Example Of Essay On Operations Management Name

Introduction

Customers dislike waiting on long queues to receive services, hence a speedy process implies that an organization can serve more customers by using existing resources or reducing the resources. The properties of processes that may impact on the throughput time in a hotel setting include the size, fittings, layout and furnishings of the bedroom, the serving process, the materials and equipment used to the hotel, the customer and the employees at the hotel. Throughput time refers to the time that is needed to deliver a service to the customer and the main intervals in the throughput time include processing time, queue time, move time and inspection time. About the processing of signing in into a hotel or resort, the processing time refers to the time that is spent to complete the process of signing in. The inspection time refers to the time that is spent to inspect the customers' documents when signing in. The move time refers to the duration that is spent to move the customers through all the steps of signing in. The queue time refers to the time that the customers spend when waiting for their sign in request to be processed. This paper critically evaluates how the theory of swift and even flow can be used to explain the duration of throughput time and how it can be improved without reducing the customer satisfaction levels. Specifically, the essay focuses on the process of checking-in in a resort hotel. The focus of the essay is a critical evaluation of the application of swift even flow theory to improve the process of checking in at a hotel -resort. Accordingly, the theoretical focus of the essay is the theory of swift even flow. The industry context that will be adopted for this essay is the hospitality industry.

Theory of Swift and Even Flow

The theory of swift and even flow was formulated by Schmenner and Swink in 1998. According to the theory, when the throughput time is long, all the bogs that impact on the swift flow units and materials are increased. Besides, the theory suggests that when the throughput time is long, the process that encourages the accumulation of throughput time should be searched. Further, when orders are received irregularly, the disruption of evenness occurs. Also, the functioning of a process can be disrupted due to the functions in a process and the variability that occurs when the tasks are carried out (Szende & Dalton, 2015).
As noted in the theory of swift and even flow, "the more the swift and even flow of materials through a process, the more the productive process is." The theory of swift even flow applies to all times of operations, and the process of checking in into a hotel-resort is not exceptional. It is noteworthy that the theory of swift and even flow has laws namely the Law of variability 1, the Law of variability 2, the law of bottlenecks and the law of prioritization. According to the Law of variability 1 explains that when randomness in a process is great, the product is lower. The Law of variability 2 postulates that when the process requirements are great, the product becomes low. According to the law of bottlenecks, when there is a great difference in the flow rate through the process stages, the process becomes less productive. As explained in the law of prioritization, operations that are characterized with great, instability and have a great prioritization of orders (Dhillon, Joshi & Verma, 2012).

A critical evaluation of how theory of swift and even flow

It is noteworthy that the swift and even flow theory can be used to improve the throughput time of signing in into a hotel by focusing on the time intervals of the throughput time. Specifically, the processing time can be reduced by encouraging the customers to sign in through the website of a hotel as long as it provides the option of online checking in (Kungu, 2014). 
In the hospitality industry, the theory shows that there should be a balance at all the stages that are involved when designing and executing the hospitality operations. The theory is potentially insightful when it comes to improving the manner in which customers can sign into a hotel because it focuses on the process and it revolves around the issues in various processes that are salient to the hotels' productivity. Specifically, it considers issues such as quality, variability, and bottlenecks. For example, a hotel resort should have enough spaces to accommodate all the guests that sign in. The number of seats in the hotel should be sufficient to accommodate the customers' demand for dining. In the same way, the operations in signing in of customers at the hotel or resort should aim at lowering variability and randomness. To illustrate, most of the hotels in the UK and the USA encourage early booking, and this helps the hotels to schedule labor and to forecast the demand levels of the hotel facilities. Undoubtedly, the theory plays a crucial role in understanding the decoupled and backroom processes that impact on the customers’ experiences when booking into a hotel (Jaaron & Backhouse, 2012).
It is imperative to note that in the setting of a hotel the process of signing in can be even swift if it is inclusive of the back-office processes and the processes of delivering the service to the customer. Hence, the designing of the service should be swift to guarantee the even flow of the service when delivering it to the customer. The variation that is experienced when signing into a hotel should be kept low to improve the customers’ experiences. The variability can be reduced by reducing the labor intensive activities that are carried out when signing in and by lowering the levels of customization and customer interaction when delivering the services (Jaaron & Backhouse, 2012).
The process of signing in should be controlled adequately for the Theory of Swift and Even Flow to hold. The controlling of services in the hospitality industry is somewhat difficult than in the factory setting. Figure one below summarizes how service factories such as hotels can reduce the degree of labor intensive activities. A hotel belongs to the category of service factory which requires a low degree of customization and interaction and a low degree of labor intensive activities. According to Schmenner, the service process matrix has four types of services namely the professional service, service factory, mass service, and service shop. The buying decisions of the customers depend on reputation, performance, price, service warranty and features (Esain, Kumar & Williams, 2015).
Figure 1: Degrees of Interaction and Customization and Labor Intensity

Source: (Schmenner 1998)

Figure two below elaborates how the degree of variation can influence the speed of flow when signing in into a hotel. According to the figure, a hotel is classified as service factory. According to the figure when the variation degree is low the speed of flow is high and vice versa.
Figure 2 Speed of flow and Degree of Variation

Source: (Schmenner 1998)

The inspection time can be reduced by reducing the labor intensive activities that are considered when verifying the details of the clients. Just like the processing time, the inspection time can be reduced by obtaining confirmations and verifications through emails and phone calls. The move time can also be reduced by minimizing the interactions between the hotel staff and the customers. As such, the unnecessary communication between the two parties will be minimized and subsequently, the move time will be fast. Furthermore, the time that is spent in the queue can be eliminated by encouraging the customers to book in advance before reporting to the hotel. In addition, to that online platforms of signing in are instrumental in minimizing the queue time (spring, 2013).
The core of all transactions in the service industry is customer satisfaction. The service standards are usually demanding because customers are concerned about the quality of services they receive in the hospitality and specifically hotels and resorts. Accordingly, the hotels have shifted from the manufactured services towards responding to the quality sensitive customers (Migov, 2015).The concept of thorough put time in the hospitality industry is oriented towards the reduction the time that is required to deliver a service to the customer. The implications of reducing throughput time are that profitability increases and the throughput time flowing system increases as well. Throughput is obtained by subtracting the variable expense from the net sales. Most of the time in the service industry is spent of queuing, inspection and moving. Accordingly, the throughput in the service industry can be minimized by reducing the queue, inspection and move time as much as possible (Smith et al., 2012).
According to the Law of Variability one stipulated in the Swift and Even Flow theory, the variability in the arrival of customers at a hotel lead to an increase the processing and waiting times. Subsequently, the increased processing and waiting times may lead to delay and congestion. At a particular level of utilization, the time of waiting can be increased at an accelerating rate by increasing the utilization levels of a service. Empirical evidence shows that when resources are utilized highly, the throughput time increases as well. As such when there is variability in the provision of a service, a trade-off occurs between low processing times and high throughput time. Furthermore, the severity of the tradeoff increases with an increase in the variability. It is noteworthy that the queue time increases more than the processing time when there is variability and specifically when the utilization of the service approaches 100% (Eggins, 2013). The figure 3 below shows how utilization of impacts on the flow rate and the flow time.
Figure 3: The adverse impact of increased variability and utilization on Lead Time

Source: (Dhillon, Joshi & Verma, 2012).

The managerial implication of the Law of variability 1 is that the signing-in process should be sequenced to decrease the average queuing time. Furthermore, technology may be applied to reduce the variability by processing information efficiently. The automation of the signing-in process will be instrumental in reducing variability, and this will, in turn, reduce the throughput time of the whole process (Lewis & Brown, 2012).
It is imperative to note that the throughput time for signing into a hotel can be reduced by embracing mobility. The swift and even theory advocates the mobility of all process whether in the manufacturing or hospitality sector. The smartphones and tablets can be used in promoting the signing-in mobility. All employees should be given the mobility devices to speed up the pace at which the customers are signed in. Markedly, the management of the signing in the process using Apple iPads in some hotels will help in eliminating the manual and old fashioned processes of registering clients in hotels. Besides, to that mobility enables the hotel employees to handle the customers efficiently and to offer check-in experiences that are personalized. The mobility of the hotel employees influential in lowering the cost that comes with the static reception desks in hotels (Slack, Brandon-Jones & Johnston, 2013).
The impact of the social media has a profound impact on the operations of hotels. The social media offers information about holidays, leisure and hotel facilities. Accordingly, the hotels should take advantage of the social media to reduce their throughput time be enlightening customers on how to sign in via the online platforms. The social media can help hotels to assess the customer’s feedbacks and comments as far as signing in are concerned (Devaraj, Ow & Kohli, 2013). The Swift and even theory advocate low variability because it maximizes productive. Accordingly, hotels should introduce personalized systems in a bid to reduce the signing in throughput time. The guests’ preferences should be captured in the signing in the process with an aim of stimulating return visits and reducing the throughput time (Wei et al., 2014).
According to the Law of Variation 2 Integration of the hotel, functions is crucial in reducing the throughput time, and this can be obtained by integrating all the systems using the single software. Consequently, the customer will point out the functions that will be required before signing in. The process of signing into a hotel should be simplified and fairly straightforward for purposes of reducing the throughput time. It is crucial for customers to confirm their reservations before arriving. The reservations remind the front desk of the customers' special request such as conjoining rooms, a crib, nonsmoking rooms and quiet rooms. Moreover, the confirmation of reservations before arriving reduces the mistakes that may be made on the day of arrival, and it covers the client it the hotel staff mess up (Jaaron & Backhouse, 2012).
The law on prioritization shows that the check-in time at the hotel should be made clear to the client via emails, phone class, and online platform. Clarity concerning the check –in time will help in minimizing the inconveniences that may occur as a result of customers checking in very early and very late. It may be crucial for customers to communicate their arrival time in advance to enable the hotel staff to prepare in advance. Subsequently, the throughput time will be reduced a great deal. Arguably, proper communication between the client and the hotel staff is essential in reducing the throughput time. It is imperative to state that the use of electronic keys is effective in reducing the customers' move time compared to the old-fashioned metal keys (Pereira-Moliner et al., 2012).
The law of bottlenecks implies that hotels should reduce the number of documents that are required for a client to sign in into a hotel room. Specifically, the documents should be limited to a Passport or Identification card, a confirmation of the reservation, and accredit card. A limited number of documents will reduce the time that is spent on inspecting the customers. Regarding the identification document, the hotel should verify either the passport or the national ID. That is to say, if the client's ID card is verified, then there is no need to verify the passport. Regarding the confirmation of the reservation, confirmation statements should be emailed to customers who book online. In the case of the customers that book via phones, they should be sent confirmation messages that will be presented when signing in. The issuances of the reservation confirmation should be automated to reduce the throughput time for signing in into a hotel. More importantly, the process of signing in should be hassle free, simple and quick (Brotherton, 2012). 
Regardless of the fact that the theory, of Swift and even flow, can be used to reduce the throughput time of signing into a hotel or resort, there are limitations to this theory that may interfere with the customers' satisfaction. Markedly, the Theory of Swift and Even Flow applies to the processing of materials thus it may not be applicable in the processing of customers. Specifically, most of the problems in service management tend to be complex, fuzzy, multi-dimensional and unstructured. As such the problems in the hospitality industry are not conducive to analytical and normative modeling. Arguably, it will be very challenging to improve the process of signing in into a hotel resort using the theory of Swift and Even Flow due to the inherent difficulty that is associated with the process of managing the productivity of the hotels (Zhang, Joglekar & Verma, 2012).
According to Law of Variability 2, variability should be minimized in the processes that are followed by a client when signing into a hotel room because high variability degrades the signing’s system’s variability. However, it may be difficult to limit the variability inherent in the signing in systems of various hotels because the system is buffered by a combination of the tome, customers, and capacity. The capacity of a hotel is constant thus it cannot be altered Furthermore, the bookings in a hotel are season thus the management many find it hard to limit variability in the signing system. Therefore, the application of this law may interfere with the satisfaction of customers to some extent because t advocates for flexibility that may lower the level of variability buffering that are essential for an efficient system of signing in. The theory can only be effective in the manufacturing sector (Vlachos & Bogdanovic, 2013).
Uncertainty is very inherent in the hospitality industry thus it may be difficult for a signing-in system to cater for all the uncertainties that may arise when customers try to sign in into a particular hotel. Furthermore, the process of hedging the uncertainties in the service sector is somehow difficult because a hotel cannot forecast on its excess capacity. Variation in very paramount in the hospitality industry and it stems from the non-uniformity in demand for hotel services. The process of controlling the external factors of variation in the hotel industry is somehow complicated. Furthermore, the application of the theory of swift and even flow may interfere with the customers’ satisfaction due to the uncertainties associated with demand variation (Chon, Barrows & Bosselman, 2013). 
Law of Variation 2 recommends three buffering mechanisms that can be used to mitigate the uncertainty and variations in a delivery system and they include capacity, forward load, and inventory. The application of the forward load is not practical in the reduction of the throughput that is associated with signing-in into a hotel because the hotel cannot predict the anticipated number of customers that are likely to sign into a hotel with accuracy. Regarding capacity, hotels can compress the customers ‘response times by looking at their capacity before allowing more bookings (Hill & Hill, 2012). 
In addition to that, the law of bottlenecks postulates that it is not easy to eradicate all bottlenecks in the delivery, in particular, the process of service delivery. Thus, the bottlenecks associated with signing in into a resort may end up floating in the system because they can only be managed rather than eradicated completely. As such bottlenecks are likely to interfere with the process of reducing the throughput time. Furthermore, hotels have not managed to have long runs of products with few changeovers, and this makes the process of eradicating the sign-in bottlenecks a challenge. Understandably, the failure to eliminate all the check-in bottlenecks at the hotel may reduce the customers' satisfaction because they contribute to long queuing times and the inconveniencing of customers. Furthermore, the bottlenecks increase inefficiencies when customers are trying to check into a hotel (Mohammed & Rashid, 2012).
The law of prioritization that is described in the theory of Swift and even flow has limitations because priority areas are neither heroes nor scapegoats when designing the process of checking in into a hotel. Most the priority areas are likely to be ignored thus they may not be included in the signing in procedure. As such, the priority areas are likely to be back-burned quickly and disregarded. However, the reason as to why hotel benefit immensely when the fewer priority rates in checking in are discovered and implemented by the operation personnel are that the areas possess a surprising capacity to influence the overall process of checking into a hotel. It is worthy to note that the management and staff at a hotel may not understand the customers' priority areas when checking in. Accordingly, the may focus on areas that are not necessarily the customers' priority, and this may reduce the customers' satisfaction (Mohammed & Rashid, 2012).

Conclusion

In a nut shell, this essay has critically evaluated how the theory of swift and even flow can be used to explain the duration of throughput time and how it can be improved without reducing the customer satisfaction levels. The major laws that can be instrumental in reducing throughput time when checking in into a hotel or resort include the Law of Variability 1, the law of bottle necks, the law of variability 2 and the law of prioritization. Variability is very costly to the process of signing in into a hotel thus it should be minimized. The variability should be traded off by using lead time and the utilization levels. Furthermore, uncertainties in the hotels may make it difficult to apply the law of swift and even flow, All in all, the theory swift and even flow can play an instrumental role in comprehending the throughput time of checking into a hotel and it can help greatly in reducing the throughput time without affecting the customers’ satisfaction in an adverse manner.

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