Service delivery process improvement using decision support systems in two manufacturing companies

Abstract The Product-Service Systems (PSS) offering is spreading on the market. Companies are becoming aware that selling bundles of products and services can create additional value for them and for the customers. Despite this, the provision of additional services not natively designed to improve products usage is not trivial. In fact, not only services must be correctly customized on the customers' necessities but also the way they are provided must be redesigned. An effective service delivery process is fundamental if companies want to create additional value from their service portfolio. The way they manage the phases leading to the service provision influences the way and the time required to deliver them. This work compares the service delivery process of two manufacturing companies headquartered in different parts of the world and selling products for the B2B market. The analyses performed on the service delivery processes highlighted how, despite the technological complexity the products, the management of the service delivery process is not automated, but it is still managed by humans without any Decision Support System (DSS) by the companies' service departments. For this reason, authors proposed improvements for the two service delivery processes through the introduction of DSS able to handle part of the process and, in turn, smooth them, shortening the time required to deliver services to customers and, so, increasing their satisfaction

Balancing Product-service Provider's Performance and Customer's Value: The SErvice Engineering Methodology (SEEM)

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One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) planning and control: An empirical framework for the special purpose machines industry

In this paper, we focus on the One-of-a-Kind Production (OKP) industry, where each product is designed and manufactured based on specific customer requirements to a large extent, according to an Engineer To Order (ETO) approach. This research has been carried out among the "SIGI-X" project, funded by the Italian Ministry of Economic Development (MISE). The paper illustrates an empirical study on the state-of-the-art of information systems supporting the leading processes in OKP companies. Through a set of 21 case studies in Italian companies producing special machines, we aim to: identify and investigate strengths and weaknesses of the main OKP business processes; analyze the ICT support and its level of integration among the different ICT solutions; identify levers for improvement, concerning organizational, methodological and informatics aspects; build a practical framework that could define and link the main processes in order to obtain a sort of guideline useful for reengineering the processes, and laying the foundation for a new integrated ICT business template for OKP companies. The lack of support of three fundamental tasks such as project management, planning and cost control underlines that there is substantial room for improvement under the ICT support perspective. Finally, the development of an integrated IT environment to support (in particular) project management and planning activities, specifically addressed to OKP context, would help these companies to improve their performance and competitiveness

Process Standardization to Support Service Process Assessment and Re-engineering

AbstractService Engineering (SE) discipline is currently supporting companies during the engineering and re-engineering phases of their service offering. With the support of SE methods, companies can undertake their servitization journey with the best premise to gain as well as deliver value to their customers. For this purpose, the Service Engineering Methodology (SEEM) has been proposed. The SEEM entails methods to design service concepts and processes capable of balancing value between customers and the company. Some industrial cases, carried out in collaboration with ABB, a leading provider in power and automation technology, demonstrate the effectiveness of such methodology in the re-engineering of existing services in B2B context. Despite that, the cases show that the SEEM application is time consuming, especially in the validation of the service provision process. Thus, in order to facilitate and speed up the implementation of the methodology, a standard process for service provision becomes relevant. Then, starting from the re-engineering of the existing product-oriented services offered by ABB, this paper aims at laying the foundation for the definition of a reference model and a standard process model for product-oriented service delivery. The results will support the SEEM adoption and the definition of service processes avoiding the design of customized models, that cannot be compared and adapted to different realities. In line with what has been found in literature, the definition of a possible reference model and a preliminary standard process model are presented

Bite force in children with posterior crossbite

A força de mordida é influenciada pela condição oclusal. Em crianças com mordida cruzada posterior, os resultados são controversos. Objetivo Investigar a influência da mordida cruzada posterior na força isométrica máxima de mordida, em crianças na fase de dentição mista. Métodos Participaram deste estudo transversal 32 crianças, sendo 21 do grupo mordida cruzada posterior (10 meninas e 11 meninos, média de idade 9,2 anos) e 11 do grupo controle, sem alterações oclusais (seis meninas, cinco meninos, média de idade 9,3 anos). As crianças foram avaliadas por um ortodontista, para diagnóstico oclusal e caracterização dos grupos, pela equipe de otorrinolaringologia, para avaliação do quadro respiratório, e por uma fonoaudióloga. O dinamômetro foi posicionado na região dos molares e as crianças foram instruídas a mordê-lo o mais forte possível, por três vezes, alternadamente. Para análise dos dados foi utilizado o teste t de Student para amostras independentes e dependentes. O nível de significância estabelecido foi de 5%. Resultados Na comparação entre os grupos mordida cruzada e controle não foi encontrada diferença significativa e no grupo mordida cruzada, não houve diferença entre o lado cruzado e o não cruzado. Conclusão A presença de mordida cruzada posterior não esteve relacionada à força de mordida em crianças na fase de dentição mista.The bite force is influenced by the occlusal condition. In children with posterior crossbite the results are controversial. Purpose To investigate the influence of posterior crossbite in maximal isometric bite force (MIBF) in children with mixed dentition. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 32 children participated, 21 of them belonging to the posterior cross-bite group (10 girls and 11 boys, mean age 9.2 years) and 11 to the control group (6 girls, 5 boys, mean age 9.3 years). The children were evaluated by an orthodontist for occlusal diagnosis and characterization of the groups, by otorhinolaryngologists for evaluation of respiratory symptoms and by a speech therapist to identify the clinical and MIBF myofunctional orofacial condition. The dynamometer was placed in the molar region and the children were instructed to bite it as hard as possible three times alternately. For data analysis, Student’s t-test for independent samples was used. The level of significance was set at 5%. Results While comparing the groups crossbite vs. control, there was no significantly difference; also, among only children belonging to the crossbite group, there was no difference between the sides (crossed bite vs. Noncrossed one). Conclusion The presence of posterior crossbite did not influence the maximal isometric bite force in children with mixed dentition

The Impact of Behavior-Based Strategies on Supply Uncertainty

Abstract. Today's economical environment encompasses a high level of uncertainty, which affects decision makers capability in predicting future events, their occurrence probability and possible decision outcomes. A common way to guard against uncertainty is holding inventory in order to ensuring business continuity and on-time delivery to customer, buffering the effect of the risk. This method belongs to the buffer-oriented techniques that represent only a shield against uncertainty and contribute to raise the overall costs. A more effective way to reduce supply uncertainty is to deeply analyze its sources and try to reduce its occurrence probability adopting behavior-based strategies. A Systems Thinking model, aiming at explaining the logical relationships among different strategies and at analyzing their impact on supply uncertainty and total costs, is presented

The Impact of Behavior-Based Strategies on Supply Uncertainty

International audienceToday's economical environment encompasses a high level of uncertainty, which affects decision makers capability in predicting future events, their occurrence probability and possible decision outcomes. A common way to guard against uncertainty is holding inventory in order to ensuring business continuity and on-time delivery to customer, buffering the effect of the risk. This method belongs to the buffer-oriented techniques that represent only a shield against uncertainty and contribute to raise the overall costs. A more effective way to reduce supply uncertainty is to deeply analyze its sources and try to reduce its occurrence probability adopting behavior-based strategies. A Systems Thinking model, aiming at explaining the logical relationships among different strategies and at analyzing their impact on supply uncertainty and total costs, is presented

Digital technologies in product-service systems: a literature review and a research agenda

International audienceDigital technologies are encouraging manufacturing companies in their servitization process by accelerating the offer of integrated product and service to create new value and grow relationships with customers in the Industry 4.0 era. In parallel, digitalization and servitization research streams are merging and paving the way for the Smart Product-Service System (Smart PSS). By analyzing the concept of Smart PSS, this paper questions the convergence between digital and service orientations and considers how digital technologies are used to enable decisions along the PSS lifecycle and/or at different planning levels. Applying topic modeling, a semi-systematic literature review on the combination of digital technologies with PSS has highlighted five main research streams: PSS design, digital servitization, assessing tool for PSS decisions, knowledge management along the lifecycle, sustainability business models. The development over time of these research streams has been tracked leading to the definition of a new research agenda on Smart PSS

Improvement of maintenance-based Product-Service System offering through field data: a case study

ABSTRACTKnowledge extraction and reuse are critical topics for manufacturing companies willing to strengthen their Product-Service Systems (PSS) offerings. In manufacturing’s maintenance processes, effectiveness and efficiency depend on the ability to learn from past field interventions. Dealing with unstructured descriptions of maintenance activities has prevented manufacturing companies from analyzing them, causing the loss of useful information. Natural Language Processing (NLP) demonstrated high potential, allowing simplified text knowledge extraction and summarization. Besides, the literature presents only a few applications of topic modeling for maintenance improvement in the manufacturing domain. Using a case study, the paper demonstrates the potentialities of NLP adoption to improve not only the maintenance management and execution but also the asset design and management, impacting the whole PSS. In other words, implications will have effects on the operational (e.g. maintenance execution), managerial (e.g. maintenance management), and business levels (e.g. PSS offering definition) of manufacturing firms