Chary 2009). This approach aids in understanding what customers want. It does not just stop at identifying the customer requirements; rather it is effective, only if the customer requirements are met steadily within the defined budget and the allocated time while at the same time meeting the environmental requirements as well.