Essay About Long-Range Strategies And Broad Categories

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