Decision Making in Service Industries: A Practical Approach

In real-life scenarios, service management involves complex decision-making processes usually affected by random or stochastic variables. Under such uncertain conditions, the development and use of robust and flexible strategies, algorithms, and methods can provide the quantitative information necessary to make better business decisions. Decision Making in Service Industries: A Practical Approach explores the challenges that must be faced to provide intelligent strategies for efficient management and decision making that will increase your organization’s competitiveness and profitability. The book provides insight and understanding into practical and methodological issues related to decision-making processes under uncertainty in service industries. It examines current and future trends regarding how these decision-making processes can be efficiently performed for better design of service systems by using probabilistic algorithms as well as hybrid and simulation-based approaches. Traditionally, many quantitative tools have been developed to make decisions in production companies. This book explores how to use these tools for making decisions inside service industries. Thus, the authors tackle strategic, tactical, and operational problems in service companies with the help of suitable quantitative models such as heuristic and metaheuristic algorithms, simulation, or queuing theory. Generally speaking, decision making is a hard task in business fields. Making the issue more complex, most service companies’ problems are related to the uncertainty of the service demand. This book sheds light on these types of decision problems. It provides studies that demonstrate the suitability of quantitative methods to make the right decisions. Consequently, this book presents the business analytics needed to make strategic decisions in service industries.

Table of Contents:
Services and Decision Making: Stochastic Decision Making in Information Technology Services Delivery. Simulation-Based Studies on Dynamic Sourcing of Customers under Random Supply Disruptions. Customer Perceptions of Quality and Service System Design. Data Mining and Quality in Service Industry: Review and Some Applications. Software for Solving Real Service-Management Problems. Decision Making in Health Services: Logistics and Retail Pharmacies: Providing Cost-Effective Home Delivery of Prescriptions. Improving Pharmacy Operations Using Computer Simulation. Patient Prioritization in Emergency Departments: Decision Making under Uncertainty. Using Process Mapping and Capability Analysis to Improve Room Turnaround Time at a Regional Hospital. Decision Making in Logistic Services: Decision Making in Logistics Outsourcing from the Standpoint of Hiring Companies. Revenue Management of Transportation Infrastructure during the Service Life Using Real Options. Evaluating Different Cost-Benefit Analysis Methods for Port Security Operations. Vehicle Routing in Service Industry Using Decision Support Systems. Decision Making in Other Service Areas: Decision Support for Information Technology (IT) Service Investments under Uncertainty. An Inventory Criticality Classification Method for Nuclear Spare Parts: A Case Study. Service Technology, Pricing, and Process Economics in Banking Competition. Index.

About the Author :
Javier Faulin, Angel A. Juan, Scott E. Grasman, Michael J. Fry

Review :
"… shows that regardless of the place (company, hospital, etc..) or the decision maker (manager, nurse, etc.), decision making is done in an uncertain environment and therefore requires using rigorous methods to reduce this risk. Those methods are clearly described and applied to make this book a handbook of applications in decision making."—Sabrina Hammiche, Université de Rennes 1, France "An excellent collection of applications and models to improve decision making in a wide array of services. … can help professionals and researchers to broaden their practical knowledge in service scenarios under uncertainty."—Esteban García-Canal, University of Oviedo, Spain "… edited by internationally renowned researchers. … presents interesting contributions from several areas in service industries … an interesting book for practitioners, researchers, and students starting from the senior undergraduate level. The uniqueness of this book lies in the linkage between service industries and quantitative decision support techniques." —Patrick Hirsch, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria "… shows that regardless of the place (company, hospital, etc..) or the decision maker (manager, nurse, etc.), decision making is done in an uncertain environment and therefore requires using rigorous methods to reduce this risk. Those methods are clearly described and applied to make this book a handbook of applications in decision making."—Sabrina Hammiche, Université de Rennes 1, France "An excellent collection of applications and models to improve decision making in a wide array of services. … can help professionals and researchers to broaden their practical knowledge in service scenarios under uncertainty."—Esteban García-Canal, University of Oviedo, Spain "… edited by internationally renowned researchers. … presents interesting contributions from several areas in service industries … an interesting book for practitioners, researchers, and students starting from the senior undergraduate level. The uniqueness of this book lies in the linkage between service industries and quantitative decision support techniques." —Patrick Hirsch, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria