All three process regions have similar operating issues—quality control, facility location and layout,
job design, inventory, and so on-—but the appropriate way of handling the issues differs across
regions. Service operations exist only within the area of direct and surrogate interaction.
From the operations manager's perspective, the valuable aspect of PCN analysis is insight
to aid in positioning and designing processes that can achieve strategic objectives. A firm's
operations are strategic in that they can define what type of business the firm is in and what
value proposition it desires to provide to customers. For example, a firm may assume a low-cost
strategy, operating on the left of Figure 5.1-2 as a manufacturer of premade sandwiches. Other
firms (e.g., Subway) adopt a differentiation strategy with high customer interaction. Each of
the process regions depicts a unique operational strategy
Firms wanting to achieve high economies of scale or more control in their operations
should probably position toward the independent processing region of their process domain.
Firms intending to provide a value offering that focuses on customization should be positioned
more toward the consumer's process domain. PCN analysis can be applied in a wide variety of
business settings.