4.4 Adaquate Organisation of the Service Process

Specification and contact are the two potentials of the service provider, e.g. the clinic, in offering best integration and interactivity of the customer during the service. The process of service must therefore be designed to fulfil adequate specification and contact. In respect to specifaction and contact there exists three ways of organising a production process. They are named site building, group and workshop production.

4.5.1 Principal Types of Organising a Production Process

site building organisation
This means that all production devices are taken to one site. This is usually done because the production can not be done elsewhere. This is most typical in road working and house building. However, many services work with this type of organisation. Home visitations of doctors to handicapped patients are common in medical service.

group/line/flow organisation
1. group production means that production devices for similar products, e.g. process carriers, are placed together. Often the process carrier is transported with flexible devices from one station to the other.
2. In line production the manufactoring devices are moreover placed in accordance to the course.
3. In flow production all working stations are strongly fixed in sequence and the process carrier is passed on automatically.

The short production time, the transparency of the production and only a small adminstration are the advantages of these "newly discovered" organisation structures.
Few flexibility and limited economy of scales are the common disadvantages.

specialised workshop organisation
This means that similar production devices are gathered into one workshop. The process is split into small specialised units. Process carriers must therefore pass through various workshops.