Special issue: Operations Management in Service Systems

Decision Sciences, 2007

Services are now a larger portion of the economy than manufacturing for every nation on Earth, and services are an overwhelming portion of Western economies. While decisionmaking research has begun responding to this change, much of the scholarly work still addresses manufacturing issues. Particularly revealing is the field of operations management (OM), in which the proportion of manuscripts dedicated to services has been estimated at 3%, 6%, and 7.5% by various authors. We investigate several possible reasons for the neglect of services in research, including the difficulty in defining services, viewing services as derivative activities, a lack of defined processes, a lack of scale in services, and the effect of variability on service performance. We argue that times have changed, and none of these reasons is valid anymore. We sound the warning that failure to emphasize services in our research and teaching may signal the decline of the discipline. We note the proportion of OM faculty in business schools has shrunk in the past 10 years. Finally, we examine a selection of service research agendas and note several directions for high-impact, innovative research to revitalize the decision sciences. With practitioners joining the call for more research in services, the academic community has an exciting opportunity to embrace services and reshape its future.

2020

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2013

Preface xxi PART I: UNDERSTANDING SERVICES Chapter 1: The Important Role Services Play in an Economy 1 Chapter 2: The Nature of Services and Service Encounters 17 Chapter 3: Customers: The Focus of Service Management 39 Chapter 4: Globalization of Services 55 Chapter 5: Service Strategy and Competitiveness 71 Chapter 6: Ethical Challenges in Service Management 93 PART II: BUILDING THE SERVICE SYSTEM Chapter 7: Technology and Its Impact on Services and Their Management 109 Chapter 8: Design and Development of Services and Service Delivery Systems 129 Chapter 9: Supply Chains in Services and Their Management 161 Chapter 10: Locating Facilities and Designing Their Layout 181 PART III: OPERATING THE SERVICE SYSTEM Chapter 11: Managing Demand and Supply in Services 215 Chapter 11 Supplement: Queuing and Simulation 231 Chapter 12: Service Quality and Continuous Improvement 247 Chapter 12 Supplement: Tools and Techniques of Total Quality Management 269 Chapter 13: Service Productivity and ...

Management Science, 2004

O perations and Supply Chains is the current title for a department that has evolved through several different titles in recent years, reflecting its evolving mission from a focus on classical operations research at the time of ORSA's founding 50 years ago toward an embrace of a broader body of theory. Throughout this evolution, the focus on applied problems and the goal of improving practice through the development of suitable theory has remained constant. The Operations and Supply Chains Department promotes the theory underlying the practice of operations management, which encompasses the design and management of the transformation processes in manufacturing and service organizations that create value for society. Operations is the function that is uniquely associated with the design and management of these processes. The problem domains of concern to the department have been, and remain, the marshalling of inputs, the transformation itself, and the distribution of outputs in pursuit of this value-creating end. Over the past 50 years the department has had a variety of titles, reflecting an evolving understanding of the boundaries of the operations function. In this article we celebrate past accomplishments, identify current challenges, and anticipate a future that is as exciting and opportunity-rich as any our field has seen.

1998

There is a scarcity of guidelines that trigger the adoption of Custonúsation, a concept frequently brought up in Service-related Operations management. This paper suggests a comprehensive framework of the Custonúsation process and its implications for Service Operations Management. We identify the two most outstanding approaches of Custonúsation, based upon the concepts of Customers'needings and Wishes. Main differences between them and their respective effects on the design of the Service Operations Strategy are discussed. Second, we identify the four dimensions (Time, Space, Volume and Variety) which explain the two mentioned approaches and that may address the process of implementation of the Operations Strategy.

There is a scarcity of guidelines that trigger the adoption of Custonúsation, a concept frequently brought up in Service-related Operations management. This paper suggests a comprehensive framework of the Custonúsation process and its implications for Service Operations Management. We identify the two most outstanding approaches of Custonúsation, based upon the concepts of Customers'needings and Wishes. Main differences between them and their respective effects on the design of the Service Operations Strategy are discussed. Second, we identify the four dimensions (Time, Space, Volume and Variety) which explain the two mentioned approaches and that may address the process of implementation of the Operations Strategy.

International Journal of Production Economics, 2011

Managing operations in both manufacturing and service organizations have evolved tremendously over the years with the change in market requirements. The market has become global, thereby compelling enterprise operations to keep up. The application of information technology/information systems (IT/IS) and outsourcing in managing operations have significantly altered the landscape of operations management (OM) strategies, techniques, and technologies. Consciousness towards environmental and safety also urges companies to examine their OM approach and manufacturing from various perspectives. Recently, energy cost and protection against terrorism have changed the portfolio of enterprise operations and therefore the approach to OM. Now, it is time to revisit the OM principles, curriculum, and training at the institution of higher learning and industries. Moreover, manufacturing has become more of a service activity, indicating significant service OM, including project management. The profile of service industries has also changed in view of the emergence of globalization, outsourcing, and IT, coupled with the rapid economic growth of emerging economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China (BRIC). In fact, services account for approximately 80% of the US gross domestic product (GDP); this is also a growing figure of the GDPs of other countries over the world. Again, service OM needs to be revisited in the context of the abovementioned paradigm shifts. In considering the significance of the above-mentioned changes in the market and society as a whole, an attempt is made to study the evolution of OM and subsequently to develop a framework for new OM strategies and tactics that will support the competitiveness of organizations within the next 10-20 years.

Journal of Service Management

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present exciting and innovative research questions in service operations that are aligned with eight key themes and related topics determined by the Journal of Service Management (JOSM) Service Operations Expert Research Panel. By offering a good number of such research questions, this paper provides a broad range of ideas to spur conceptual and empirical research related to service operations and encourage the continued creation of deep knowledge within the field, as well as collaborative research across disciplines that develops and incorporates insights from service operations. Design/methodology/approach Based on a Delphi study, described in the companion article, “Service Operations: What Have We Learned?,” the panel identified eight key research themes in service operations where leading-edge research is being done or has yet to be done (Victorino et al., 2018). In this paper, three or four topics within each theme are selected and multi...

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 2009

PurposeThis paper proposes a new approach to operations and supply strategy in the light of recent developments in the analysis of the respective roles of products and services in delivering benefits to customers.Design/methodology/approachReviews and synthesises concepts from operations management (OM), marketing, economics and related areas. Examples of product and service combinations are considered, drawing attention to the ways in which services may be distinguished from products. An institutional basis for defining services is favoured over IHIP. A corollary of this is how services are made tradable: the modularity theory of the firm is used to do this. The paper then outlines, considers and compares various approaches to the combination of products and services: “service‐dominant logic”, support services, product‐service systems, systems integration, performance‐based logistics, bundling and, finally, the notion of “the offering”.FindingsIt is found that the notion of the bus...