Towards an IT-Enabled Customer Centric Service Supply Chain

Abstract

In this paper we propose a broad research agenda for a total remodelling of the service supply chain. We argue that contemporary service supply chains do not match three crucial elements of contemporary business and are simply a development of operations and supply chain management thinking dating back to origins in the Fordist era. The service supply chain of today has developed through incremental changes to traditional, mostly product oriented practices and as such has remained inefficient, ineffective, and insufficient as a guiding model for global service supply chains that can successfully address contemporary requirements while fully availing of current technological and other opportunities. We suggest that instead of demarcated product or service supply chains elements of both types of operations need to be included. We also argue that advanced ICT must be designed and deployed to enable and support service supply and delivery in ways that the iterative adaptation of centralised legacy systems decades past their sell-by date cannot achieve. Thirdly, we suggest that contemporary service supply chains are designed for operational efficiency with the customer simply being the final receiver of the goods/services. Our view is that customers are the core entity in service provision and delivery, and that understanding and addressing their requirements must be central to the design and operation of service supply chains.