Toward service systems engineering

A case is made herein for further developing a branch of systems engineering that focuses on problems and issues, which arise in the service sector. We argue for this special focus not only because of the size and importance of the service sector but also because of the unique opportunities that systems engineering can exploit in the production and delivery of services. We begin by considering the economic, technological and demographic contexts within which the service sector has flourished; we then address both services, especially emerging services, and systems engineering, followed by a discussion of how to advance the field of service systems engineering, and concluding with several remarks. In particular, a number of service systems engineering methods are identified to enhance the production and delivery of services, especially taking advantage of the unique features that characterize services - namely, services, especially emerging services, are information-driven, customer-centric, e-oriented, and productivity-focused.