Exercise – For residential courses, especially of post-experience students, an evening could be spent on the town, where syndicates are required to sample the services of a restaurant, a retail operation and an entertainment operation, and report back the following morning. This is a great way of giving participants a change of scene on the Thursday of a one-week course.

Exercise – Remember that role-play can be used effectively in an introductory session. The lecturer can role-play two operations managers managing separate similar but different operations.

For example, the chief tailor of an expensive custom tailor and the production manager at a mass-produced off-the-peg suit factory manager. The differences in the types of resource (people and equipment), the operation’s objectives, the four Vs, etc. can all be emphasized during the role-play.

Role-play can also be used with a standard case study. For example, the Concept design services case in the Johnston, R. et al. case book lends itself to role-playing the operations manager and marketing director of the company, in order to illustrate their different perspectives.