Little "s," or Operational, Services

Little “s,” or Operational, Services

Little “s,” or operations-related, services are provided primarily

within the operations function of an organization. These types of

services are usually applied to existing products to make them

more attractive to customers. As a result, they don’t usually

require the major resource commitments that are associated with

long-range strategies that typically require cross-functional

coordination within an organization.

We present here two broad categories of little “s” services: (a)

availability and (b) customization. Time and location can be

viewed as two components of availability, and customization is

an extension of the concept of process flexibility that is externally

oriented toward the customer rather than internally focused on

the production process.

Availability Speed of delivery is an important factor in buying a

product. When it comes to delivery, the faster the better. But

short delivery times are not the only way in which firms can

enhance their value to customers. Companies that can serve

their customers when they want to be served also have a

competitive advantage in the marketplace. That is why more and

more firms are offering 24 by 7 service (that is, they are open 24

hours a day, seven days a week). For example ATMs are a good

example. In addition to being available 24 hours a day, ATMs are

conveniently located in shopping malls, airports, and

supermarkets, thereby further increasing their availability to

customers.

Customization Customization means modifying the standard

product offering to meet the needs of each individual customer.

To accomplish this, the manufacturing process must be

sufficiently flexible to accommodate a wide variety of individual

customer specifications. In addition, customized products, by

their