Title :
Outsourcing for Achieving Mass Customization in Service Operations: Lessons from the "Smaller Kitchen" Strategy in Chinese Catering Services
Author :
Chen, Jue ; Hao, Yunhong
Author_Institution :
Tourism Sch., Zhejiang Gongshang Univ., Hangzhou
Abstract :
The paper aimed to reveal key issues of outsourcing in service mass customization based on a case study in Chinese catering service industry. It firstly justified that outsourcing served as a an important facilitator in delivering mass customized services by increasing efficiency and reducing costs due to the expertise developed along the supply chain. It then pointed out the functions/business to be outsourced in mass customization which should be non-cored and helpful to utilize expertise and avoid risks. Moreover the impacts of the service feature of simultaneity on outsourcing were also discussed. Suggestions for future researches were finally presented.
Keywords :
catering industry; mass production; outsourcing; product customisation; supply chains; Chinese catering service industry; outsourcing; service mass customization; service operations; smaller kitchen strategy; supply chain; Business; Context-aware services; Logistics; Manufacturing; Mass customization; Mass production; Outsourcing; Product design; Supply chain management; Supply chains;
Conference_Titel :
Wireless Communications, Networking and Mobile Computing, 2007. WiCom 2007. International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Shanghai
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-1311-9
DOI :
10.1109/WICOM.2007.923