The importance of a standard level of quality grows as the complexity of the product grows. Your expectations on quality consistency for a box of screws will not be the same as for a car.
This is also true of a service. You may expect a consistent end product when ordering a Big Mac, but exactly how the order is made in a chaotic fast food restaurant does not matter too much. The important thing is the speed and the consistent quality of the end product.
It would be entirely different if the service were for a marriage reception. Just like for a car product, the level of detail required for such a big ticket service item would require it to be defined to a high degree.
However the level of documentation and training required to run a MacDonald's fast food restaurant would not be unfamiliar to those working in the automotive industry. The standard product and service delivery is vitally important to both types of business.
It is arguably a little depressing to find towns up and down the country with high streets having very similar chain shops and restaurants. However, if you are travelling around the country, having a restaurant chain that you know will give you a specific product at a known quality and price can be very appealing.
This is the power of standardisation - to always know what you are getting for your purchase.
Although we all expect standardisation in the products we buy, it is often surprising how this concept is lost in the delivery of services.
For early stage businesses in particular, the temptation to make each offering bespoke to the customer is very strong, but ultimately very costly.
Standardisation of the offering is an important step in the maturing business. Offering services as a package or an assembly of packages makes it much easier to establish project costings and justify price increases when the customer changes the specification. It also makes it easier to pre-prepare solutions that can be quickly introduced into the project to reduce lead times and manpower costs at the same time.
Sometimes it has to fall back on man hours alone when you enter an unkown realm, but is better if that is the exception rather than the rule.
The whole business will be much easier to manage and almost certainly more profitable where uncertainty is reduced and as much of the service offering as possible is standardised.
