Course Objectives:

To explore the effect of the shift of the labor market from manufacturing to service
industries. 

To gain an understanding of the complexities involved with assuring high quality 
service in today's global competitive environment. 

To examine how the composition of a service organization's resources(labor and 
processes) should change in response to advances in information technologies.

To develop an understanding of the different methods used to plan, schedule, 
and maintain the resources necessary to meet demand for services in the short-term, 
medium-term, and long-term.

To determine the mix of work-force skills, technology, and design of facility is best 
suited to achieve goals such as high quality, volume and product-mix flexibility, 
quick customer response times, or low cost.

Through case analyses, to explore how service companies in various industries 
(e.g., health care, banking & finance, retail, transportation/distribution, 
hospitality) have effectively (or ineffectively) utilized operations methods to 
enhance their respective competitive positions.

The following topics are covered in this course:

Section 1 -  The Transition to a Service Economy	
- Stages of Economic Development	
- Service Classification
- Competitive Service Strategies
	
Section 2 - Strategic Service Location
- Location Criteria and Facility Location Techniques
- Trends in Location Decisions
- Globalization and the effect of Culture on the Service Organization

Section 3 - Process Design, Facility Layout, and Work Measurement 
- Process Design Methods (Activity Charts, Process Design Charts, and Flow Charts)
- Process Design and Positioning Strategies
- Matching Process Design with Competitive Priorities
- Production Line Approach to Services versus Empowerment 

Section 4 - Service Quality Management and Service Recovery	
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All students are responsible for maintaining the highest standards of 
honesty and integrity in every phase of their academic careers.  The
penalties for academic dishonesty are severe and ignorance is not an
acceptable defense.

Academic honesty means performing all academic work without plagiarizing,
cheating, lying, tampering, stealing, receiving assistance from any other
person or using any source of information that is not common knowledge.