Operational Management: Product and Service Design

Steps in getting gasoline into car:

In Nepal, we don’t have self-service gasoline station. We, therefore, follow only full service system. All the payment are done in cash, there is no any ATM machine placed in the gasoline station. The customer or driver check whether the car needs fueling or not with the help of fuel gauge that is embedded in the car. The steps involved in getting gasoline into the car for full service are as follows:

• First customer enters the gasoline station.
• Tell the staff to fill the tank as per the requirement.
• The staff will deliver the required amount of fuel.
• The customer pays cash and then leave.

The process of fueling in the car can be best describe by preparing the service blueprint

A service blueprint for a fueling

Customer action	Arrive	Order	pay and leave
Contact person	Be on queue Wait for  turn                                   Greeted by staff     Staff ask amount of fuel needed	Staff takes order Inform amount of cash need to pay staff delivery amount of fuel	Cashier give the bill    Bill is paid in cash and leave

Potential trouble points:

• Most of the gasoline are near to the city road when queue is long it effect the traffic of the road.
• The behavior of staff is another point. All the staff are not educated and their behavior are not acceptable. They does not show the respect for customer.
• All the payment are done in cash so customer have to manage the change. If customer doesn’t manage it. It takes some time to get change back.

Likely problem in gasoline

• When we need to be on queue. 10- 15 min of our time are wasted for waiting the turn.
• There is no fully automatic system for fueling. Fueling are doing manually so sometime the staff delivered some less than order quantity.
• The quality of fuel is another likely problem in most of the gasoline station. They does not inform the quality of the fuel.
• The price of the fuel is not same in all the station. There is some difference in gasoline price in different station even the government fixed the rate.
• Gasoline station is so much sensitive area. But most of the driver even the staff smoke in the station. If it catch the fire it makes more damage than expected because most of the gasoline are in the crowded city area.

The general steps may involve in getting gasoline into the car for self-service:

• Customer enters the gasoline station.
• Pays the cash for required amount of fuel
• Take the coupon
• Choose the right pump
• Customer fills the tank as per their requirement.
• The customer leave.

The customer may not know have knowledge about how to fill the tank. They may not able to select the right pump. When they doesn’t know how to handle the pump, it is very dangerous. It may catch the fire and health hazard to the customer.