ABSTRACT
In general terms, service operations are defined as those services that provide value through information; time savings; desired psychological states; or experiences or changes in physical attributes or property. Obviously, services can be provided by producers acting for recipients; but recipients also sometimes provide part of the labour; and in certain cases recipients and producers create service in interaction.1 Services are often referred to as the reciprocal of manufacturing because of the importance of labor in the total cost of most of service outputs, as opposed to that of materials in tangible goods. Service activities account for roughly 80% of total employment in the US, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and Sweden; the situation in France reaches 70% while Japan, Germany, Italy and Spain are closer to 60 to 65%.2 Demand for services shows no sign of stopping. Knowledge based services – such as education, consulting, health care or legal services – are still dramatically expanding worldwide. Transportation, warehousing, and material-handling services are industries currently restructuring, with the creation of huge multi-purpose global logistics providers such as UPS, Deutsche Post, PNG, and others. Direct support and care activities to home and families also constitute a fascinating segment of recently growing service business. Merry Maids started in Denmark in 1995 providing maid services to Scandinavian households, as a subsidiary of the Chicago based “Service Masters Co.,” a company that employs 30,000 people and attained almost five billions US dollars of sales in 1999. The Canadian firm Molly Maids runs a 6,000-employee operation that serves only Montreal. Similar companies are rapidly expanding all over Europe. Examples of such successful firms in Geneva, Switzerland, include Ewi
hairdresser, Sitex home hospital, or Qualipet home meals for pets.3 In France, INSEE, a government body in charge of statistics, claims that 800 000 jobs have been created in this sector during the last ten years.
