Modelling and (re-)planning periodic home social care services with loyalty and non-loyalty features

This work was partially supported by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology) through the project UID/MAT/00297/2019 (Centro de Matematica e Aplicacees).The aging population alongside little availability of informal care are two of the several factors leading to an increased need for assisted living support. In this work, we tackle a home social care service problem, motivated by two real case studies where a new loyalty scheme must be considered: within a week, patient-caregiver loyalty should be pursued but, between weeks, the caregivers must rotate among patients (non-loyalty). In addition, a common situation in this kind of service is also addressed: the need of a constant re-planning caused by the leaving of patients and the arrival of new ones. This new plan should be such that minimum disturbance is caused to the visiting hours of current patients, the caregivers’ travelling time between visits is minimized, and the workload is balanced among caregivers. A multi-objective optimization approach based on mixed-integer models is developed. Results on the two real case studies show that both institutions can efficiently re-plan their activities without much disturbance on the visits of their patients, and with a patient-caregiver loyalty scheme suiting their needs.authorsversionpublishe

Home care routing and scheduling problem with teams’ synchronization

Funding Information: This work is funded by Portuguese funds through the FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia , I.P., under the scope of the projects UIDB/00297/2020 (Center for Mathematics and Applications), UIDB/00097/2020 (CEGIST), and the PhD scholarship grant SFRH/BD/148773/2019 . Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The AuthorsThe demand for home care (HC) services has steadily been growing for two main types of services: healthcare and social care. If, for the former, caregivers' skills are of utter importance, in the latter caregivers are not distinguishable in terms of skills. This work focuses social care and models caregivers' synchronization as a means of improving human resources management. Moreover, in social care services, several visits need to be performed in the same day since patients are frequently alone and need assistance throughout the day. Depending on the patient's autonomy, some tasks have to be performed by two caregivers (e.g. assist bedridden patients). Therefore, adequate decision support tools are crucial for assisting managers (often social workers) when designing operational plans and to efficiently assign caregivers to tasks. This paper advances the literature by 1) considering teams of one caregiver that can synchronize to perform tasks requiring two caregivers (instead of having teams of two caregivers), 2) simultaneously modelling daily continuity of care and teams' synchronization, and 3) associating dynamic time windows to teams' synchronizations introducing scheduling flexibility while minimize service and travel times. These concepts are embedded into a daily routing and scheduling MIP model, deciding on the number of caregivers and on the number and type of teams to serve all patient tasks. The main HC features of the problem, synchronization and continuity of care, are evaluated by comparing the proposed planning with the current situation of a home social care service provider in Portugal. The results show that synchronization is the feature that most increases efficiency with respect to the current situation. It evidences a surplus in working time capacity by proposing plans where all requests can be served with a smaller number of caregivers. Consequently, new patients from long waiting lists can now be served by the “available” caregivers.publishersversionpublishe

Toward a model of customer experience

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Retaining high-value and profitable customers is a major strategic objective for many companies. In mature mobile phone markets where growth has slowed, the defection of customers from one network to another has intensified and is strongly fuelled by poor Customer Experience. Trends in the service economy suggest that experience can be exploited as a means of supplying the basis of a new economic offering, ignited in part by the shift that is taking place in the analysis of people’s interaction with digital products. In this light, the research describes a strategic approach to the use of Information Systems as a means of improving Customer Experience. Using Action Research in a mobile telecommunications operator, a Customer Experience Monitoring and Action Response model (CEMAR) is developed that evaluates disparate customer data, residing across many systems, builds experience profiles and suggests appropriate contextual actions where experience is poor. The model provides value in identifying issues, understanding them in the context of the overall Customer Experience (over time) and dealing with them appropriately. The novelty of the approach is the synthesis of data analysis with an enhanced understanding of Customer Experience which is developed implicitly, in real-time and in advance of any instigation by the customer.Royal Academy of Engineerin

23rd Recent Advances in Retailing & Services Science Conference, July 11-14, 2016, Edinburgh, Scotland:book of abstracts

This book includes the (edited) abstracts of the papers that will be presented at the 23rd Recent Advancesin Retailing and Services Science Conference, at the Carlton/Hilton hotel, Edinburgh, Scotland, July 11-16, 2016.The aim of the conference is to bring together an international and multidisciplinary audience working ondifferent topics in retailing and consumer behavior research. Both completed work and work in progresswill be presented. This is reflected in the kind of papers that have been accepted for presentation

Managing Customer Issues through a Support Channel Network

The importance of after-sales service or service in general can be seen and experienced by customers every day with industrial as well as other non-industrial services or products. This dissertation, drawing on theory and experience, focuses on practical engineering implications, specifically the management of customer issues in the after-sales phase in the mobile phone arena. The main objective of this doctoral dissertation is to investigate customer after-sales issue management, specifically regarding mobile phones. The case studies focus on issue resolution time and the issue of corrective actions. This dissertation consists of a main body and four peer-reviewed journal articles and one manuscript currently under review by a peer-reviewed journal. The main body of this dissertation examines the elements of customer satisfaction, loyalty, and retention with respect to corrective actions to address customer issues and issue resolution time through literature and empirical studies. The five independent works are case studies supporting the thesis research questions. This study examines four questions: 1) What are the factors affecting corrective actions for customers? 2) How can customer issue resolution time be controlled? 3) What are the factors affecting processes in the service chain? and 4) How can communication be measured in a service chain? In this work, both quantitative and qualitative analysis methods are used. The main body of the thesis reviews the literature regarding the elements that bridge the five case studies. The case studies of the articles and surveys lean more toward the methodology of critical positivism and then apply the interpretive approach in interpreting the results. The case study articles employ various statistical methods to analyze and to interpret the empirical and survey data. The statistical methods were used to create a model that is useful for significantly optimizing issue resolution time. Moreover, it was found that samples for verifying issues provided by the customer neither improve the perceived quality of corrective actions nor the perceived quality of issue resolution time. The term “service” in this work is limited to the technical services that are provided by product manufacturers and after-sales authorized service vendors. On the basis of this research work, it has been observed that corrective actions and issue resolution time are associated with customer satisfaction and hence, according to induction theory, to customer loyalty and retention. This thesis utilizes knowledge of marketing and customer relationships to contribute to the existing body of knowledge concerning information and communication technology for after-sales service recovery of mobile terminals. The established models in the thesis contribute to the existing knowledge of the after-sales process of dealing with customer issues in the field of mobile phones. The findings suggest that process managers could focus more on communication and training provided to the staff as new technology evolves rapidly. The study also suggest the managers formulate strategies for how customers can be kept informed on a regular basis of the status of issues that have been escalated for corrective action. The findings also lay the foundation for the comprehensive objective to control the entire product development process, starting with conceptualization. This implies that robust design should be applied to the new products so that problems affecting customer service quality are not repeated. The objective will be achieved when the entire service chain from product development to the final user can be modeled and this model can be used to support the organization at all levels.Tämän tohtorinväitöskirjan päätavoitteena on tutkia huoltopalvelua käyttävien asiakkaiden ongelmien hallintaa. Tuotteita hankkineet asiakkaat huomaavat usein kuinka tärkeä asia on hyvin toimiva huolto. Väitöskirjan lähteinä ovat tieteellinen kirjallisuus, tilastomatematiikan teoria ja väittelijän kokemus. Pääpaino on erityisesti matkapuhelinalan myynninjälkeisen vaiheen asiakkaiden ongelmatilanteiden hallinnassa. Väitöskirja koostuu yhteenvedosta ja neljästä vertaisarvioidusta lehtiartikkelista, sekä yhdestä arvioitavaksi annetusta käsikirjoituksesta. Väitöskirjan yhteenvedossa tarkastellaan asiakastyytyväisyyden tärkeimpiä osia, kuten ostouskollisuutta ja asiakkaiden säilyttämistä suhteessa asiakkaiden ongelmien ratkaisemiseen ja siihen tarvittuun aikaan. Tutkimusmenetelminä käytetään kirjallisuustutkimusta ja empiirisiä tutkimuksia. Viisi erillistä tutkimustyötä antavat vastauksen esitettyihin neljään tutkimuskysymykseen: 1) Mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat korjaaviin toimenpiteisiin? 2) Kuinka asiakkaan ongelman ratkaisuaikaa voidaan hallita? 3) Mitkä tekijät vaikuttavat huoltoketjun prosesseihin? 4) Kuinka viestintää voidaan mitata huoltoketjun sisällä? Työssä käytetään sekä määrällisiä (kvantitatiivisia) että laadullisia (kvalitatiivisia) analyysimenetelmiä. Väitöskirjan yhteenvedossa tutkitaan kirjallisuutta niiden elementtien osalta, jotka yhdistävät viisi tapaustutkimusta. Artikkelien tapaustutkimukset nojaavat enimmäkseen kriittisen positivismin metodologiaan ja soveltavat tulkitsevaa lähestymistapaa tulosten tarkastelussa. Artikkelijulkaisuissa käytetään erilaisia tilastomatemaattisia menetelmiä empiiristen tutkimustulosten analysointiin ja tulkitsemiseen. Havaitaan, että mallintamalla huoltoprosessi tilastomatemaattisin menetelmin voidaan ongelmien ratkaisuaikaa optimoida merkittävästi. Tässä työssä termi "huolto" rajoittuu valmistajan tuottamaan sekä valtuutettujen huoltoliikkeiden tarjoamaan tekniseen huoltoon. Tämän tutkimustyön perusteella on huomattu, että korjaustoimenpiteet ja ratkaisuaika liittyvät asiakastyytyväisyyteen ja täten induktioteorian mukaisesti ostouskollisuuteen ja asiakkaiden säilyttämiseen. Työssä hyödynnetään tietämystä markki noinnista ja asiakassuhteista lisäten nykyistä tieto- ja viestintäteknologian tutkimustietoa matkapuhelinten huoltoketjussa. Tutkimus auttaa myös kehittämään menetelmiä, joita käytetään asiakkaiden ongelmatilanteiden hallinnan analysointiin huoltoketjussa. Työn tulokset osoittavat, että johtamistapoihin pitäisi tehdä useita muutoksia. Huoltoprosessien johtajien pitäisi parantaa viestintää huoltoketjun sisällä sekä lisätä henkilöstön koulutusta, koska uusi teknologia kehittyy nopeasti. Työn tulokset antavat myös pohjan sille tavoitteelle, että koko tuotekehitystä ohjattaisiin järjestelmäsuunnittelusta alkaen siten, että uusien tuotteiden kohdalla samoja asiakaslaatuun vaikuttavia ongelmia ei toisteta. Tavoitteeseen päästään, kun koko huoltoketju loppukäyttäjästä tuotekehitykseen pystytään mallintamaan ja käyttämään mallinnusta apuna huolto-organisaation kaikilla tasoilla. Yritysten pitäisi myös kehittää strategioita, joiden avulla asiakkaille voidaan tiedottaa säännöllisesti huollon tai tehtyjen korjaavien toimenpiteiden edistymisestä.Siirretty Doriast

Semantic discovery and reuse of business process patterns

Patterns currently play an important role in modern information systems (IS) development and their use has mainly been restricted to the design and implementation phases of the development lifecycle. Given the increasing significance of business modelling in IS development, patterns have the potential of providing a viable solution for promoting reusability of recurrent generalized models in the very early stages of development. As a statement of research-in-progress this paper focuses on business process patterns and proposes an initial methodological framework for the discovery and reuse of business process patterns within the IS development lifecycle. The framework borrows ideas from the domain engineering literature and proposes the use of semantics to drive both the discovery of patterns as well as their reuse