Service Quality Woes? Turn to Manufacturing

Service quality across industries is into a gradual but unstoppable tailspin while manufactured goods get better by the day. The uniqueness of the service characteristics has often been believed to be the "culprit". What is it about manufacturing that so unfailingly delivers on quality and efficiency? Is there a way service companies can learn a thing or two from their manufacturing counterparts? This paper reviews the underlying theory of mass production-line approach and the subsequent developments in manufacturing philosophy to the latest in lean production systems, closely examines their merits and demerits, and proposes the ways in which the best practices from manufacturing can be adopted by service companies with equally magnificent results. The paper also presents illustrations of existing and potential applications of manufacturing logic to services.