When services are delivered in different projects and different locations, there is a danger that service inventories will be comprised of...

The root of
this question is that, essentially, when you have different people, internally or externally,
performing similar functions without interactions in a company, there is bound to be
variability. If you are baking a cake for someone's wedding, and your coworker is doing the same
for a different wedding, without instruction, you will inherently make two differently designed
cakes.

The key to fixing this issue is standardization. Most companies have
"SOP's" or Standard Operating Procedures, which outline in detail the exact steps
required to achieve certain actions. Hypothetically, if these SOP's are followed to the letter,
the end result will be the same even if two different people are performing the action
independently.

This is not always the case, because equipment and
predispositions will still cause some differences. It begins to get complicated the more that is
included in the SOP, but it is often necessary to standardize the machinery used and the
maintenance procedures for working with the equipment.

Automation is a
further step to standardizing these processes, and it is the direction most companies are
heading towards currently. By automating a process, you can have a computer perform certain,
potentially variation-causing actions to ensure that it minimizes the variability in the
process. The computer system is able to recognize and correct issues as they arise to maintain
consistency, even in the face of operator variation.