4 Vs of Operations Management: American Airlines vs Thai Airways

This essay explores the crucial role of operations management within the tourism industry, emphasizing its impact on customer experiences. It delves into the application of the '4 Vs' of operations management—Volume, Variety, Variation, and Visibility—using American Airlines and Thai Airways as case studies. The analysis reveals how effective management of these elements can lead to enhanced service quality and customer satisfaction. The essay concludes that tourism organizations must prioritize operational excellence to achieve their goals, adapt to external factors like the COVID-19 pandemic, and foster customer loyalty through increased service visibility. Desklib provides access to similar solved assignments and study resources for students.

Essay

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7
Books and Journals:.....................................................................................................................7
Online...........................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Operations are defined as a process in which organisation changes their inputs into
outputs of final products so that they can sell in the market (Akyol, 2021). It adds values in the
customer’s experiences that's why it is important to manage all the operations in an effective
way. It is a transformation process that converts all raw materials into final product. For that
purpose, company needs to use effective operation management which is considered as the
planning and organising of delivery of services. In tourism industry, it is identified that
customers experience are the ultimate goal of an organisation which can maximize with the help
of effective operation management practices. This report will be discussing operation
management importance and 4 Vs of operation management with the application of
organisations. This report will be discussing two airlines in order to provide different that how
they can use 4 Vs in their organisation. Two airlines are American Airlines and other one is Thai
Airways. It will apply on different organisations in order to increase customer experiences.
MAIN BODY
Operations are defined as the day-to-day work of an organisation which they are doing
for achieving their goals and objectives on a continuous basis. In tourism industry, operations are
including all the tourism activities and services such as food and drink facilities, project facility,
leisure facilities and activities, trading, etc. This all are considered as tourism operations which is
necessary to manage effectively in order to deliver the best quality services to their customers.
This can be done with the help of effective operation management (Vij, 2019). Operation
management is the process of managing all the business practices in order to create highest level
of efficiency in workplaces. Every day the importance of operation management in tourism and
hospitality industry is increasing. The reason behind this is it increases the quality of services and
able to satisfy customers. It is analysed from recent years that tourism is becoming popular in
global leisure activity. This is the reason that company needs to increase quality services and
deliver to their customers. For that purpose, it is identified that there are four Vs needs to
consider by tourism organisations in order to deliver services to the customers. It is really helpful
in attracting customers. It is identified that those organisation which deliver highest quality of

services to their customers are getting many benefits as well as attracting most of the customers
in the market. It is really helpful in retaining customers in the organisation. There are two
organisations are used in order to analyse the application of 4 Vs of operational management that
are American airlines and Thai Airways. It can be better understand with the help of separate
explanations of 4 Vs that are discussed below:
Volume: It refers to the quantity of production for a particular product or service is
required in order to satisfy the overall demand of a tourism industry. It is considered as a
physical number of units which company needs to produce in order to deliver to their customers.
In tourism industry, organisations are providing number of services to their customers (DO
TURISMO). It is very important for the marketers of an organisation to understand the demand
in the market. It is found that American Airlines is the world's largest airline in terms of
passengers, fleet size, etc. They operates an extensive domestic and international network. This
shows that their operational volume is very high as 6800 flights per day are taking off. American
airlines are including a number of services such as scheduling, maintenance of aircraft, planning
networks, customer service, staffing and many more. It is identified that operation management
can be possible if it is handled by operation managers of an organisation. In the case of American
airlines, it is found that pilots of American airlines have voted that the need to replace their
airlines operation management team as they are not perform their duty well. Whereas another
organisation is Thai Airways which is running their business very well due to effective operation
management team. Thai Airways is found to be small as compared to American Airlines. They
are operating their business from its main hub at Suvarnabhumi Airport. Due to this, it is
identified that Thai Airways is now the best airline for investors as well as passengers. Both
American airlines and Thai Airways are providing have a number of services to the customers
but their success is depend only because of their operation management team. It is also found
that volume of services decide the success and growth of an organisation. It needs a long term
process. Volume is defined as a significant tool in operation management as it shows confidence
of buyers in services. It is not determine price but it is the base of gain-insights in the market
which helps in determining next strategies.
Variety: It is related to the number of varieties present in goods and services that
produced add sold to customers. It is actually all about for diversity. Organisations can increase

their profits in sales and also reduce the dependence on only one product or service with the help
of varieties (Agwu, 2020). That's why company needs to focus on including varieties of services.
In the case of tourism, varieties of services are becoming more important as they are providing
services to the customers. Customers can take decision only on the basis of varieties in services.
American airlines are providing many services such as early boarding privileges, assistance with
luggage retrieval, car service coordination, private access to security checks, etc. in the case of
American airline services, there is some special about themselves which is their basic economy.
These economic tickets cannot be changed or cancelled as they are very good value and even
passengers are able to fly standby and also pick a seat which is free (Ndu, 2019). Due to this type
of varieties in American airlines, they are able to provide highest quality of services to their
customers. On the other hand, Thai Airways are providing many types of services for travelling
abroad. They are providing many services such as Royal first class, royal silk class, economy
class, etc. It is analysed that varieties of Services provide flexibility in order to match customers’
requirement.
Variation: Variations are considered as the level of demand changes time by time due to
the force of external factors. There are many factors found which makes the predictions difficult
for an organisation (Christopher, 2021). The present external factor which is COVID-19
pandemic that shocked the whole world especially is airlines activities. It is found that both
American airlines and Thai Airways are get affected badly as they are restricted by the
government in order to stop the propagation of virus. Thai Airways is faced many problems due
to the impact of Covid pandemic. It is found that they are issues and implemented many
measures so that they can reduce the cost and mitigate the negative impact from pandemic
specially personnel expenses (THAI Announces Operating Results 2020, 2021). This is very
important for an organisation that they should be ready for all external factors impact as they can
provide positive as well as negative impact. For that purpose, operation management of an
organisation should prepare them in order to accept the dynamic behaviour of environment. It is
found that pandemic is becoming one of the most influential factor which not only affected on
tourism industry but also every industry or sector. This is the reason that variations are very
important in which company needs to not depend on only one or singular entities what they need
to include plurality of variants. This will helps in reducing the negative consequence of external
factors.

Visibility: Visibility is about the value chain of all companies’ process that should be put
together. The sustainable growth of an organisation is depends upon the experiences of
customers especially in service industries (Dinçer, Bayram and Altunoz, 2020). It is found that
service industry has high level of visibility in comparison of manufacturing industry. In service
industry, customers and enables to track and trace their services which show the height level of
visibility. In tourism industry, it is found that organisations need to increase the visibility of their
services as it helps in increasing the loyalty and trust of their customers. American airlines are
providing number of services to their customers which is necessary for them to track entries so
that they are able to decide in which time they need to go for boarding. Thai Airways are
providing many services for the purpose of tracking the services by organisations easily. It is
identified that high visibility helps easy to find repeat customers and also reduces the negative
experiences of customers. That's why it is necessary to ensure about organisation signage should
be visible and clear so that all the visitors can easily locate.
The discussion of 4 Vs operation management states that company achieve their goals
and objectives only with the help of effective operation management activities. In that case, an
organisation should transfer all the activities related to operation management to managers as
these are the core activities which needs to manage in order to transform their key resources into
deliverables services (Ásványi and et.al., 2017). It is necessary for an organisation that they
should apply these four Vs in order to deliver highest quality of services to their customers.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded from the above discussion that operations are the day to day activity
which include a process of converting raw material into final product or service. For that
purpose, companies need to understand the importance of operation management. They also need
to apply 4 Vs operation management such as volume, variation, right invisibility in order to
deliver the highest quality of services to customers. This will leads to increase in customer
experience and able to achieve goals and objectives of an organisation. Tourism industry should
use 4 Vs operation management so that they can maximize the customer experiences.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Agwu, E., 2020. Contemporary Management Approaches to the Global Hospitality and Tourism
Industry: Technology as a Panacea for Sector Growth. In Contemporary Management
Approaches to the Global Hospitality and Tourism Industry (pp. 45-57). IGI Global.
Akyol, C., 2021. Automation Programs Used in Tourism Businesses: An Evaluation on Hotel
Managements. Co-Editors, p.214.
Ásványi, K., and et.al., 2017. Literature review of renewable energy in the tourism
industry. Journal of Environmental Management & Tourism, 8(2 (18)), p.476.
Christopher, A.O., 2021. E-marketing and the hotel business promotion: Prospect and challenges
in selected hotels in Ado-Ekiti, Nigeria. E3 Journal of Business Management and
Economics., 11(1), pp.020-026.
Dinçer, F.I., Bayram, G.E. and Altunoz, O., 2020. Fourth generation of rights and their
reflections on human resources practices in tourism businesses. In Organizational
behavior challenges in the tourism industry (pp. 60-81). IGI Global.
DO TURISMO, H.D.A.C., DOWNSIZING PROCESSES OF HOTEL MANAGEMENTS
DURING 2016 TURKEY TOURISM CRISIS.
Ndu, E.C., 2019. Systemic operations management of Imo State tourism industry: A focus on
improving corporate performance through human capital development. International
Journal of Operational Research in Management, Social Sciences & Education, 5(2),
pp.235-262.
Vij, M., 2019. The emerging importance of risk management and enterprise risk management
strategies in the Indian hospitality industry: Senior managements’ perspective. Worldwide
Hospitality and Tourism Themes.
Online
THAI Announces Operating Results 2020, 2021. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.thaiairways.com/en_TH/news/news_announcement/news_detail/THAI-
Announces-Operating-Results-2020.page>