COMM 443 - Service Operations

In developed economies, the service sector is the largest sector of the economy. In developing economies, it is the fastest growing sector. This course will introduce students to some operations management challenges that are unique to service firms. Drawing on operations management and process improvement frameworks and techniques that students will be familiar with, this course will teach students to apply these skills in managing service operations. While the primary focus will be on service operations, the course will take an integrated viewpoint by also discussing marketing, strategy, information technology and organizational issues. While much of the course will consider service operations in general, students will be introduced to issues that are specific to the health care industry. Finally, students will also be introduced to the application of revenue management techniques in service firms. 

Learning objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• identify operational challenges that are unique to services.
• apply operations management and process improvement frameworks and techniques to service industries.
• use queuing models to analyze services.
• identify key operational challenges in health care delivery.
• use simple revenue management models that are applied in service settings.

Prerequisite: COMM 204