Part I - Fundamentals
Unified Services Theory Basics
Services Planning and Execution
Non - Services (manufacturing)
Part II - Service Business Strategy
Part III - Managing Service Processes
Cost Issues
Human Resources Management
Marketing in Services
Production and Inventory Control
Part IV - Service Quality and Recovery
Understanding Service Businesses: Applying Principles of Unified Services Theory
Second Edition
Scott E. Sampson
Essentials of Service Design and Innovation: Developing high - value service businesses with PCN Analysis
Fourth edition
Scott E., Sampson
Lecture notes
Learning Objectives
CC12: Knowledge and understanding of methods for conceiving, planning, designing and managing complex and/or innovative systems, processes and services.
CC14: Knowledge and understanding of company organisation (business culture) and professional ethics.
ca7: Applying knowledge and understanding related to the definition, design and implementation of researches useful for understanding problems, through the use of both theoretical and experimental models and techniques.
ca12: Applying adequate knowledge and understanding to understand English texts.
ca13: Applying improved knowledge and understanding to communicate and transfer information, ideas, problems and solutions to specialist and non - specialist interlocutors, both in Italian and English.
ca14: Applying knowledge and understanding to learn and update autonomously and continuously in a constantly evolving context, such as the industrial engineering one.
Prerequisites
None
Teaching Methods
Class lectures and practical exercises
Type of Assessment
Oral and practical tests
The oral test consists in the resolution of numerical exercises and open questions on theoretical aspects. Practical test concerns service design, production capacity dimensioning and efficiency assessment.
The students’ assessment includes an oral test in which he or she will be asked to solve quantitative exercises concerning the dimensioning of production capacity and/or the evaluation of the performance of a service delivery system (ca7, CC12, CC14). There will be also open questions on more theoretical aspects. Students should therefore understand the contents of textbooks and some scientific papers (both qualitative and quantitative) that are an integral part of the mandatory teaching material (ca12). Finally, students must present the solution to some homework in which they are asked to apply techniques and models presented in class to the solution of practical problems (based on real or realistic data) related to the design and evaluation of services. Student must therefore demonstrate the ability to understand the English language material provided and the ability to find, read and understand scientific articles (from different disciplines such as operations management and service marketing). Students must also be able to critically evaluate the results obtained in the homework and to justify the choices made (ca7, ca13, ca14).
Course program
Part I – Fundamentals
- Unified Services Theory Basics
- Services Fundamentals: Planning
- Services Fundamentals: Execution
- Understanding Non - Services (manufacturing)
Part II - Service Business Strategy
- Identifying Strategic Opportunities
- Identifying Strategic Threats
Part III - Managing Service Processes
- Cost Issues
- Human Resources Management
- Marketing in Services
- Production and Inventory Control
- Service blueprinting
Part IV - Service Quality and Value
- Defining Service Quality
- Challenges in Delivering Service Quality
- Service Recovery
- Measuring Service Quality and Productivity