DESIGNING AND MANAGING

SERVICE DELIVERY
PROCESSES

CHAPTER 3
CONTENTS

1. Contents and requirements of designing service delivery

processes

2. Outlining the service delivery process

3. Analyzing the service delivery process

4. The influence of technology on designing and managing

service delivery processes
2
Contents of designing service delivery processes

1. Determine service concept with 2. Service flow vs. customer flow

two categories of system 3. Front-office area vs. back-
elements: office area
 Structural (delivery system,
facility design, location,
capacity planning)
 Managerial (information,
quality, service encounter,
capacity and demand
management)
3
Requirements of designing service delivery
processes

▪ Ensure the specialization of the service delivery process

▪ Ensure the balance of the service delivery process

▪ Ensure facilitating customer participation

▪ Ensure the smooth and continuous delivery process

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OUTLINING THE SERVICE
DELIVERY PROCESS
OUTLINING THE SERVICE DELIVERY
PROCESS

Definition

Outlining a service production process is to determine

key elements involved in the process, expected
outcome, functional and technical characteristics, as
well as spatial division of customer flows and service
flows.
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OUTLINING THE SERVICE DELIVERY
PROCESS

Benefits

 Guide service staff through the process in order to

deliver the service consistently

 Help the firm proactively prepare resources for the

service delivery process

 Be an effective management tool 7

OUTLINING THE SERVICE DELIVERY
PROCESS
General outline
Start Produce & deliver Finish

Take the customer’s Take place before or after the Proceed with payment,
order, check availability, customer visits the service give the customer a send-
reply to the customer system, simultaneously with off, handle other necessary
the consumption process tasks

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OUTLINING CUSTOMER FLOWS

SERVICE
Back-office area
SYSTEM
Front-office area

Order
Take
order
 Produce &
deliver
Finish 
Evaluation

 9
MEASURES TO CONTROL CUSTOMER
FLOWS
Control:
- the size of the flows
- the moving speed of the flows
- the moving direction of the flows
By
- Controlling the number of customers coming at a specific time (delivering
queue number tickets, allowing reservation, using some marketing measures,…)
- Organizing waiting line
- Designing appropriate (usually customer-oriented) service management
(facilities layout, symbols, direction signs,…)
OUTLINING SERVICE FLOWS

SERVICE SYSTEM


Back-office area Front-office area

Prepare Take order


 Order

Support Produce & deliver


Clean Proceed
with
payment
Say
goodbye  11
Evaluation
TYPES OF PROCESSES

Process
Service Example Characteristic Management Challenge
Type

One-of-a-kind
Project Consulting Staffing and scheduling
engagement

Many specialized Balancing utilization and

Job shop Hospital
departments scheduling patients

Group of customers Pricing perishable asset

Batch Airline
treated simultaneously (seat inventory)

Fixed sequence of Adjust staffing to demand

Flow Cafeteria
operations fluctuations

Maintenance and capacity

Continuous Electric Utility Uninterrupted delivery
planning
FLOWCHARTING

The ability to diagram a process, identify the bottleneck operation,

and determine the system capacity are fundamental skills in
managing service operations and making improvements.
“If you can’t draw it, then you don’t understand it. ”
-Albert Einstein-
FLOWCHARTING

Application Take Request

  Wait
Applicant form GRE references

Create Send letter

Admissions Folder No Contact  
folder Close folder
clerk complete? applicant
Yes Denial letter
Graduate Acceptance
Batch files letter
Secretary
Graduate Telephone
Review files
Advisor interviews

Faculty Make selection

No
Panel
Graduate Dean Yes
Review Financial aid
Swim lane flowchart of graduate school admissions
FLOWCHARTING

Symbols used in flowcharting:

Terminator: An ellipse represents a start or stop in a
process.
Operation: A rectangle represents a process or action
step.
Decision: A diamond represents a question or branch.

Wait: A triangle represents a delay (time in queue) or

inventory of goods.
Flow: An arrow shows movement of customers, goods, or
information.
FLOWCHARTING

Accept
mortgages Property survey
CT = 90 min. Approved
Yes mortgages
Mortgage
applications Completed
applications Final approval
CT = 15 min.

Title search
Credit report
CT = 30 min.
CT = 45 min.
No

Unapproved
mortgages
Finish
processing

Process flow diagram of mortgage service

GANTT CHART

Activity Schedule

Property survey
  1   2   3

Credit report
1 2 3

Title search
1 2 3

Final approval
1 2 3

Time in minutes 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270

Gantt chart of mortgage service

GROUP TASK

Each group is assigned one of the

following services at DUE to draw
its service flow:

a. Motorbike parking service

b. Cafeteria

c. Borrow/return books
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GROUP TASK

Each group draws the service flow on

an A0 paper in advance and bring it,
together with a red pen, to the class.

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Blueprint for luxury hotel. Source: Fitzsimmons et al. (2014)
PROCESS TERMINOLOGY

Cycle time (CT)

• Cycle time is the average time between completions of
successive units. For an operation, CT is the average service
time to perform the activity.
• Cycle time could also apply to a work area in which several
servers are performing the same operation.
• Cycle time of the entire system is defined as the time between
successive customers exiting during a busy period.
PROCESS
TERMINOLOGY

Bottleneck
▪ A bottleneck is the operation
that limits production. Usually
the bottleneck is the slowest
operation (or longest CT).
▪ CT for the entire system = CT
for bottleneck operation(s) 22
BOTTLENECK – REASONS?

The slowest operation(s)

The rate of customer arrivals

Labor availability

Information
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PROCESS TERMINOLOGY

Capacity
• Is a measure of output per unit of time when fully busy (e.g.,
activity is never idle).
• The unconstrained capacity of any operation is measured as
1/CT.
• The capacity of the entire system is determined by the
bottleneck capacity.
PROCESS TERMINOLOGY

Capacity utilization
• Is a measure of how much actual output is achieved relative to
the process capacity when fully busy.
• Due to the variability in customer arrivals and service times, it
is impossible to achieve 100 percent capacity utilization for
service firms.
PROCESS TERMINOLOGY

Direct labor utilization

• Is a measure of the percentage of time that workers actually
contribute to a fully busy service organization.
• Direct labor utilization for the mortgage service process is
calculated as:

Total direct labor content

Direct labor utilization =
(Process cycle time) x (Number of workers)
THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS

• Flow process: fixed sequence of operations

• Staffing requires allocating tasks among servers to create jobs
that require nearly equal time.
• The job requiring the most average time per customer creates
a bottleneck and defines the capacity of the service line.
• Any change in the capacity of the service line requires that
attention be given to the bottleneck activity
THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS
Cycle time,
Activity Description
sec.
1 Review application for correctness 15
2 Process and record payment 30
3 Check for violations and restrictions 60
4 Conduct eye test 40
5 Photograph applicant 20
6 Issue temporary license (state trooper) 30

License renewal process times

THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS
*
In 1 2 3 4 5 6 Out
240 120 60 90 180 120
15 30 60 40 20 30

* (a)
In 1, 4 3 * *
65 60
55 60 2 5 6 Out
120 180 120
30 20 30
In 1, 4 3
65 60
55 60 (b) Activity
number Capacity
CT = 27.5 CT = 30 * Bottleneck per hour
CT in
seconds
(a) Present and (b) Proposed process flow diagrams
 THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS
Activity 1

Activity 2

Activity 3

Activity 4

Activity 5

Activity 6

Gantt chart of license renewal process

 THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS
Activity 1,4
(2 clerks)

Activity 3
(2 clerks)

Activity 2

Activity 5

Activity 6

Gantt chart of proposed license renewal process

THE WORK ALLOCATION PROBLEM IN
THE
FLOW PROCESS 1-5
In
22
165

In 1-5
22
165

In 1-5
22

Reengineered driver’s license office 165 6 Out

120
30
In 1-5
22
165

In 1-5
22
165

In 1-5
22
165
GROUP WORK

What can you do to improve the

effectiveness of the service process
you performed in the class, in
terms of staffing, equipment
management, customer
participation and space layout

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GROUP WORK

Groups receive pieces of paper to write down your solutions, each

piece of paper has one solution

▪ Green paper for staffing

▪ Orange paper for equipment and facilities

▪ Yellow paper for customer participation

▪ Pink paper for space layout

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GROUP WORK

Customer Space
Staffing Equipment
participation layout

CHECK

STUDENTS
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THANKS!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
▪ Lyntn@due.edu.vn

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