Computational Thinking of Service Systems: Dynamics and Adaptiveness Modeling

Service is broadly considered as an application of specialized knowledge, skill, and experience, performed for co-creation of respective values of both consumer and provider. Services are engineered and delivered through a heterogeneous service system . Compared to physical goods in manufacturing, resources, largely people (end users as the service consumer and employees as the service provider) - the main focus of a service system , cannot be held and are more complex to model and manage as people participating in service production and consumption have physiological and psychological issues, cognitive capability, and sociological constraints, etc. As the world becomes more complex and uncertain socially and economically, this research proposes a computational thinking approach to modeling of the dynamics and adaptiveness of a service system , aimed at fully leveraging today's ubiquitous digitalized information, computing capability and computational power so that the service system can be studied qualitatively and quantitatively. Ultimately, with this foundation we will successively and successfully develop the following mechanisms to implement and enhance service systems : A mechanism to timely capture end users' requirements, changes, expectation and satisfaction in a variety of technical, social, and cultural aspects; A mechanism to efficiently and cost-effectively provide employees right means and assistances to engineer services while promptly responding the changes; A mechanism to allow involved people consciously infuse as much intelligence as possible into all levels and aspects of decision-making to assure necessary system adaptiveness for smarter operations. [ Service Science , ISSN 2164-3962 (print), ISSN 2164-3970 (online), was published by Services Science Global (SSG) from 2009 to 2011 as issues under ISBN 978-1-4276-2090-3.]