Satoshi Mikoshiba

Service process simulation for integrated service evaluation

The design of services has become an important issue discussed in various industries. For the design of attractive and sustainable services, it is important to satisfy the requirements of various stakeholders simultaneously. To evaluate the fulfillment of them in a quantitative manner, the process simulation of a service would be an effective approach. However, the method to develop a simulation model to evaluate a service with various evaluation criteria has not been proposed. In this study, the authors propose the evaluation framework and the service process model to describe the influence of a service to various stakeholders and suggest the simulation method based on it.

Service Design Methodology for Cooperative Services

In accordance with the maturation of industry, the major mean of value offering shifts from mass products to services. To develop successful services, the cooperation with different organizations and individuals is effective since innovative services often require various capabilities and resources which are difficult to obtain by one company. For the realization of such a cooperative service, a design methodology which can handle requirements of various stakeholders and a complex service structure is required. However, the general methodology for cooperative services has not been established. In this paper, the authors propose a service design methodology of cooperative services. This methodology includes a service evaluation framework to adjust the specification of a service which influences the multiple stakeholders, a computational simulation method for service evaluation and a service design process based on the proposed methods.© 2011 ASME

Service Flow Simulation Using Scene Transition Nets (STN) Including Satisfaction-Attribute Value Functions

A new academic field, “service engineering” has emerged; it involves active investigation for increasing the productivities of service industries. However, there are only a few effective tools for the simulation and evaluation of complex services that have been designed using concepts from the field of service engineering. To overcome this shortcoming, the authors propose a multi-agent service flow simulation method using scene transition nets (STNs) that is a very useful graphical modeling and simulation method for application to discrete-continuous hybrid systems. This method treats services as complicated multi-agent and hybrid systems similar to manufacturing systems. To obtain realistic values of customer satisfaction, the authors input satisfaction-attribute value (S-AV) functions, which are often used in service engineering in service flow models using STN. This method visualizes discrete flows of services and temporal changes in the values of customer satisfaction and various other variables of service models. The authors present the results of the simulation of an online DVD rental service involving multiple agents to show the effectiveness of the proposed method that uses an STN GUI simulator developed by them.Copyright

A Multi-Aspect Modeling Method for Service Flow Simulation Using Scene Transition Nets (STNs)

Recently, a new academic field, “service engineering” has been very actively investigated. However, there are few effective methods and tools to simulate and evaluate services designed based on the concept of service engineering. In the past, the authors proposed a service flow simulation method using scene transition nets (STN) which is a graphic modeling and simulation method for discrete-continuous hybrid systems. However, this method does not consider how to model and simulate complex service flows including multiple layered, parallel, and interrupted structures and it is difficult to construct STN models of such complex systems using the existing STN concepts. In this paper, the authors propose a new STN modeling method using “multi-aspect STN modeling “ concepts in order to provide easy methods for modeling of such complex services. The experimental results for the modeling and simulation of a nursing service demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.Copyright