June 2013
Intermediate to advanced
528 pages
15h 3m
English
The definition of a service business or service organization has been a continuing problem for students of productive systems. Manufacturing is often taken as the point of departure, and service organizations are distinguished in terms of differences from manufacturing organizations. This approach tries to identify services by some criteria for the output, the process, or the consumption of the output that contrasts with manufacturing organizations.
This chapter examines the general concepts of a productive system and the characteristics that make services unique. Also discussed are service encounters that play a crucial role in the relationship between a customer and a service ...