Can Design & Dev (7.3) Be An Exclusion For A Facilities-based Service Company?

[advega]

Hi. By "faciliteis-based" I mean companies who sell the use of their facilities. Think of a hotel, or (in my particular case) a funeral parlor.

Since the facilities are already in-place, is there really any design & dev to be done?

Of course the company could undertake (no pun intended) a facilites overhaul or even invest in new facilities, where the design/development activity would be intense. But since that wouldn't be an everday thing, could a funeral parlor exclude 7.3 in its entirety?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

 

[somashekar]

Hi. By "faciliteis-based" I mean companies who sell the use of their facilities. Think of a hotel, or (in my particular case) a funeral parlor.

Since the facilities are already in-place, is there really any design & dev to be done?

Of course the company could undertake (no pun intended) a facilites overhaul or even invest in new facilities, where the design/development activity would be intense. But since that wouldn't be an everday thing, could a funeral parlor exclude 7.3 in its entirety?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

Most of the things are already there in most of the organizations., manufacturing or service.
We are not into inventing or research when we talk about design and development.
It is a part of systamatic application of the product (service) realization.
For most part you have all your outputs inplace which are well and clear and you own them. These are just your design outputs which you have got by processing all inputs and reviewing / verifying and stuff. I am sure changes do keep happening and you process the change in the same way by getting into the change details and addressing them suitably such that your outputs again are effective to the faced changes.
I do not know much about funeral parlor, however I guess the major inputs here for your service design comes from tradition and customs followed by several nearby communities. May be someone asks for a perticular service based on some family tradition and you turn out something for them, typically doing a new design and development (or a change to your already established outputs, thereby having an other new output)
You then just go and deliver (or provide the service) to the customer.

I went ahead and saw THIS....
I see a good justification for keeping design and development

 

[harry]

............................. Since the facilities are already in-place, is there really any design & dev to be done?

Of course the company could undertake (no pun intended) a facilites overhaul or even invest in new facilities, where the design/development activity would be intense. But since that wouldn't be an everday thing, could a funeral parlor exclude 7.3 in its entirety? .....................

You need a move out of the traditional 'engineering' mind when interpreting the design & development process that is applied to the service industry. When you get good service from a restaurant or hotel, it is not by chance but because some one purposely 'designed' the service to be so - how you were greeted, seated, how they help with the ordering process and menu and finally how the food was cooked and served. And it may include parking facilities, etc.

In theory, every service needs to be designed but many services are so common and if you are in a me-too type of business (just like another fish & chips outlet), there just isn't any need for design & development. What's important is continual improvement to meet changing needs of the market.

At the end of the day, it comes back to your organizations strategy and market needs. Does the market need a funeral parlor who can specially design a service or what's needed is just a choice among several standard packages?

Back to your question - it is up to your organizations strategy and for your organization to determine whether you want D&D. If you choose to have it, it will be stated in your certificate and you can market it that way.

 

[John Broomfield]

Hi. By "faciliteis-based" I mean companies who sell the use of their facilities. Think of a hotel, or (in my particular case) a funeral parlor.

Since the facilities are already in-place, is there really any design & dev to be done?

Of course the company could undertake (no pun intended) a facilites overhaul or even invest in new facilities, where the design/development activity would be intense. But since that wouldn't be an everday thing, could a funeral parlor exclude 7.3 in its entirety?

Thanks in advance for sharing your thoughts!

advega,

The facility may already be designed and built but the service of determining each customer's needs and tailoring delivery of your service to fulfill those needs should be designed.

Who buys the use of a building without expecting a service that fulfills their needs? Indeed, who buys any product without expecting a service that meets their expectations?

Each customer is briefed on their needs and expectations and those needs and expectations are translated into service specifications or, at least a shared understanding of what the service provider must do to meet requirements.

Particularly, design is required for delivery of each funeral service that fulfills the brief of the grieving family.

Is your funeral parlor truly delivered with no service?

John

 

[advega]

@somashekar, @harry, @John Broomfield:
Thank you all for your inputs! I draw similar points from all of you, that the facilities alone do not make the "good service"; thank you for correcting me.

And I see how your points apply, when the funeral home I am helping customizes the service/s for many of the families who come in. So yes, design and development is definitely something that they do.

@jackbey:
The core reason this funeral home is seeking certification is because they have multiple locations and they would like to make the delivery of "excellent service" less of a hit-or-miss / guesswork thing across these locations

 

[Marcelo]

In theory, every service needs to be designed but many services are so common and if you are in a me-too type of business (just like another fish & chips outlet), there just isn't any need for design & development. What's important is continual improvement to meet changing needs of the market.

Sorry, totally disagree with that. I?ve seen numerous cases for "common" services which were not D&Ded, and then they did that, they found a lot of holes in their own services/requirements.

If you haven?t had a real analysis of what you do (in this case, as part of D&D) you are probably missing something.

 

[John Broomfield]

harry,

Here is a useful reference on designing services:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_blueprint

Blueprinting services makes sense to me even if your main product is tangible.

John

 

[advega]

Thanks very much for that "service blueprint" link, John. It looks like it could be helpful in my current project