Service engineering

Under service engineering and service facilities is the systematic development and design of services using suitable models, methods and (software) tools.

initial situation

Many companies are still confronted with the problem that their corporate structures and processes are not designed for the efficient development and market positioning of new services and, in particular, that suitable instruments are lacking for the strategic and operational planning of development processes for services. In many cases, the difficulties begin with the fact that the services offered by companies are not clearly defined; H. there are no clear descriptions of the service content, the relevant processes and the resources required. Only a few companies began early on to systematically structure their range of services and to build up comprehensive expertise for the targeted development of new services.

For a long time, science has not dealt intensively with issues of service development either. Although this topic is now given high priority, in the past it was not a particular focus of business or engineering research. The few early works only emphasize the importance of the development of new services, but lack concrete assistance as well as the embedding in the strategic and operational management of companies.

origin

In the 1980s, a number of first scientific papers on New Service Development and Service Design appeared in the Anglo-American literature on issues relating to the development and design of services, but these can be described as fragmentary overall. Only recently has this situation changed along with the increasing practical importance of the topic, which is proven not least by the increasing number of publications in these areas.

At the same time as the American work, the term service engineering was coined in Germany. In contrast to New Service Development, which is heavily influenced by marketing, Service Engineering aims to meaningfully transfer engineering know-how from classic product development to the development of services. Service engineering can thus be defined as the systematic development and design of services using suitable models, methods and tools. The term service engineering can be found in the literature as early as the mid-1980s, but at that time Albrecht and Zemke still had to state: “The developing art / science of service engineering is so new that it really hasn't been agreed-upon name, much less an established body of principles and techniques "(Albrecht and Zemke 1985). It was not until the mid-1990s that service engineering began to gain momentum, not least due to research initiatives in Germany. In the meantime, there is a broad wealth of experience in tried and tested procedures and instruments.

The “Innovative Services” program of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) played a key role in this. The starting point was the so-called first priority measure “Market leadership through bundling of services and customer-oriented service engineering” with a total of 15 partners from science, business and intermediary organizations. Fundamental work has been done here and further research needs identified. On the basis of a subsequent tender by the BMBF, a total of 16.11 million euros were invested between 1999 and 2005 within the research field "Service Engineering and Service Design" and 18 joint projects with 76 directly involved research institutions and companies were funded.

The initiative of the BMBF and the resulting transfer measures (including multipliers, events, publications) led to an increasing introduction of ideas and concepts of service engineering into operational practice. Service companies are investing more and more in new services and developing them systematically. A comparatively high level of penetration can be observed, particularly with technical service providers.

Current state of science

In addition to the immediate effects on practice, an international adaptation of German work on service engineering has recently been observed. The Federal Research Report states: "With the new service engineering discipline developed by Germany, we have also succeeded in assuming an internationally recognized role at the interface between classic service research and engineering" (Federal Ministry for Education and Research 2004).

Current status in implementation and application

The service now makes a large part of the profit. But only for companies that have systematically built and expanded this service. Studies have shown that the costs of maintaining and servicing industrial goods and machines amount to up to 90% of the acquisition costs during their lifetime. It is interesting that many manufacturing companies do not participate in this sales and profit potential, or only to a small extent.

In the context of declining new systems business, the service and customer service market is attracting more attention again. However, it requires some strategic considerations and the will of consistent, permanent market cultivation. Maintenance services are characterized by "people business" and must be communicated and marketed in a different form than pure machines and systems. Service models through to guaranteed usage times or innovative operator models are complex and require stable, efficient processes in order to be able to limit the risks and keep the costs low.

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