Service Science: The Foundations of Service Engineering and Management

Foreword

Richard C. Larson

Services. What do we think of? Taking cash from an ATM machine? Talking on our cell phones? Surfing the web? Watching TV? Picking up our mail? Yes, all these daily activities and much more. In fact, we would be hard-pressed to identify significant parts of our lives that are not service-related. About 150 years ago, over 50% of the US workforce toiled in agriculture. Today, it is about 2%, and we grow a lot more food. Agriculture is not a service, but its workforce has plummeted while the sector has become more productive. In the US post-WWII boom, in the late 1940s, the fraction of the US workforce in manufacturing peaked at about 35%. Today, it is a mere 9%. The percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) associated with manufacturing parallels these numbers, from being about 30% post-WWII to being about 12% today. What has filled the void? Answer: The US service sector. It has swelled to about 80% of the GDP!

What precisely is the service sector? Economists define it by subtraction. The service sector is everything in the economy that is NOT agriculture (including forestry and fishing) OR industry (manufacturing and also mining and construction). That subtraction leaves us with the majority of the world in which we live! In addition to the mundane day-to-day services chores, we have the health care system (about 18% of the economy), education (8–10% of the economy) and much more—government, transportation, entertainment, utilities, etc. The excellence ...