Basic Principles

Abstract

If you work in what is called the service industry, you may think your business is vastly different from the manufacturing industry. Manufactur-ers produce products that customers buy and use—products that may be useful for a short time or for many years. Your industry provides a ser-vice—which generally means you provide something for a customer and that’s the end of it. The two industries may seem very different and there is some truth to this. The environment where services are provided for customers is usually very different from the environment where products are manufactured for customers. There are, however, similarities in the activities that must take place before a service is delivered to a customer or a product is produced for a customer.