Glenn Parry – författare

For manufacturers of complex engineering equipment, the focus on service and achieving outcomes for customers is the key to growth. Yet, the capability to provide service for complex engineered products is less understood.

Taking a trans-disciplinary approach, Complex Engineering Service Systems covers various aspects of service in complex engineering systems, with perspectives from engineering, management, design, operations research, strategy, marketing and operations management that are relevant to different disciplines, organisation functions, and geographic locations. The focus is on the many facets of complex engineering service systems around a core integrative framework of three value transformations – that of material/equipment, information and people.

Complex Engineering Service Systems is the outcome of the EPSRC/BAE Systems S4T (Service Support Solutions: Strategy and Transition) research programme of 10 universities and 27 researchers, which examined how high-value manufacturers of complex engineering products adapt to a multi-partnered environment to design and deliver value in a service system.  Complex Engineering Service Systems aims to be the main source of knowledge for academics and professionals in the research and practice of contracting, managing, designing, leading, and delivering complex engineering service systems. The book takes a value-based approach to integrating equipment and human factors into a total service provision. In doing so, it aims to advance the field of service systems and engineering.

Service Design and Delivery provides a comprehensive overview of the increasingly important role played by the service industry. Focusing on the development of different processes employed by service organizations, the book emphasizes management of service in relation to products. It not only explores the complexity of this relationship, but also introduces strategies used in the design and management of service across various sectors, highlighting where tools, techniques and processes applicable to one sector may prove useful in another. The implementation methods introduced in the book also illustrate how and why companies can transform themselves into service organizations.

While the book is primarily intended as a text for advanced-level courses in service design and delivery, it also contains theoretical and practical knowledge beneficial to both practitioners in the service sector and those in manufacturing contemplating moving towards service delivery.

Drawing on detailed biographical life-course information obtained through in-depth interviews with creative workers, this book refutes established ideas that creative workers are a unique, autonomous and highly mobile group. Documenting empirical findings, it highlights how the migration and occupation patterns of creative workers are intimately connected with their early family experiences and to their social class. Ultimately, this innovative book recommends that policy should redirect its focus away from migration and towards creating places with good schools, affordable housing, sustainable jobs and strong connections across communities.

Pairing in-depth case studies with established theoretical grounding, this book will be a fascinating read for academics, researchers and students specialising in economic geography, regional economics, migration and human geography. Its unique insights and practical policy recommendations will also be of benefit to those working in town planning, regional policy development and the creative industries.