Chapter 7 Service Processes

Flashcards covering the vocabulary and core concepts of service processes, design, and waiting line analysis as presented in Chapter 7.

Service Package

The bundle of goods and services that is provided in some environment, consisting of five features: supporting facility, facilitating goods, information, explicit services, and implicit services.

Supporting facility

The physical resources that must be in place before a service can be offered.

Facilitating goods

The material purchased or consumed by the buyer, or the items provided to the customer.

Information

Operations data or information that is provided by the customer to enable efficient and customized services.

Explicit services

The benefits that are readily observable and which make up the essential features of the service.

Implicit services

Psychological benefits or other extrinsic features of the service, such as prestige or privacy.

Customer Contact

The physical presence of the customer in the system; systems with a high degree are more difficult to control.

Web platform business

A company that creates value by enabling the exchange of information between two or more independent groups, usually consumers and providers of a service or product.

Service blueprinting

The standard flowchart tool for service process design which distinguishes between high customer contact aspects and activities the customer does not see.

Line of visibility

A specific distinction on a service blueprint flowchart that separates activities seen by the customer from those they do not see.

Fail-safing

The process of using a service blueprint to identify failure opportunities and establishing procedures to prevent mistakes from becoming defects.

Poka-yokes

Procedures that block the inevitable mistake from becoming a service defect, which translates to "avoid mistakes."

The Three T’s

The three types of service poka-yokes including: 1. Task to be done, 2. Treatment accorded to the customer, and 3. Tangible features of the service facility.

Customer arrival rate

The expected number of customers that arrive during each period, typically following a Poisson distribution.

Balking

A customer arrival characteristic where the customer arrives, views the service line, and leaves immediately.

Reneging

A customer arrival characteristic where the customer arrives, waits in line for a while, and then leaves.

Queue discipline

A priority rule or set of rules that determine the order of service for customers who are waiting in line.

Service rate

The number of customers a server can handle per unit time ($\text{such as } 12 \text{ per hour}$).

$$\lambda$$

Notation representing the arrival rate in waiting line models.

$$\mu$$

Notation representing the service rate in waiting line models.

$$\rho$$

The ratio of total arrival rate to service rate for a single server ($\rho = \frac{\lambda}{\mu}$).

$$L_q$$

The notation for the average number of units waiting in line.

$$L_s$$

The notation for the average number of units in the system.

$$W_q$$

The notation for the average time waiting in line.

$$W_s$$

The notation for the average total time in the system.

Poisson Distribution Equation

The probability of $n$ arrivals in time period $T$ given by $P(n) = \frac{(\lambda T)^n e^{-\lambda T}}{n!}$.