A REFERENCE MODEL FOR SUPPORTING THE DESIGN OFSERVICE DELIVERY SYSTEMS

This paper presents an outline of a reference model for describing the service delivery system and its processes. Any service delivery activity falls within the scope of our model, so the model can be profitably used as a knowledge base for supporting the service delivery system design and configuration, and for the development of software and modeling tools that can assist the decision making processes and performance assessment of the modeled systems. Therefore, the paper is organized as follows: the first part presents, under the perspectives of the decision-maker, the foundational concepts of service delivery systems, the second part outlines, in a general way, how a service delivery system operates, the third part shows some UML diagrams of the reference model. Being the proper design of a service delivery system an important competitive driver for manufacturing companies, especially if they are reshaping their business in order to provide product-services more effectively, the model and the methodology is very interesting for its implications on future research in both service and operations management.