B028703 - SERVICE DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT

Italian or English

1st part – Service definition and fundamentals of the Unified Services Theory
2nd part – Service strategy
3rd part – Service planning and execution
4th part – Service quality and productivity
5th part – Service design and innovation

Lecture notes

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

None

Class lectures and practical exercises

Oral and practical exercises

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 (ca2, ca5, ca7). 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. 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.
The final grade will be the weighted average of the grade obtained in the oral exam (weight 0.75) and in the practical exercises (weight 0.25).

Part I – Definition of Service and Unified Services Theory Basics
- Unified Services Theory
- 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
Part V - Service Design and innovation
- PCN Analysis
- Qualitative methods for service design and innovation