Andi Smart

Theory and practice in SME performance measurement systems

Describes research undertaken to evaluate the appropriateness of strategic performance measurement (PM) system development processes for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). An evaluation is undertaken of ten PM approaches found in the literature. To facilitate this evaluation a typology is presented which synthesises current theory. This evaluation resulted in the identification of a process, based on its congruency to the theoretical model, which is used for an empirical investigation. Empirical data from SMEs is collected and analysed using the typology. This indicates a discontinuity between current theory and the requirements of practitioners in small companies. The paper concludes with a number of recommendations to facilitate the development of appropriate PM processes for SMEs.

Customer satisfaction and service quality in UK financial services

Purpose – The paper seeks to evaluate the drivers of customer satisfaction (CS), specifically exploring the impact of business process management (BPM) on service quality and CS.Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal case study uses quantitative and qualitative data to test six propositions derived from current literature.Findings – Analysis confirms the role of staff satisfaction and service quality as key drivers of CS, suggested in the service profit chain, but proposes a more complex set of relationships. Technical service quality (TSQ) is found to play a critical role in determining CS and a strong causal link is found between TSQ and BPM.Research limitations/implications – Findings are based on a single case, in a fast‐changing sector.Practical implications – Findings suggest that managers should focus on TSQ as a priority. End‐to‐end BPM is identified as a key enabler of TSQ.Originality/value – The research challenges the adequacy of the service profit chain and the emphasis on soft factors e...

The systemic perspective of service processes: underlying theory, architecture and approach,

As competition in the service industry grows, delivering high-quality service to meet customers’ needs and expectations becomes paramount. In order to achieve a thorough understanding of customers, companies are increasingly adopting Customer Relationship Management (CRM) initiatives. However, CRM does not have the process vision necessary to cope with complex and cross-functional processes. This problem is better handled by Business Process Management (BPM) initiatives, which, by their turn, struggle to built-in customer intelligence in their systems. Based upon systems theory, we discuss the roles of CRM and BPM in an integrated approach to deliver customer fulfillment. As the evolution of service-oriented approaches requires us to consider both customer interactions and experiences as key elements of service processes, we present a broader perception of service processes involving these two perspectives. Also, we discuss the architecture of a customer-facing system comprising customer processes that are aimed at better dealing with customer interactions.

Performance measurement for planning and control in SMEs

This paper explores the concept of strategic performance measurement in SMEs. To provide some depth and breadth for the investigation the research was structured into two phases. The first phase of the research focused on identifying whether SMEs develop and use strategic performance measures. A survey of eight SMEs, in the south west of England, was undertaken using semi-structured interviews. The second phase involved a more in-depth study and was based on observing the introduction of a strategic performance measurement system in a small company. The results gained to date indicate that SMEs have a good understanding of financial measurement, and are moving towards customer focused measures. However, these measures typically lack strategic alignment and many may be questioned in regard of their value for business improvement. The observations made during phase two of the research, the development of a new strategic performance measurement system in an SME, indicated the potential planning and control benefits from the design process that was utilised. However, particular difficulties were evident in the development and implementation of the performance measurement system. Further research (phase three) is now being undertaken to analyse these difficulties. This paper describes the first two phases of the work. An introduction is provided which establishes both the relationship of this work to existing literature and the context for the study. The key fmdings from the work are shown following a description of the research methodology that was employed. The paper concludes by summarising the key findings and by presenting a set of propositions that will be used to extend the research into phase three.

Healthcare experience quality: an empirical exploration using content analysis techniques

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to set out to explore how cancer patients and their carers perceive and evaluate the healthcare experience in order to develop and validate a classification framework for experience quality in healthcare. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical work is centred on the systematic analysis of 200 cancer patient stories published on an independent healthcare feedback web site. Using the critical incident method, the authors captured 1,351 experience quality data items. Three judges independently sorted and classified these data items. Findings – The authors identify and describe 22 main categories and 51 sub-categories that underlie the experience quality concept in healthcare and present them in a classification framework. The framework is informed through the categorisation of direct, indirect, and independent interactions. It also suggests a relationship between experience quality and satisfaction and loyalty behaviours. Research limitations/implications – This st...

A process model of product service supply chains

This paper addresses the call for the development of product service supply chains (PSSC) model in support of supply chain integration, focusing specifically on the inter-relationship of product and services in PSSC. Whilst the product aspects of supply chains have been extensively researched there is widespread recognition that the service elements have received inadequate attention and that is the focus of the early part of the paper. We examine the features of service environments using unified service theory concluding that supply chain operations reference is unsuitable for developing a PSSC model. We apply their Operate model to Talkphone, an internationally leading telecoms company with an integrated PSSC. Using the case research method, we develop an IDEF0 model of the core operate processes of Talkphone. We then use the IDEF0 model to highlight the importance of co-ordinating product and multiple service concepts for integrated PSSCs. An important observation is the importance of the model as a heuristic device for managing and co-ordinating PSSCs, particularly where there are multiple service concepts (see Figure 8). Finally, we consider the implications for future work including the potential for further empirical work into types of integrated PSSC which combine the four product and four service types into 16 possible combinations.

Patient safety: a casualty of target success?

Purpose – This paper aims to develop a conceptual resilience‐based model that takes account of the competing success factors of patient safety, finance, improvement targets and staff workload in NHS hospitals in the UK.Design/methodology/approach – A safe working envelope model was developed from the literature and adapted for use in the NHS. The proposition that finance and targets receive greater management attention was then tested by a pilot study using content analysis of risk management documents of four NHS hospitals.Findings – The need to succeed on finance and targets received greater attention in the risk management documents than patient safety and staff workload.Research limitations/implications – This is a pilot study only, using content analysis of risk management documents from four hospitals to see whether the model developed from the literature warrants further study.Practical implications – Using the proposed safe working model will allow the setting and monitoring of failure and margina...

An Application of Distributed Simulation for Hybrid Modeling of Offshore Wind Farms

The work in progress paper presents a case study on M&S of offshore wind farms. Two simulation models have been developed, an agent-based model and a discrete-event model, with the former modeling turbine failures using a degradation function and the latter modeling the Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) strategies. The models have been implemented in NetLogo and Simul8 respectively. In this paper we present ongoing work in hybrid simulation which uses the IEEE 1516 HLA standard for distributed simulation for synchronized model execution and dynamic information exchange between the agent-based and the discrete-event models.

Learning maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) concepts in offshore wind industry through game-based learning

Digital Education Games (DEGs) have become increasingly popular as an educational tool in schools and for training professionals. However a review of literature has shown the limited use of such games in teaching concepts related to Maintenance, Repair and Operations (MRO) in the engineering field. The contribution of this paper and the DEG is specific to MRO in offshore wind energy. In our DEG the player mimics the behavior of a single decision maker, namely, the manager of the MRO facility who is responsible for the day-to-day allocation of resources for the upkeep of two offshore wind farms. The game enables the player to learn from a complex planning task wherein idle MRO resources must be minimized. The aim of the game is to prevent loss of revenue brought about through inadequate maintenance of the windfarms. The game is developed in Microsoft Excel using the VBA programming environment.

Semantic modeling of indoor scenes with support inference from a single photograph: Semantic modeling of indoor scenes from a single photo

We present an automatic approach for the semantic modeling of indoor scenes based on a single photograph, instead of relying on depth sensors. Without using handcrafted features, we guide indoor scene modeling with feature maps extracted by fully convolutional networks. Three parallel fully convolutional networks are adopted to generate object instance masks, a depth map, and an edge map of the room layout. Based on these high‐level features, support relationships between indoor objects can be efficiently inferred in a data‐driven manner. Constrained by the support context, a global‐to‐local model matching strategy is followed to retrieve the whole indoor scene. We demonstrate that the proposed method can efficiently retrieve indoor objects including situations where the objects are badly occluded. This approach enables efficient semantic‐based scene editing.