Service Factory Research Articles

Commentary: Cities as service factories? Using the servuction system for marketing cities as shopping destinations

States that the importance of retailing to the vitality and viability of many town and city centres is widely acknowledged. However, the marketing of these locations to date has largely focused on tourism or inward economic investment. Identifies many of the factors to be considered in the definition of the “place” product, with particular reference to how urban centres can define their retail “offer”. Proposes an exploratory conceptual framework for the determination of the urban retail offer based on the servuction system.

Scheduling Workforce and Workflow in a High Volume Factory

We define a high volume factory to be a connected network of workstations, at which assigned workers process work-in-progress that flows at high rates through the workstations. A high rate usually implies that each worker processes many pieces per hour, enough so that work can be described as a deterministic hourly flow rate rather than, say, a stochastic number of discrete entities. Examples include mail processing and sorting, check processing, telephoned order processing, and inspecting and packaging of certain foods. Exogenous work may enter the factory at any workstation according to any time-of-day profile. Work-in-progress flows through the factory in discrete time according to Markovian routings. Workers, who in general are cross-trained, may work part time or full time shifts, may start work only at designated shift starting times, and may change job assignments at mid shift. In order to smooth the flow of work-in-progress through the service factory, work-in-progress may be temporarily inventoried (in buffers) at work stations. The objective is to schedule the workers (and correspondingly, the workflow) in a manner that minimizes labor costs subject to a variety of service-level, contractual and physical constraints. Motivated in part by analysis techniques of discrete time linear time-invariant (LTI) systems, an object-oriented linear programming (OOLP) model is developed. Using exogenous input work profiles typical of large U.S. mail processing facilities, illustrative computational results are included.

Services provided by manufacturing The Hungarian case

The paper is built on an empirical study of the service factory concept in Hungary. The importance of the possible service roles that manufacturing can play, and the general service features that a manufacturing company can posess are examined at Hungarian companies. The results show that service is still not the strongest competitive factor in Hungary, quality and costs get much more emphasis. Comparing the results with those of an English survey, the main tendencies are similar, except that the laboratory role seems to be more important in Hungary, possibly due to the relatively low capacity utilization.

Moving the drama into the factory: the contribution of metaphors to services research

Although services research has made extensive use of metaphors, there is a need to understand the way metaphors incorporate assumptions about the phenomenon under study, the focus of research attention and managerial implications. Defines metaphors as a transfer of information from the familiar to the unfamiliar, emphasizing the cognitive rather than literary properties of metaphor. While several metaphors have been presented in the services literature, factory and drama metaphors predominate. An analysis of recent publications suggests that use of factory or drama metaphors reflects an implicit model of services, and researchers blend factory and drama metaphors to take into account the human qualities of service inputs. Addresses concerns expressed by those who criticize the use of metaphor in social science research and suggests that metaphors can contribute to increased creativity in services research.

Strategic Implications of the Service Factory for Small Manufacturers

All small manufacturers compete through operations, yet there is a dearth of practical approaches that can be used to facilitate the strategic task. This paper argues that the adoption of a service factory orientation will give the small manufacturer a competitive advantage. A strategic perspective of the service operation is discussed and three significant implications of the service factory for small manufacturing managers are offered: (1) the service factory is strategic in nature, (2) the strategic advantages of the service factory should be addressed, and (3) the dimensions and attributes of the service factory should be considered along with their impact on the firm. Finally, a set of guidelines is offered to facilitate the implementation of the service factory concept.

Neighborhood Reinvestment, Service Factories, and Commercial Gentrification: A Policy Solution That Will Not Work

Neighborhood Reinvestment, Service Factories, and Commercial Gentrification: A Policy Solution That Will Not Work

Spirals of change

Considers the requirements for making organisational change. Contends that those companies that have made the transition have done so by changing the way in which management thinks. Goes on to detail one of the most prevalent assumptions in manufacturing management, the service factory, and ways in which thinking around this concept can be changed for the benefit of manufacturing strategy.

The Service Factory: Implications for Manufacturing Managers

Investigates the three significant implications of the service factory for manufacturing managers: (1) the service factory is strategic in nature, (2) the dimensions and attributes of the service factory should be addressed, and (3) managerial aspects must be included.

The Service Factory: A Future Vision

The “service factory” has been proposed as a new approach to manufacturing strategy. The information, problem‐solving, sales and support dimensions which underlie a service factory are reviewed. A strategic planning methodology by which it can be applied is provided, and five research questions which might be addressed through empirical study are raised.

The Service Factory

The Service Factory

Chemical, mineralogical, and statistical analyses of some oil adsorptives

Unknown quantities of varying materials are being commercially used as oil adsorptives by service stations, garages, and factories. Private interests, in order to secure part of this expanding market, considered the operation of 3 mining properties. Analyses of mine-runs were compared to analyses of 3 samples of oil adsorptive now being commercially sold. Commercial samples were primarily pumice, pumicite, and mixtures of calcite and gypsum. Mine-run samples were primarily pumice, secondary pumice, and lime. A quantitative method of measuring the efficiency of the different materials, as oil adsorptives, was used. The adsorptive efficiency of all commercial materials tested could be improved by additional sizing.