Service not through Manufacturing Goggles: A mindset for Excellence & Innovation

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• Dr Irene CL Ng, University of Exeter (and visiting researcher Institute for Manufacturing)
• Thursday 23 October 2008, 10:00-11:00
• Seminar Room A, Institute for Manufacturing, Mill Lane, Cambridge.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact "Alexandra Brintrup" <ab702.

This is one the IFM's DIAL centre's talks that has been opened up to the Cambridge SSF community

There is a perception that ‘service’ is all about the ‘soft, flaky stuff’. As one manager puts it: “Service is ‘what else can I do for you sir, and a curtsy’”. There isn’t obvious recognition of the fact that Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematical (STEM) tools and techniques are useful in understanding service capability, particularly for industries where people (rather than widgets) deliver value to the customer. In addition, there is an attitude amongst organisations that ‘service just happens’ (as opposed to the manufacturing tangible goods). Such attitudes often impede service innovation. Thus, there is a need to recognise service as a deliberate and organised system, not merely the ‘front end bits’ that ‘just happens,’ and that service excellence and innovation is about empowering people in the system to think creatively and put ideas to work in a systematic, scientific manner.

This seminar will highlight the paradigm shift from a traditional manufacturing mindset into understanding a service mindset and provides a way of thinking about excellence and innovation in services based on the co-creation of value.

The service oriented mindset is becoming more crucial as more organisations turn towards performance based contracting (PBC) as a tool for competitive advantage. PBC is about contracting on outcomes, rather than tasks or activities and compels the service provider to co-create the value with the customer to achieve the outcomes. The seminar presents the challenges of performance based contracts in organisations and proposes a research agenda with implications for management, design, and economics of both manufacturing of tangible goods and services.

This talk is part of the Cambridge Service Alliance Forum series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Seminar Room A, Institute for Manufacturing, Mill Lane, Cambridge

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