Leo Sanchez

1
Towards A Classification of Service Processes

• Leo Sanchez

2
Objective

• Developing an understanding of management issues
  in service organizations across industry
  boundaries through an integrated service typology.

3
Traditional Perspective

• Manufacturing Process Types

• Six Service Dimensions

• Project
• Jobbing
• Batch
• Line
• Continuous process operations

• Equipment/People Focus
• Length of Customer contact time
• Extent of Customization
• Extent to which customer contact personnel
  exercise judgment in meeting individual needs
• Source of Value Added(Front office/Back office)
• Product/Process Focus

4
Application of Service Classifications

• A research team funded by the Chartered Institute
  of Management Accountants analyzed and put
  together 11 in depth case studies on large, for
  profit UK service organizations.
• Objective
• Find clusters of features, which may lead to an
  integrated typology
• Aim
• Develop and Understand
• -Competitive service strategies
• -Nature of Service Processes
• -Tasks and challenges encountered by service
  man managers

5
Methodology

• 1. Rank organizations by the volume of customers
  processed by a typical unit per day
• 2. Rank organization by service dimension
• Contact time was easily measured, but other
  dimensions were ranked according to a Delphi
  Technique

6
Results

• A pattern emerges as the number of customers
  processed by a typical unit per day increases,
  the general trend
• Focus moves from people to an equipment
  orientation
• Length of contact time moves from high to low
• Degree of customization moves from high to low
• Level of employee discretion moves from high to
  low
• Value added moves from front office to back
  office (Focus moves from a process to product
  orientation.)
• Customer processing is an appropriate measure of
  volume
• There are three service types
• 1. Professional services
• 2. Service Shop
• 3. Mass Services

7
Three Types of Service

• 1. Professional Services Organizations with
  relatively few transactions, highly customized,
  process oriented, with relatively long contact ,
  with most value added in the front office, where
  considerable judgment is applied in meeting
  customer needs
• 2. Mass Services Organizations where there are
  many customer transactions, involving limited
  contact time and little customization. The
  offering is predominantly product oriented with
  most value being added in the back office and
  little judgment applied by the front office
  staff.
• 3. Service Shops A categorization which falls
  between professional and mass services with the
  levels of the classification dimensions falling
  between the other two extremes.
• Service Factory Service oriented manufacturing
  company

8
Implications

• Service strategy, control, and performance
  measurement differ significantly between the
  three types of services (professional, service
  shop, and mass services)
• Service organizations are unique, but can be
  classified into one of three types of services
• A unified framework for the service organization
  can be developed and improve
• Competitive service strategies
• Issues in service organizations
• Improve overall service organization.