Improving service productivity

As the economies of developed nations expand significantly into the service sector, considerable interest and attention continue to focus on the effective management of service organisations. The service firm’s overall competitiveness in the marketplace is often largely dependent upon its ability to sustain and continually improve upon high levels of productivity. Because services tend to be more intangible than manufactured products, Operational Research (OR) models designed to increase productivity of operations must carefully be developed to operate within the framework of the organisation’s service concept. This article deals with the effective application of Operational Research OR methodology toward increasing labour productivity in a service organisation in the wholesale autoparts industry.