Varia Ranah - Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam

461 Varia Ranah: Sorotan Ilmiah Perkhidmatan Awam customer. Customer contact does not necessarily mean that the customer is physically present in the service delivery. Instead, customer contact can be seen as the level of interaction between customer and provider, meaning to what extent the customer can make demands on the design of service delivery systems (Schmenner, 1986). A general view is that the back-office processes are easier to control and to rationalize, due to the disturbances of customers in front office processes (Zomerdijk and Vries, 2007). Lean Service Before Lean Production became commonly used in the public sector, it was needed to create a theory for Lean in the service sector in general (Souza, 2009). Using improvement concepts and ideas from manufacturing has been a trend since the 1970s, when Levitt (1972) suggested using production-line approaches for service processes. This is exemplified by McDonalds, whose processes follow production logic. When Lean was introduced in the service sector, it was primarily used in a comparable way as in manufacturing. By using Lean principles, service organisations would reduce waste in their processes. Based on the use of Lean in manufacturing, Bowen and Youngdahl (1998) suggest five characteristics that also could be used in service organisations: (i) Reduction of performance trade-offs • Operation goals of both internally focused efficiency and customer focused flexibility (ii) Flow production and JIT pull • Minimize set-up time allowing for smoother flow • JIT levels of both input and output (iii) Value-chain orientation • Apply service blueprinting and value analysis to eliminate non- value adding activities