The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge

The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge PDF Author: P.T. Harker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940110073X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
3 While all of these explanations seem to have merit, there is one dominant reason why the percentage of GDP and employment dedicated to services has continued to increase: low productivity. According to Baumol's cost disease hypothesis (Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff 1991), the growth in services is actually an illusion. The fact is that service-sector productivity is improving slower than that of manufacturing and thus, it seems as if we are consuming more services in nominal terms. However, in real terms, we are consuming slightly less services. That is, the increase in the service sector is caused by low productivity relative to manufacturing. The implication of Baumol's cost disease is the following. Assuming historical productivity increases for manufacturing, agriCUlture, education and health care, Baumol (1992) shows that the U. S. can triple its output in all sectors within 50 years. However, due to the higher productivity level for manufacturing and agriculture, it will take substantially more employment in services to achieve this increase in output. To put this argument in perspective, simply roll back the clock 100 years or so and replace the words manufacturing with agriculture, and services with manufacturing. The phenomenal growth in agricultural productivity versus manufacturing caused the employment levels in agriculture in the U. S. to decrease rapidly while producing a truly unbelievable amount of food. It is the low productivity of services that is the real culprit in its growth of GDP and employment share.

The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge

The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge PDF Author: P.T. Harker
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 940110073X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 511

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Book Description
3 While all of these explanations seem to have merit, there is one dominant reason why the percentage of GDP and employment dedicated to services has continued to increase: low productivity. According to Baumol's cost disease hypothesis (Baumol, Blackman, and Wolff 1991), the growth in services is actually an illusion. The fact is that service-sector productivity is improving slower than that of manufacturing and thus, it seems as if we are consuming more services in nominal terms. However, in real terms, we are consuming slightly less services. That is, the increase in the service sector is caused by low productivity relative to manufacturing. The implication of Baumol's cost disease is the following. Assuming historical productivity increases for manufacturing, agriCUlture, education and health care, Baumol (1992) shows that the U. S. can triple its output in all sectors within 50 years. However, due to the higher productivity level for manufacturing and agriculture, it will take substantially more employment in services to achieve this increase in output. To put this argument in perspective, simply roll back the clock 100 years or so and replace the words manufacturing with agriculture, and services with manufacturing. The phenomenal growth in agricultural productivity versus manufacturing caused the employment levels in agriculture in the U. S. to decrease rapidly while producing a truly unbelievable amount of food. It is the low productivity of services that is the real culprit in its growth of GDP and employment share.

Service Quality and Productivity Management

Service Quality and Productivity Management PDF Author: Jochen Wirtz
Publisher: Ws Professional
ISBN: 9781944659424
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 80

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Book Description
Preface -- Introduction -- Integrating service quality and productivity strategies -- What is a service quality? -- Identifying and correcting service quality problems -- Measuring service quality -- Soft and hard service quality measures -- Learning from customer feedback -- Hard measures of service quality -- Tools to analyze and address service quality problems -- Return on quality -- Defining and measuring productivity -- Improving service productivity -- Conclusion -- Summary -- Endnotes

Service Profit Chain

Service Profit Chain PDF Author: W. Earl Sasser
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439108307
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 343

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Book Description
In this pathbreaking book, world-renowned Harvard Business School service firm experts James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, Jr. and Leonard A. Schlesinger reveal that leading companies stay on top by managing the service profit chain. Why are a select few service firms better at what they do -- year in and year out -- than their competitors? For most senior managers, the profusion of anecdotal "service excellence" books fails to address this key question. Based on five years of painstaking research, the authors show how managers at American Express, Southwest Airlines, Banc One, Waste Management, USAA, MBNA, Intuit, British Airways, Taco Bell, Fairfield Inns, Ritz-Carlton Hotel, and the Merry Maids subsidiary of ServiceMaster employ a quantifiable set of relationships that directly links profit and growth to not only customer loyalty and satisfaction, but to employee loyalty, satisfaction, and productivity. The strongest relationships the authors discovered are those between (1) profit and customer loyalty; (2) employee loyalty and customer loyalty; and (3) employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction. Moreover, these relationships are mutually reinforcing; that is, satisfied customers contribute to employee satisfaction and vice versa. Here, finally, is the foundation for a powerful strategic service vision, a model on which any manager can build more focused operations and marketing capabilities. For example, the authors demonstrate how, in Banc One's operating divisions, a direct relationship between customer loyalty measured by the "depth" of a relationship, the number of banking services a customer utilizes, and profitability led the bank to encourage existing customers to further extend the bank services they use. Taco Bell has found that their stores in the top quadrant of customer satisfaction ratings outperform their other stores on all measures. At American Express Travel Services, offices that ticket quickly and accurately are more profitable than those which don't. With hundreds of examples like these, the authors show how to manage the customer-employee "satisfaction mirror" and the customer value equation to achieve a "customer's eye view" of goods and services. They describe how companies in any service industry can (1) measure service profit chain relationships across operating units; (2) communicate the resulting self-appraisal; (3) develop a "balanced scorecard" of performance; (4) develop a recognitions and rewards system tied to established measures; (5) communicate results company-wide; (6) develop an internal "best practice" information exchange; and (7) improve overall service profit chain performance. What difference can service profit chain management make? A lot. Between 1986 and 1995, the common stock prices of the companies studied by the authors increased 147%, nearly twice as fast as the price of the stocks of their closest competitors. The proven success and high-yielding results from these high-achieving companies will make The Service Profit Chain required reading for senior, division, and business unit managers in all service companies, as well as for students of service management.

Quality in Higher Education

Quality in Higher Education PDF Author: Brent D. Ruben
Publisher: Transaction Publishers
ISBN: 9781412832588
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 350

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Book Description
The concept of quality in higher education is by no means a new one. By one set of definitions or another, colleges and universities throughout the world have always held the pursuit of excellence as their primary goal. Why then has the quality approach, developed and popularized in industry, and how increasingly applied in health care and government, receiving so much attention in higher education at this moment? What does this perspective add to the approaches to excellence with which they have long embraced?These are the two primary questions that this book seeks to address. Chapters and contributors include: "The New Productivity" by Peter F. Drucker; "World War n and the Quality Movement" by J. M. Juran; "The Quality Approach to Higher Education: Context of Concepts for Change" by Brent Ruben; "The Big Questions in Higher Education Today" by L. Edwin Coate; "An American Approach to Quality" by Marilyn R. Zuckerman and Lewis J. Hatala; "Quality hi Higher Education: Critical Issues in Definition and Assessment" by Brent Ruben; and "Ten Areas for Future Research in Total Quality Management" by A. Blanton Godfrey. The volume is graced with an opening essay by Francis L. Lawrence, president of Rutgers University.Higher education is in the public spotlight today due to the many challenges it now faces: rising tuition costs; frustration about a tight job market for graduates; calls for increased faculty productivity; concerns about political correctness; and criticisms regarding the use of grant and research funds, among others. Quality in Higher Education is a particularly timely book that will greatly benefit educators, university administrators, students, and sociologists, and all those who are interested in higher education today.

Measuring and Improving Productivity in Services

Measuring and Improving Productivity in Services PDF Author: Faridah Djellal
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1848444966
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
The question of how to measure and improve productivity in services has been a recurrent topic in political debates and in academic studies for several decades. The concept of productivity, which was developed initially for industrial and agricultural economies poses few difficulties when applied to standardized products. The advent of the service economy contributed to call into question, if not the relevance of this concept, at least its definition and measurement methods. This book takes stock of the issues met by productivity in services on theoretical, methodological and operational levels. The authors examine various definitions of productivity and the main methods of its measurement. A survey of recent conceptual and methodological debates on the notion of productivity is also presented. A more operational and strategic perspective is then adopted in order to identify and analyze the main levers, factors and determinants for improving productivity and, more generally, the actual strategies adopted for this purpose in firms and organisations. Providing a deep understanding of the specific and underestimated performance processes within service industries, this book will be of great interest to those involved in industrial economics, management science and public administration.

Performance and Productivity in Public and Nonprofit Organizations

Performance and Productivity in Public and Nonprofit Organizations PDF Author: Evan M. Berman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317463013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
The revised edition of this accessible text provides a balanced assessment and overview of state-of-the-art organizational and performance productivity strategies. Public and nonprofit organizations face demands for increased productivity and responsiveness, and this practical guide offers strategies based on current research and scholarship that respond to these challenges. The book's comprehensive coverage includes: rationale for productivity and performance improvement; evolution of productivity improvement; the quality paradigm; customer service; information technology; traditional approaches to productivity improvement; re-engineering and restructuring; partnering and privatization; psychological contracts; and community based strategies. In addition to updating the examples of the first edition, this new edition also highlights the growing use of enterprise funds, partnership models of privatization, and web-based service delivery. Each chapter concludes with a useful summary and all-new application exercises.

Exploring Service Productivity

Exploring Service Productivity PDF Author: Claudia Lehmann
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3658230363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 344

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Book Description
Claudia Lehmann explores service productivity from the providers, customer and operations perspective in the German airport industry using a solid empirical foundation. Available service productivity concepts, methods, measurements and their ability to overcome the emphasized problems are discussed, suggesting ways on how to deal with them. The insights of this book deliver considerable value for both management and academia.

Surviving Supply Chain Integration

Surviving Supply Chain Integration PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309173418
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
The managed flow of goods and information from raw material to final sale also known as a "supply chain" affects everythingâ€"from the U.S. gross domestic product to where you can buy your jeans. The nature of a company's supply chain has a significant effect on its success or failureâ€"as in the success of Dell Computer's make-to-order system and the failure of General Motor's vertical integration during the 1998 United Auto Workers strike. Supply Chain Integration looks at this crucial component of business at a time when product design, manufacture, and delivery are changing radically and globally. This book explores the benefits of continuously improving the relationship between the firm, its suppliers, and its customers to ensure the highest added value. This book identifies the state-of-the-art developments that contribute to the success of vertical tiers of suppliers and relates these developments to the capabilities that small and medium-sized manufacturers must have to be viable participants in this system. Strategies for attaining these capabilities through manufacturing extension centers and other technical assistance providers at the national, state, and local level are suggested. This book identifies action steps for small and medium-sized manufacturersâ€"the "seed corn" of business start-up and developmentâ€"to improve supply chain management. The book examines supply chain models from consultant firms, universities, manufacturers, and associations. Topics include the roles of suppliers and other supply chain participants, the rise of outsourcing, the importance of information management, the natural tension between buyer and seller, sources of assistance to small and medium-sized firms, and a host of other issues. Supply Chain Integration will be of interest to industry policymakers, economists, researchers, business leaders, and forward-thinking executives.

The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge

The Service Productivity and Quality Challenge PDF Author: Patrick T. Harker
Publisher:
ISBN: 9789401100748
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description


Service Management

Service Management PDF Author: Cengiz Haksever
Publisher: FT Press
ISBN: 0133088820
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 510

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Book Description
Tie customer-driven strategies to service operations and process management, and sharpen your focus on creating customer value throughout your entire service organization! This comprehensive, multidisciplinary reference thoroughly covers today's most effective theories and methods for managing service organizations, drawing on innovative insights from economics, consumer behavior, marketing, strategy, and operations management. Leading experts Cengiz Haksever and Barry Render provide crucial insights into emerging service operation and supply chain topics, reinforcing key points with up-to-date case studies. Service Management contains a valuable chapter-length introduction to linear and goal programming and its services applications; and also addresses many other topics ignored by competitive texts, such as: Service SCM methods and approaches Focusing on customers and their service purchase behavior Service productivity Managing public and private nonprofit service organizations Vehicle routing and scheduling Ethical challenges to SCM Service Management will be an invaluable resource for senior and mid-level managers throughout any service organization, and for students and faculty in any graduate or upper-level undergraduate program in service management, service operations management, or operations management