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Investigates the three significant implications of the service factory for manufacturing managers: (1) the service factory is strategic in nature, (2) the dimensions and attributes of the service factory should be addressed, and (3) managerial aspects must be included.

Reports recent findings of a two‐phase study investigating new dimensions of manufacturing competitiveness, factory‐based services. Examines relationships between broadly defined service role performance and manufacturing performance. Data were provided by 64 manufacturing firms from the USA, Canada and the UK. Also addresses under what conditions a vital element of such service‐information would be of greatest benefit to the factory’s key internal customer ‐ marketing. A survey of manufacturing and marketing respondents within 32 organizations provides empirical evidence of the positive relationship between factory information measured as a service construct and delivery performance. Anecdotal evidence from interviews provides additional insight into the roles of organizational structure and information technology with respect to the information component of factory‐based service.

The banking industry is definitely among the service industries that have been thoroughly transformed during the past decades. The direction of development has been toward more efficient mass services enabled by information and communication technologies (ICT). The purpose of this paper is to focus on analysing the changes in banking services, particularly the mass services offered through service factories. The aim is to review the previous literature on efficient production of banking services, and particularly analyse the effects of service factories in this area.

The theoretical focus of the paper reviews the frameworks and models for service positioning and efficiency for recognising the typical banking services used in the analyses. The Service Process Matrix is analysed for its components and implications for recognising efficient service processes for different types of services.

The findings show that the Service Process Matrix provides a tool for categorising different services for their efficiency in the case industry analysed. The matrix is adapted to better reflect the changes in banking services.

The quest for service efficiency is of importance, both in public services and service businesses alike. Several tools and models have been proposed to analyse the most appropriate way to produce services of different types. This paper analyses this area and provides insights for managers in how to position different service types for best customer value and efficient service processes. The paper also provides insights for service researchers looking for frameworks to categorise different service types.

Value‐added services expand manufacturing organizations’ ability to compete beyond traditional measures of manufacturing competitiveness such as cost, quality, flexibility, and delivery. This concept of expanding the roles of factories to include service has received considerable attention and wide acceptance among both researchers and practitioners. For example, recent empirical studies have demonstrated that manufacturing performance, particularly delivery performance can be enhanced through expanded service roles that focus on effective information flows within the company and to external customers. Despite such benefits, the scope of analysis has been limited to individual manufacturing organizations. Given the realities of global competition, practitioners require knowledge that extends beyond individual organizations. The domain of their problems includes the complexities of interactions with multiple stakeholders along global supply chains. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to extend the concept of the service factory to global supply chains. Specifically, the approach will be to provide a conceptualization of the role of service in global supply chain management that can be used as a starting point for discussion and further research in this area. We provide several propositions and conclude with implications for both researchers and practitioners.

The research reported examines the role of service in manufacturing. Focuses on the degree to which Chase′s “Service Factory” concept is applicable in the UK. Also examines the role of service in four manufacturing companies. It was found that the roles reported by Chase in the USA are also used by a number of UK companies, and it is concluded that the service‐factory concept is robust and is not necessarily embedded in some of the cultural norms of the USA, as are some TQM practices. The case data indicated that the source of customer service may be in customers being served by various parts of the organization, that customer service is complex and that service levels are a function of both manufacturing and distribution. This would seem to point to the distribution view of customer service, the field‐service view and/or the service‐factory view being too narrow in terms of the company as a whole.

Although services research has made extensive use of metaphors, there is a need to understand the way metaphors incorporate assumptions about the phenomenon under study, the focus of research attention and managerial implications. Defines metaphors as a transfer of information from the familiar to the unfamiliar, emphasizing the cognitive rather than literary properties of metaphor. While several metaphors have been presented in the services literature, factory and drama metaphors predominate. An analysis of recent publications suggests that use of factory or drama metaphors reflects an implicit model of services, and researchers blend factory and drama metaphors to take into account the human qualities of service inputs. Addresses concerns expressed by those who criticize the use of metaphor in social science research and suggests that metaphors can contribute to increased creativity in services research.

In order to emphasize the universality of operations management concepts, this paper develops an integrative view of the similarities and continuities between “services products” and operations; and “goods products” and factory operations. The purpose of this paper is to move toward a better understanding of the impact of this convergence.

By reviewing the literature and trade press examples of evolution in both manufacturing and services businesses, it develop a model for understanding the observed phenomena.

This paper finds that services operations are continually adopting the characteristics of traditional manufacturing as they seek to grow and gain increased profitability through economies of scale. At the same time, traditional manufacturing/factory operations continually seek to differentiate themselves by offering more services such as customization, flexibility, and just‐in‐time; without giving up their economies of scale. As goods and services products become more integrated, these two distinct types of operating systems also converge. This paper also finds that information technology (IT) is pervasive, but used differently; and it develop new models to help us to understand the role and importance of IT in different operating systems and its impact upon the economics of innovation in operations.

This paper offers an integrative platform for future discussion and research on the convergence of factory and service operations, the integration of marketing and operations concepts and decisions, the design/management of operations processes, and the role of information systems and technology; in achieving sustained competitive advantage for any business.

This study seeks to investigate, through the development of an operationalized service quality construct in the context of a service factory, whether the typology to which a service belongs may explain the nature of the service quality (SQ) construct and its relationship to customer satisfaction (SAT) and behavioral intentions (BI).

An exploratory factor analysis used a sample from undergraduate student respondents. Then, a more representative sample of hotel guests was used, in a second‐order confirmatory factor analysis.

The dominant dimensions of SQ construct in the service factory were found to be: Tangibles, Recovery, Responsiveness, and Knowledge. Further results indicate that, although the direct effect of SQ on BI is significant, the indirect effect (with SAT playing a mediating role) is a stronger driver for BI in the context of the service factory.

A notable limitation is that the present study focuses only on the service factory and uses only one industry (lodging) to illustrate the findings. Future research should examine other service categories.

Service managers are recommended to devise operations and marketing strategies that focus on the dominant SQ dimensions in order to enhance SAT and, in turn, foster positive BI.

This study demonstrates that SQ, SAT and BI and their interrelationships may be typology‐specific. If this is true, two or more industries (e.g. airlines and lodging) may exhibit similar relationship characteristics with regard to these constructs if they belong to the same service category. This knowledge is useful for benchmarking best practices among such industries.

This study presents an empirical snapshot of management challenges among different types of service industries (Service Factory, Service Shop, Mass Service, and Professional Service). Based on data collected (sample size = 273; response rate 97.5 percent) from the managers of four services (Fast Food, Auto Repair, Retail Sales, Legal Services) we show how management challenges change with customer contact/customization and labour intensity. These results have important implications for understanding “real life” service operations, for process improvement, and for service design.

The purpose of this paper is to identify and systematically discuss generic forms of contract logistics services and their distinct underlying approaches for fulfilling their respective value propositions. A general frame of reference is developed that addresses the value proposition, as well as the value creation architecture that leads to generic business model configurations for contract logistics services. The framework is built upon the basic notions of service theory, competence research and the resource based view.

The paper combines service theory with work of organizational theory and develops an analytical framework based on conceptual considerations. First empirical results are additionally used to support and illustrate the key outcomes.

Combining the dimensions of integration power and intangible knowledge creation, the authors are able to specify generic types of contract logistics services. Thereby the authors deducted for every type the distinct requirements for service fulfilment and present this in a specific frame of reference.

The illustrated empirical results are still limited due to a limited sample size for the interviews. Additional empirical work on the whole third party logistics (3PL) market is suggested.

The paper provides generic types of 3PL services and a characterization of properties and architectures of respective business models. Combined with first empirical results, the paper's results offer insights for practitioners to rethink their value propositions and potentially redesign their service architectures.

The paper delivers a set of distinct business models for 3PL services reflecting the customer's, as well as the service provider's point of view. It addresses specific aspects of the generation/production of required services that are so far mostly neglected.