100 Yen Sushi House
STAGES IN SERVICE FIRM COMPETITIVENESS
Service firms must constantly improve themselves about quality and productivity in order to compete with rivals.
Chase & Hayes created a table to describe the role of operations in the strategic development of service firms. This is an illustration of productivity and quality development. This table categorizes service firms into 4 stages of development according to their competitiveness. This table does not mean that services have to start at stage 1. A firm may start at stage 3 but may return to stage 1 out of neglect. (TCDD in the past & nowadays)
1- Available for service
Some service firms and often government services are in this group. Because they think they should operate at a minimum cost. Customers have no alternatives, so they do not need to seek for improvements in quality with their little motivation. There is minimal investment in training, so workers have limited skills and poor performance, so they need direct supervision. They do not invest for new technology until it is necessary for survival. In case of competition they cannot exist.
2-Journeyman
When a service firm in stage 1 with a sheltered existence may face a competition, so firm has to reevaluate its system. To avoid loss of market share managers need to adopt industry practices to compete with rivals. If all successful coach lines used the same buses, then a newcomer firm will buy the same buses, because they purchase the buses from the same supplier. So, they will all look like each other. If firms don not compete on operations effectiveness, they compete in other dimensions. Such as product line, peripheral services, advertisement. Service providers follow standard procedures without taking any initiative. F or example “Rahat hat” or express services of bus firms.
3-Distinctive competence achieved
Managers of the firms in this stage know what creates value for the customer. For example SAS (Scandinavian Airlines) was in trouble because of...
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