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The Auto Case is a research-based management exercise originally designed for executives but since adopted by most of the MIT Sloan School's degree programs. Conducted 25 times with more than 1,000 participants, the exercise uses a broad strategic assignment, an experiential learning format, and a computer model to deliver research into the classroom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has three objectives. First, it documents the rapid growth of the private service sector in the United States. Second, it compares and contrasts the management tasks within a service operation with those of a manufacturing operation. Third, it outlines the development of a new course, Management of Service Operations, at Harvard Business School. The course, which was designed to treat explicitly both the operating and strategic issues faced by managers of service firms, has grown from a seminar of 35 students in 1972 to a course with 300 second-year MBA students in 1974. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]