What Is The Difference Between Product And Service

What is the difference between a product and a service? List and explain defining characteristics of each.

Product: A product is something that you can point at and has a physical attribute (National Archives, n.d.). An example of a product would be a car, a contract, something that a manufacturing company is making or producing. Products are tangible and discernible items that an organization produces, including digital files or outputs, something that is physical.

Services: Service is the production of an essentially intangible benefit, either in its own right or as a significant element of a tangible product (National Archives, n.d.). A service could be looked at where a customer is asking “what can you do for me”. An example of service

There are 5 characteristics of services that would define the meaning of a company in a service industry (Olufisayo, 2011). The 5 characteristics are perishability, intangibility, variability, inseparability, and non-ownership. The definitions of each are below:

Perishability: Is the most difficult to appreciate of the 5 characteristics, the service of being transported from one place to another like an airline is a service that is provided by the airlines. It is not a product that is being given to the consumers, but a service that the airline is providing for its customers after they have purchased the airline ticket that is the product.

Intangibility: This is easier to define as something that a person is not able to touch, feel, smell, or weigh before deciding whether or not to buy it. The example would be like an automobile insurance policy. You can make a choice by past experience or word of mouth.

Variability: The variability of a product is the close attention to the product being the same quality, quantity, feature, packaging, and so on with a certain product that they have purchased before in their

The consumer may purchase a service agreement to use the service but they do not own the service that they received from the company. The company would have to stride on satisfying the customer on the service that they are providing.

What are the main functions of operations management within service industries?

The primary function of operations management within service industries are to satisfy customer needs, there are several important differences between the two type of operations (Saylor, n.d.). Some of the functions for companies in the service industry should consider are operations planning, operation processes, facilities, capacity planning, managing operations, scheduling, and inventory control. We will break down the categories below and what each would pertain