TH50044E: Airline Operations Management Essay Analysis

This essay examines the application of operations management principles within the aviation industry, with a focus on how airlines and airports utilize these strategies to attract customers and gain a competitive advantage. It explores various models and theories, including business process management, supply chain management, and the servuction model, demonstrating how they are applied in practice. The essay analyzes how airlines like Vistara and Emirates implement total quality management, personalized services, and technological advancements to enhance customer experience, improve operational efficiency, and foster brand loyalty. Furthermore, the essay discusses the impact of globalization and privatization on competition within the aviation sector. The essay concludes by highlighting the importance of operation management in transforming inputs into outputs, managing costs, and delivering superior customer service, ultimately leading to increased profitability and a stronger market position.

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Operation Management
Student’s Name
7/2/2019

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Operation management is the supervision of occupational practices to generate the utmost
level of efficiency in the organization. It focuses on transforming the raw material and the
labour into goods and services in an efficient manner to maximize the profits of the business.
It fosters to balance the cost and the income to attain the highest net operating profit. It
includes the utilization of staff, resources, technology to deliver the products and create value
for the customers. The further paragraphs of the essay will reflect upon the application of
operation management theory and the models. It will also cover the evaluation of how
operation management within aviation industry creates value for the customers (Mahadevan,
2015).
The operation management focuses on managing all the different areas from manufacturing
to the management of the people. It focuses on bringing the best from the company. To
effectively manage the operations of the business the operation manager applies business
process management under which the manager constantly focuses on analyzing, improving
and automating processes (Bromiley and Rau, 2016). In this methodology, the first step is to
identify the process of the business and then modeling is done in the form of workflow
diagram or through process mapping techniques. The third step involves analysis of the
workflow diagram and further removing the steps that do not add value. The fourth step
involves monitoring that whether the changes implemented will bring positive change in the
organization (Trkman et al, 2015). At this step, the benchmark is set to compare the process.
The last step involves improving or automating the services to attain the objectives of the
business in an efficient manner (Rosemann and Vom Brocke, 2015).
Another theory that operation managers apply includes supply chain management. Due to the
increase in the complexities of the business and the scope of internationalization, it becomes
imperative for the organization to handle the material, goods and the information flow
between the suppliers, consumers, and the businesses (Carter, Rogers and Choi, 2015). The

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management of the supply chain allows the company to touch each point from the creation of
the sale to the management of its cost, efficiency, and profits. It comprises active
rearrangement of a business’s supply side activities to exploit the customer value and allows
the company to advance a competitive advantage. It allows the suppliers to develop the
supply chain that is economical and efficient. The supply manager effectively manages the
supply chain to control the cost of the company and deliver fast services to the customers
(Mangan, Lalwani and Lalwani, 2016).
The operation manager focuses on applying servuction model because this model emphasizes
the involvement of the customers in the production and experience of the service. It includes
the inseparability attribute of the service in which the production and the consumption of
service cannot be separated (Wu, 2016). Under this model, it covers various aspects. The first
is physical evidence which is the tangible representation of an intangible service. It includes
the comfort and the space of the seats, delivery of food under the plane. Another aspect is
people. People represent the staff of the company. Their politeness, courtesy, and mannerism
in communication with the customers. They directly influence the experience of the
customers which in turn develops the need for the operation manager to crucially select the
employees. The third aspect is processed which involve the production and delivery of the
service (Shaw, 2016). The service manager focuses on maintaining the tangible and
intangible services to ease the process and enhance the customer experience. The last aspect
of this model is other customers who can affect the experience of real customers. For this, the
operation manager focuses on designing the facilities that do not hamper the experience of
others
(Flouris and Oswald, 2016).
The operation manager focuses upon the four dimensions i.e. Volume, Variety, Variation,
and Visibility. It focuses on managing the core activities and transforming the resources into

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outputs. The first dimension is the volume under which the focus is to manage the volume
operation process to deliver quality products at a speedy rate. The second dimension is the
variety under which the classification between the standardized and the non-standardised
goods are done. This allows the manager to concentrate more on goods that are standardized
to lower the cost and attains profitability for the company. Another two dimensions are
variation and visibility (Singh, Shukla and Kalafatis, 2017). The little variation in the
business process model and the cost allows the manager to lower the cost. The last dimension
is the visibility of manufacturing operations. Through the visibility in operations, the
managers are able to gain the trust of the customers and increase the profitability of the
business (Cho, Windle and Dresner, 2017).
It is analyzed that Vistara focuses on total quality management to deliver maximum
satisfaction to the customers. It allows the companies to improvise the processes, services and
their working culture to meet the expectations of the customers (Ehret and Wirtz, 2017). The
airports of Vistara focus on applying the total quality management techniques and
methodologies to improve the business process such as logistics, hospitality, and
telecommunication (Schminke, 2015). The Vistara airline is keeping the customer at the
center and develops the facilities that allow creating brand differentiation and developing a
competitive advantage for the company (Wirtz and Lovelock, 2018). It applies a flexible
business model that allows the company to shift its cost structure from fixed to variable. The
brand focuses on bringing continuous innovation in its facilities to retain the market position
and attract potential customers towards the brand. It attracts corporate travellers who are
lessor price sensitive to attain profitability in the business (McColl-Kennedy et al, 2015).
Emirates airline focuses on delivering the personalized services to its customers and provides
knowledge-driven inflight service under which the companies reviews the previous
experiences of the customers and are able to analyze the preferences and the issues faced by

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the customers and then delivers the improved personalized service to gain the attention of the
customers (Schminke, 2015). It has installed automation application that helps the airport
agents to deliver the best services to the customer through concierge services, a meet-and-
greet for arriving passengers and crew, airport escort through customs and immigration,
airport ramp-to-city services (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016).
Due to the introduction of globalization and privatization the competition among aviation
companies has increased. It has provided the opportunity to the companies to use the latest
technologies and deliver advance service to the customers. The automation and the mobile
app facility at KLM’s Flying Blue have allowed the company to create a personal interaction
with the customers and the uniqueness of the airport allows the company to attract potential
customers (McColl-Kennedy et al, 2015).
The 24 hours of customer service and fast short flights provide ease to the customers. The
operation managers focus on employing the best employees who are able to handle the
technological changes and are able to deliver the best services to the customers. The
automation of the technology and maintenance of the logistics at Vistara allows the company
to deliver personalized service and turn the customers into loyal ones (Lemon and Verhoef,
2016).
From the above discussion, it is critical to note that operation management focuses on
transforming the inputs into outputs. It allows the company to manage the cost and increase
the profitability by attracting potential customers and gaining loyal customers towards the
brand. The operation management allows the automation of the devices and delivery of
personalized service to the customer to differentiate from the other brand and gains the
competitive advantage. The management of the supply chain and using the servuction model
allows the company to manage the business operation and deliver the best customer service.

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References
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Education
Mangan, J., Lalwani, C. and Lalwani, C.L., (2016) Global logistics and supply chain
management. John Wiley & Sons

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