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Manufacturing versus Service
Please respond to the following: Compare and contrast the operations management function in manufacturing with the operations management function in service industries with a focus on the roles and responsibilities of the VP of operations. Determine which is the more challenging to manage and why.

Manufacturing organizations produce physical, tangible goods that can be stored or processed in advance. Service organizations produce intangible products that cannot be produced ahead of time. They deal with ideas, assistance, or information and are very involved with customer service. More differences between the two; jobs in the service environments are often less structured than in manufacturing environments. Customer contact is usually much higher in services due to the demand of information. In many services, worker skill levels are low compared to those of manufacturing workers.

A manufacturing executive manager must fine-tune their production processes to focus on quality, to hold down the costs of materials and labor, and to eliminate all costs that add no value to the finished product. Making the decisions involved in the effort to attain these goals is the job of the operations manager. These responsibilities are deal directly with the planning process, the production control and the quality control. These responsibilities are very important to the organization and can ultimately decide which direction the company will move in. This executive will have to decide; does the company intend to be a low-cost producer and to compete on the basis of price? Or does it plan to focus on quality and go after the high end of the market? Perhaps it wants to build a reputation for reliability. What if it intends to offer a wide range of products?
A service operations executive manager has to deal more with the consumer. They have to be

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