Four archetypes of process improvement: a Q-methodological study

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in International Journal of Production Research on 11/07/2014, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00207543.2013.867086This paper explores the process improvement approaches of organisations. It seeks to identify process redesign principles and the combinations of these principles that are used successfully in industry. We use Q-methodology to explore the viewpoints of a range of highly-experienced process experts about the success of 16 improvement practices. Q-methodology enables the examination of the similarities and differences in the success of the improvement principles used by organisations in order to inform archetypes of process improvement. Overall, our findings suggest that process improvement is determined through the application of two foundational principles combined with one of four archetypes. ‘Remove non-value-adding tasks’ and ‘re-sequence tasks’ are described as foundational principles of process improvement, whilst outsourcing needs to be approached with caution. Furthermore, we articulate four distinctive archetypes comprising unique configurations of improvement principles that can be used to redesign operational processes. Based on this evidence we propose a typology of process improvement. This work suggests that rather than adopting generic improvement frameworks, managers should consult the typology to determine the archetype in closest proximity to their specific requirements. This study has several limitations including the small number of items populating the concourse and the fact that implementation problems are not taken into account

Process design principles in service firms: Universal or context dependent? A literature review and new research directions

publication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Total Quality Management & Business Excellence on 16/01/2012, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14783363.2011.637797#.VGxftZ1FDcsThe aim of this article is to assess whether process design principles derived from best practices are universally applicable to service organisations or context dependent. This is achieved through a comprehensive review of the business process management (BPM) and operations management (OM) literatures. Our comparison of the existing bodies of knowledge in these disciplines reveals major inconsistencies in how the topic of process design in service environments is addressed. Drawing on the more mature, contingency-oriented OM literature, we challenge the BPM discipline which prescribes that process design principles derived from best practices are universally applicable irrespective of the context in which the service organisation operates. The results strongly suggest that in the business process design area one size does not fit all service organisations and that some design principles fit better under certain contextual conditions. We then use these findings to develop a contingency conceptual framework and associated research propositions linking the firm's service strategy context to the use of particular business process design principles. This extends existing theory and provides a platform for future process design research in service organisations that is more closely aligned with the needs of practitioners

Service delivery system design: characteristics and contingencies

publication-status: Publishedtypes: ArticleThis is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published in International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol. 31 (3), pp.324 – 349. DOI: 10.1108/01443571111111946 "This article is (c) Emerald Group Publishing and permission has been granted for this version to appear here: https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/. Emerald does not grant permission for this article to be further copied/distributed or hosted elsewhere without the express permission from Emerald Group Publishing Limited."Purpose: The aim of this paper is to explore and empirically investigate the characteristics and contingencies of service delivery system design. Design/methodology/approach: Informed by the service strategy triad, a single embedded case study was designed to explore empirical data on four target markets, four service concepts, and on the design characteristics of the corresponding four service delivery systems. Data was collected in a market leading organisation in the B2B sector within the power industry. The service delivery systems comprise processes that sell electricity contracts and processes that bill against those contracts. Findings: First, the findings indicate what design characteristics are contingent upon the degree of customisation of the service concept. We show how this contingency has implications for the extents of employee skills, employee discretion, task routineness, automation, and for front office – back office configurations. Second, we challenge the consensus that low customer-contact processes are designed for the purpose of efficiency. Third, our findings contradict Metters and Vargas (2000) who state that it is not possible to have different front office – back office configurations in a single organisation. Research limitations/implications: While there are major interactions between the four service delivery systems supporting each individual service concept, this research does not examine the trade-offs between the various possible designs of these service delivery systems. Practical implications: The study emphasises the importance of considering the complexity of the service offering, the customer relationship strategy, and of taking a process-orientation to address service delivery system design

Analysing the Role of BPM in Driving Customer Satisfaction

Achieving high levels of customer satisfaction is a core issue for any business. This paper presents the results of an empirical analysis, based on longitudinal data from a large UK bank on drivers of customer satisfaction. The results indicate that process management is a critical driver of TSQ and a fundamental component for attaining high levels of customer satisfaction. The paper proposes a comprehensive quantitative analysis using the structural equation modelling (SEM) methodology to explore the contribution of factors that drive customer satisfaction especially the role of BPM as a key driver

Service delivery systems: the transformational context

Draft of article accepted for publication in Journal of Service ResearchThis paper suggests that many of the works found within the services literature require reappraisal to ensure their relevance and utility in a radically changing business landscape. Approaching inquiry from a General Systems Theory perspective the paper proposes a new framework for future research on service design through an operations management lens. This framework suggests that research is needed to address the transformational context of service delivery systems, in particular the correlation of ‘customer input’ type with ‘transformation types’, categorized by material, information, and customer. This potentially provides archetypical forms of service delivery systems which are more closely aligned to organizational practice. These archetypes may be used for the logical derivation of future hypothetical propositions and subsequent confirmation through empirical investigation and thus provides a platform for future research. We suggest that this approach facilitates the pursuit of theory which informs organizational practice in a changing and expanding service context

An in-depth case study of a modular service delivery system in a logistics context

Purpose: The objective of this work is to empirically investigate the design of a service delivery system that supports the provision of modular service logistics offerings. Methodology: An in-depth single case study relying on interview data and extensive documentary evidence is carried out in the B2B logistics sector. Three main analytical techniques are used to make sense of the qualitative data: thematic analysis, process mapping and the application of modular operators. Findings: A modular service delivery system comprises three types of processes that collectively deliver modular offerings. First, the platform consists of core processes that enable the collection, transport, and delivery of physical items for all offerings (modular and non-modular). Second, dedicated modular processes are mandatory and exclusive to individual modular offerings. Third, optional modular processes are shared across several modular offerings. Moreover, interfaces regulate physical (e.g., parcels or parts) and information (e.g., booking data) inputs provided by the customer in order to control the interdependencies within these different process types. Practical implications: The identification of three process types and their interdependencies provides detailed insights into how managers can design modular logistics services that benefit from economies of scale and meet increasingly variable customer requirements. The importance of well-designed interfaces among the customer, the service offering, and the service delivery system is highlighted. Originality/value: This study exends previous modularity studies in service logistics. It applies modular operators to determine the presence of modularity in the service delivery system and to establish the role of different process types in enabling modularity in the service delivery system

Customer satisfaction and service quality in UK financial services

Draft version published as discussion paperThis paper reports the results of a longitudinal study into the drivers of customer satisfaction in a large UK Bank. The findings confirm the significance of staff satisfaction and service quality, suggested by the service profit chain literature, but dispute that this comprises a simple linear relationship. The findings also question the pre-eminence afforded to the soft elements of the service encounter suggested by much of the Services Marketing literature. A five year study of the relationship between customer satisfaction and the technical and functional aspects of service quality suggests that technical service quality plays a critical role in determining customer satisfaction. Further analysis identifies Business Processes Management as a significant driver of technical service quality

An evaluation of 'fast track' in AE: a discrete event simulation approach

Draft version published as working paper; final version published in The Service Industries Journal, Vol 29, No. 5, 2009. Available online at http://www.tandfonline.com/This longitudinal study provides primary evidence on the impact that a fast-track strategy in a hospital Emergency Department has on patient wait time. The study uses a discrete event simulation model to predict output within a variety of triage categories and compares these with post-implementation results. The results of the study indicate a significant reduction in patient wait time with 13.2% of the population waiting longer than 4 h prior to implementation compared with 1.4% post-implementation. However, while this fast-track strategy significantly improves service delivery to patients with minor conditions, service for patients with more acute conditions is not proportionately improved

Semantic modeling of indoor scenes with support inference from a single photograph

We present an automatic approach for the semantic modeling of indoor scenes based on a single photograph, instead of relying on depth sensors. Without using handcrafted features, we guide indoor scene modeling with feature maps extracted by fully convolutional networks. Three parallel fully convolutional networks are adopted to generate object instance masks, a depth map, and an edge map of the room layout. Based on these high-level features, support relationships between indoor objects can be efficiently inferred in a data-driven manner. Constrained by the support context, a global-to-local model matching strategy is followed to retrieve the whole indoor scene. We demonstrate that the proposed method can efficiently retrieve indoor objects including situations where the objects are badly occluded. This approach enables efficient semantic-based scene editing