Creating the service product by applying the general work procedure model.
Cosic, Ilija ; Radakovic, Nikola ; Simeunovic, Nenad 等
1. INTRODUCTION
The exceptional development of the service sector within the last
two decades has focused the attention on the challenges of the efficient
service organization and operation management, that are much different
that the challenges in the classical production systems. However, even
though the services have even more important role in the society as they
grow, the productivity of this sector is much smaller than the
productivity of the production sector. The devotion to the quality of
the services and the productivity are the basic means of the struggle in
the market, and, as such, they're directly connected to the need to
improve the operative activities of the service systems.
The beginning of the market struggle represents the planning of the
new product, I.E. service. The work procedure while planning the new
product that has been presented in this work is the general model of the
work procedure for the different types of products. This model is based
on the analyzed similarities and differences of the product itself and
the process of the four generic groups of products classified in ISO 9000:2000 and it consists of the five basic steps.
2. GENERAL WORK PROCEDURE MODEL
2.1 Defining and specifying the demands
Defining the demands, apropos specifying the demands is the
beginning phase of every process. This is also one of the most important
phases during the process development, the phase with the largest
possibility for a big mistake. In his phase, the demands for the future
system are being analyzed.
The functional demands describe the functions of the system,
meaning what should it do, the outputs it gives for the given inputs, as
well as its behavior in some of the situations. The nonfunctional
demands express the limitations to the functioning of the system, the
expected level of reliability, the esthetical demands, the economical
demands, respecting the standards, the deadlines, the customer
satisfaction, the influence to the environment etc.
The result is the document about demands, which describes what
should the system be, if possible, without the assumptions how to
accomplish that. A team, gathered mostly from planners, marketers,
commissioners and users, is working on this specification. So, in this
initial phase of this activity, the indeterminacy of the users needs, IE
demands is on its maximum. In that phase the user knows what he
doesn't want rather than what he wants, which implicates the
maximum in the planners incomprehension. That phase is named "the
indeterminacy of the technical solutions".
[FIGURE 1 OMITTED]
With the dialogue of the users and the planners, the level of the
indeterminacy is lowering, because the user is getting to know the
technical and the technological possibilities, and so, taking that in
consideration, he profiles his demands. To the further balancing of the
user's wishes and the technical/technological possibilities, the
price of the given solutions has a great influence, viewed from the
need/demand point of view, and so, it gives the determining impulse to
the demand creation (Hawker 2001) (Figure 1). This is the iterative procedure and its length is determined by the quality of the
communication, as well as the level of the users' criteria.
Establishing the demands. The information attained by the analysis
is transformed into texts that determine the demands in two levels:
"the users' demands" and "the systems'
demands".
Demand Validation. Checks if the demands are objective (they can be
reached with the given technology and budget), consistent (not being in
mutual conflict), as well as if they're complete (involves all the
functions and the limitations needed).
2.2 Generating the Concept
The transformation in the process itself adds up to the selection
of the ideas, variables, concepts that come up as the possible answers
to the demands given in the input (Slack et al., 2004).
For the idea to grow into the concept, it has to be shaped, meaning
to acquire the certain features. In the first row, it has to have a
form, meaning, the dimension that can be physical or sensitive
(psychological) determined by the type of product. It has to have a
function, meaning defined way of product/service functioning. The third
agent is the purpose, meaning the need being satisfied by the product.
And the last agent is the benefit, meaning the advantage that the
product/service is giving to its customers.
2.3 The Evaluation And The Choice
Generated concepts run through the, so called, phase of scanning,
meaning the check or the evaluation of the attained concepts (Slack et
al., 2004). The main criteria are the marketing, technological and the
financial evaluation, or, so called, feasibility studies. Based on these
checks, the choice of the further developed concepts is being made.
2.4 The Usual Solutions
The performance specification is written for the product concept
that passes the feasibility studies and then approves for the
development. They describe the function of the product, meaning, what
the product should do to satisfy the customers' needs. By
developing the preliminary structure determined by the chosen concept,
we reach the preliminary solution (Roberta 1999).
The preliminary solution is being developed, analyzed in detail,
checked for the possible mistakes, possibility of realization, the costs
are taken in consideration and the preliminary records are being
arranged. This step is, actually, the mid-phase between the preliminary
solution and the final solution. These three steps represent the
mutually highly iterative procedures, so, often, they're almost
impossible to split.
2.5 Verification, Validation and Documenting
Finally, the solution is verified, meaning checked if it fits the
specification of demands and validated, meaning checked if it satisfies
the demands of the user (if the nature of the product allows it, the
making of the prototype and testing is made). The result is the
specification of the product, and specification of the process, meaning
the production instructions.
Watching the figure 1, we can tell that the foreseen process stream
has two directions, meaning that it's iterative. This iterative
process is especially accented in the phase of forming the solution.
The whole process, from making of the idea, over developing the
concept and the choice of the solution, to the final solution, the
process being run by using the knowledge base that transforms the given
data into the available information that determine the nature of the
planned system in the system of decision (Schroeder 1993).
This process flows through the usual phases: generating the
concept, the evaluation and the choice of the adequate (so called
scanning), Forming the solution and verification validation and
documentation, as shown in figure 2.
3. CREATING THE SERVICE PRODUCT
The process described in applied in the creation of the service
product of one educational facility, meaning the plan and the program of
the specialist studies in the field of ebusiness. The applied process is
described in the process flow chart (figure 3).
[FIGURE 2 OMITTED]
[FIGURE 3 OMITTED]
4. CONCLUSION
The multilayer architecture of the working process creation model
is shown in this work, and we can clearly see the domains of the
demands, form, and the process. That is not the assembly of the explicit
rules for product creation, but a model that defines the mechanism of
making the simultaneous project decisions, where the elements of the
process are the always present factors. The model is applied in the
realistic example of creating the product in one educational facility,
and with that its applicability is shown.
5. REFERENCES
Hawker, S. (2001.) "An Integrated Process/Product Component
Model for Software Engineering", University of Alabama
Roberta R. S. & Bernard, W. T., (1999) "Operations
Management" Pearson Education,
Schroeder, G. Roger; (1993.) ^Operations Management Decision making
in the Operations Function", McGraw Hil
Slack, N.; Chambers, S.; & Johnston, R.; (2004). Operation
Management McGraw-Hil
