Service level objective

About: Service level objective is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 7894 publications have been published within this topic receiving 218701 citations.

On Measuring Supplier Performance Under Vendor-Managed-Inventory Programs in Capacitated Supply Chains

Abstract: As widely accepted performance measures in supply chain management practice, frequency-based service levels such as fill rate and stockout rate are often considered in supply contracts under vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) programs. Using a decentralized two-party capacitated supply chain model consisting of one manufacturer and one supplier in a VMI environment, we demonstrate that supplier's service level is in general insufficient for the manufacturer to warrant the desired service level at the customer end. The method by which the supplier achieves her service level to the manufacturer also affects customer service level.By developing bounds on the customer service level, we show that the expected backorders at the supplier should also be taken into account. We suggest a supply contract that offers a menu of different combinations of supplier's service level and expected backorders according to a linear function. Under this contract, the manufacturer can control the end customer service regardless of how the supplier manages her inventory. The supplier has complete flexibility on which combination of the two quantities on the menu to choose according to her own cost functions. Because it does not require any detailed information on supplier's operational characteristics nor her costs, this kind of contract is expected to be easily implementable. In addition, we derive an estimate of the customer service level in terms of the new measures.Our findings have direct implications to supply chain metrics in general: The local service levels are insufficient measures to guarantee the system wide performance. Alternative local measures and/or coordination mechanisms should be employed to achieve desired system performance. Our analysis illustrates a possible way to explore such alternative measures.

Exploring switching behavior of US mobile service customers

Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the switching behavior of mobile service customers in the USA with a focus on service quality, innovation and lock-in strategies as deterrents of switching. Design/methodology/approach – A thorough literature review coupled with two focus group interviews provided the impetus for the design and development of a survey instrument that was then administered to graduate and undergraduate students in the Southeast USA. Findings – The paper finds that: mobile service quality (m-SERVQUAL) is a significant detractor of switching intentions of customers – if customers perceive their provider to be innovative, they are less likely to switch to another provider; the perception of being innovative is equally as important as the perception of the service quality delivered by the provider; hard lock-in (unreasonable contract length) leads customers to increase their intention to switch, which is completely counter to its intended purpose; and service quality perception...

Self-Organizing Agents for Service Composition in Cloud Computing

Abstract: In Cloud service composition, collaboration between brokers and service providers is essential to promptly satisfy incoming Cloud consumer requirements. These requirements should be mapped to Cloud resources, which are accessed via web services, in an automated manner. However, distributed and constantly changing Cloud-computing environments pose new challenges to automated service composition such as: (i) dynamically contracting service providers, which set service fees on a supply-and-demand basis, and (ii) dealing with incomplete information regarding Cloud resources (e.g., location and providers). To address these issues, in this work, an agent-based Cloud service composition approach is presented. Cloud participants and resources are implemented and instantiated by agents. These agents sustain a three-layered self-organizing multi-agent system that establishes a Cloud service composition framework and an experimental test bed. The self-organizing agents make use of acquaintance networks and the contract net protocol to evolve and adapt Cloud service compositions. The experimental results indicate that service composition is efficiently achieved despite dealing with incomplete information as well as coping with dynamic service fees.

A multi-dimensional framework for evaluating the transit service performance

Abstract: This paper presents a multi-level framework to measure public transit service performance. This framework uses a combination of subjective and objective measures to assess the service quality. It allows for the opinions of the various stakeholders of public transit services (users, operators, and service providers) to be incorporated in a multi-criteria evaluation process. The framework can evaluate the public transit service performance at different levels of details (system level and route level). It can be used to assess the performance at the route level, which can then be used to provide specific recommendations to enhance the operation for specific routes, and also it can be used at a more macroscopic level to identify the operational deficiencies or areas of improvement at the system level. The route analysis level is based on a multi-criteria evaluation procedure that involves weighted scoring techniques. A case study on a transit system of 12 operating routes in Abu Dhabi city is conducted to illustrate the framework.

Separate or Integrate? Assessing the Impact of Separation Between Product and Service Business on Service Performance in Product Manufacturing Firms

Abstract: Purpose: Investigating how the separation of the product and service business mediates the effect of management's commitment to the service strategy on service performance in product manufacturing firms. Methodology: The authors surveyed 216 European manufacturers in the high-value durable equipment industry moving into the service business. After assessing adequacy of measurement scales, the authors tested statistically for mediation. Their results hold when replicating the study using a structural equation modeling approach and while testing for common method biases. Findings: The authors find evidence that the creation of a separate service organization, organized as a profit center, has a significant positive mediating effect between managerial commitment and the services' financial performance. Although separation also has a positive mediating effect between commitment and non-financial performance, organizing services as a profit center had a negative effect on the service's non-financial indicators...