Adopting Service Strategy in Manufacturing Firms. A framework for services recognition and management model implications

The culture and the operational methods of service management have become a formidable competitive weapon even for manufacturing firms. The term “service factory” has been proposed for identifying that particular integration of products and services, achieved by the excellent manufacturing firm, where “service is a multidimensional concept” (Chase and Erikson, 1988). The creation of a service factory necessarily implies a radical change in the operational and organizational characteristics of the firm. In order to support manufacturing firms in adopting a service strategy, it is relevant on the one hand to identify the bundle of services which have to be provided for the customers and on the other hand to understand the implications for firm management model. As regards the first point, the paper proposes a framework which classifies the services along with two dimensions: time-dimension and target-dimension. The first one identifies the services according to the phases of the buying process life cycle (i.e. Pre-Sale services, Sale services and Post-Sale services). The target- dimension makes a distinction between services which support the customer during the buying process (e.g. a training service) and services for the product (e.g. a product configuration service). The proposed framework is of interest for manufacturing firms because it allows a better recognition of services that are more perceptible for the customers. In the second part of the paper we discuss the implications of a service strategy adoption on the management model of manufacturing firms. In order to carry out this analysis we propose a model that combines the four service dimensions defined by Chase (1990) with three decision-making categories (Organization, Management Systems and Technologies).