Quantitative Tools, Operations Management for Service Industries - Essay Example

The work of reservation sales agents is an essential part of the general strategy of Going, Inc., to which the work will be devoted. The work of reservations sales managers is specific and has its features, which should be taken into account when designing the strategy for the improvement of their operations.
The main problem with the staff and reservations managers, in particular, is that the company does not have good relations with its unions, which is very important, as unions serve as a kind of legal protection of managers’ rights. Another problem is that employees complain about the lack of voice and the lack of professional training, which is also essential for the improvement of their job characteristics and supporting their skills at the appropriate level. (Bassett, 1992)

The specifics of reservations managers’ work is in the surroundings they work in, which is usually represented by a large room with a great number of workers doing the same work, thus demanding huge attention. 2 managers out of each 10 work part-time, weekends, nights, or holidays. That’s why, to improve the operation of this staff, it is necessary to develop a strict schedule of work, with optimization of the workers’ quantity together with increasing the quality of their work. To optimize the quantity of workers, it is obvious, that some of them should be fired. To avoid psychological and legal problems with the staff shortage, I suggest using the outplacing strategy, when Going Inc. will find new jobs for those, who are fired, with the salaries and preferences known beforehand for each worker to be fired. Another suggestion might be the use of so-called ‘privileged’ firing for those, who come closer to the pension age. It means that those who wish to retire earlier will be able to do this. The strategy of the company in this case will look the following way: will gather the applications of all those who want to retire, and Going Inc. will fire them step by step, as the company needs.

Going, Inc. is well known for one of the best flight schedules in the country, but the schedule for workers presents the problems of overloading and mistakes. That’s why the schedule must meet the requirements of legislation and the demands of unions, of the working week not exceeding 40 hours, with a rational quantity of night and holiday hours for each worker. However, the proposed changes might pose a conflict and several problems.
First of all, conflict might arise in the striving to create an optimal number of staff with the following legal requirements for the amount of working time. On the one hand, there is the probability of firing several workers, which may lead to a deeper argument with the union, but on the other hand, those workers who work part-time, usually have fixed hours (often at night or on holidays) and making schedule flexible for everyone might also lead to the conflict inside the staff and with the senior management. 

To provide the effectiveness of the staff work about the schedule and avoid the workers being late at work, I can suggest the following actions: 1. Each reservations manager should go through a short 20-30-minute training, during which senior managers will explain to them the importance of their schedule and the cost of each delay.  2. Ensure that the rules of processing the clients’ calls are standardized and are known to all reservations managers. 

3. Set the priorities for the managers in their work, explaining to them where they should concentrate their maximum attention, whether should they send faxes or clean their incoming mail while they are waiting for another incoming call.  4. Teach the managers to work with real-time information and to quickly take the necessary measures. Each reservations manager should know his contribution to the work of the whole company, together with the cost of delays and mistakes which he (or she) might make.    The senior managers must initiate closer cooperation with the unions and develop a system of employee training in the area of airline reservations.    Read More