Page 297 - DMGT206_PRODUCTION_AND_OPERATIONS_MANAGEMENT

Production and Operations Management

Notes 14.5 Scheduling in Services

There are some basic distinctions between manufacturing and services. These differences effect
scheduling. Service operations cannot create inventories to buffer demand uncertainties. Also
service operations demand is often less predictable. If my computer starts misbehaving, a service
engineer is required. Customers may decide on the spur of the moment that they need a dosa or
a haircut. Thus capacity, often in the form of manpower and skills, is crucial for service providers.
In this section, we discuss various ways in which scheduling systems can facilitate the capacity
management of service providers.

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Caution It must be remembered that demand for service is often initiated by unplanned
events.

Scheduling Customer Demand

Where demand is known in advance or can be forecast, a way to manage capacity is to schedule
customers for arrival times and definite periods of service time. This is a level strategy option
that was discussed. Capacity remains fixed and demand is leveled to provide timely service and
utilize capacity. Three methods are commonly used: backlogs, reservations, and appointments.
Backlogs: Very often organizations allow backlogs to develop so that they can plan their capacities
better. Various priority rules can be used to determine which order to process next. The usual
rule is first come, first served. But in a service industry custom and previous experience often
changes the order of priority.
For example, your tailor shop will not tell you exactly when service will commence. You give
your measurements (service request) to a tailor (order taker), who adds it to the waiting line of
orders already in the system and he gives you a date for trying out the outfit.
Reservations: In many industries like in the hospitality and travel trades, reservations have
become a norm. Reservations systems, although quite similar to appointment systems, are used
when the customer actually occupies or uses facilities associated with the service.
The major advantage of reservation systems is the lead time they give service managers to plan
the efficient use of facilities. Reservations often are complicated by the problem of no-shows.
Yield management techniques have been developed to enhance demand for services as well as
minimize the negative impacts of reservation systems.
Appointments: An appointment system assigns specific times for service to customers. The
advantages of this method are:
 Timely customer service and
 High utilization of servers.

Hospitals are examples of service providers that use appointment systems. Surgeons can use the
system to schedule part of their day to see patients and part of the day for their surgery. The
quality of service is determined by the care taken to control delays in appointments so that
individual customer needs are satisfied.
Fortunately, many service products have soft ceilings. Soft ceilings can be flexed by buying
additional inexpensive plant, recruiting unskilled or semiskilled staff, or sub-contracting, or of
course short term overtime. Such service products can also use a ‘chase strategy’. However, jobs
requiring a scarce skill that is difficult to train such as toolmakers, or maintenance operatives,
there is a limit to how much overtime can be worked to meet demand and the training program
to reach basic skills is protracted.

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