Western Illinois University Services and Operations Management Mini Project

EMPHASIS: Identify a service that has changed because of the COVID-19 Pandemic, such that the

quality and expectations for that service have been changed in terms of:

1. Accessibility: due to social distancing or other restrictions

2. Delivery: due to for example, supply chain disruptions, freight costs, product availability, or labor

changes eg fewer contractors allowed onsite, no home visits;

3. Customer behavior and/or demand for the service (an increase or a decrease eg airports).

Discuss how the value of a specific service has changed from COVID, and how the traditional quality

elements have shifted. This can discuss both positive and negative changes but the service should

have been impacted such that it had to adapt to different circumstances. Your chosen service should

be one that is still able to largely operate, even if in a modified form.

Apply the course concepts learnt during the first four weeks of the course (including week 4) in your

assignment. Your example must involve a discussion of how COVID-19 has changed service quality,

either for better, worse or just different. Your analysis should be rigorous, and supported by

predominantly peer reviewed sources with all sources being fully cited and referenced.

Your discussion in Assignment 1 should address the following:

The ‘service’ identified, and the ‘value’ it delivers to customers in the context of the service, and its

industry

How the service has changed in 2021 and how this has affected the core value/or ‘task’ the

customer wants from the service

How quality has changed eg accessibility, reliability, delivery, variety, empathy.

How the service firm adapted (or didn’t) and how this affected its competitive advantage, and

survival in the context of its industry more broadly

Managerial implications and how operations management could be used to re-design the service to

improve it.