Services Operations Management

AY2024/2025 Semester 1

Services make up over 75% of the Singapore economy both in GDP and in employment, with similar trends across the industrialized and developing/emerging nations within the global economy. However, Distinctive characteristics of services such as their intangibility, perishability, simultaneity, and heterogeneity, present unique challenges for managers in service organizations. The main aim of this course is twofold: to introduce you to the most important aspects and general principles of service management across different industries and economies, following a service-dominant logic on business; to provide you with an understanding and essential knowledge of the analysis, modelling, decision making and implementation for managing the operational issues of a service. Emphasis will be on developing your modelling skills with the use of mathematical tools and techniques to manage service operations. Topics include the service concept and operations strategy, the design of effective service delivery networks, service quality management, managing service inventory, waiting line analysis, capacity planning, and yield management.