Algumas empresas de transporte intermunicipal e interestadual de transporte rodoviário de passageiros, objetivando maiores lucros, têm se dedicado ao transporte de determinados tipos de cargas e encomendas, aproveitando-se do fato do bagageiro do ônibus ser uma oferta fixa para o transporte. No entanto, percebe-se algumas deficiências de caráter operacional que podem comprometer a qualidade e o custo do serviço prestado. Portanto, essa pesquisa tem por finalidade analisar o transporte de cargas executado por ônibus sob a ótica da qualidade e do custo. Partindo-se da adaptação do modelo clássico de Parasuraman, bem como da adoção de direcionadores de custo, de acordo com o método de custeio baseado em atividades, pretende-se apresentar como as principais atividades que compõem os processos do transporte rodoviário de cargas são afetadas durante a prestação do serviço. Para tanto, é apresentada uma análise crítica qualitativa que estabelece a forma como essas atividades são influenciadas pelos gaps do modelo de qualidade proposto e como as mesmas influenciam o custo operacional. Tal análise é resultado de duas pesquisas realizadas. A primeira pesquisa foi de profundidade numa empresa que atua no segmento. Foram obtidos alguns indicadores de desempenhos que são vitais para que as atividades sejam executadas de acordo com as conformidades previstas. A segunda pesquisa, via questionário, possibilitou identificar as principais expectativas dos clientes. Mesmo com o índice reduzido de respostas do questionário, foram levantados pontos que são extremamente fundamentais para a formação das expectativas dos clientes. Entre esses pontos destacam-se o tempo de atendimento, o treinamento dos funcionários e o cumprimento dos horários preestabelecidos. Dos processos que caracterizam o transporte de cargas, deve-se destacar o processo de entrega que além dos problemas provenientes da operação propriamente dita, sofre ainda a interferência, em algumas atividades, da participação direta do cliente e dos fatores externos da operação (ambiente não controlado). / Some interurban and interstate passenger highway transport enterprises, aiming to increase their income, have currently performed the transport of some types of freight and packages taking advantage of the bus trunk space always available for such type of transportation. However, some operational featured deficiencies are noticed, jeopardizing the quality as well as the cost of the mentioned service. The present research aims at the analysis of the freight transportation performed by bus from a quality and cost standpoint. Starting from the adjustment of the Parasuraman classic model, as well as the adoption of costs drivers, and acording to activity-based costing methodology, it shows how the main activities which constitute the processes of road freight transportation may be affected during the performances of the services. A critical qualitative analysis in also presented in order to establish how such activities are influenced by the gaps of the proposed quality models and how they also may directly influence the operational cost. Such analysis is an outcome of two researches already developed. The first was performed at transport enterprise. From this research some performance indicators, which are vital for the activities to be accomplished according to the proposed agreements, have been obtained. The second research, performed with the aid of a questionnaire, allowed identifying the client\'s main expectations. Even with the low index from the questionnaire responses, important factors be observed for the formation of the clients\' expectations. Among them, the attendance time, the employees\' trainning and the accomplishment of the proposed timetable must be stressed. From the processes concerning the freight transportation, the delivery process must also be mentioned as it shows operation problems and may be also influenced by the straight participation of the client and external factors (non-controlled environments).

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-25T16:44:16Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Tatiana Gasparotto Nogueira.pdf: 1770437 bytes, checksum: 37d0584fef1053b4120e4b6b089d1886 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-10-27 / The expansion and professionalization of private higher education has taken Brazilian colleges and universities to seek improved management practices and improved quality of their services to face the growing competition. Services literature brings out the importance of assessing the opinions of clients in order to establish an effective market strategy. Grönroos (2003) explains that clients do not seek products or services per se, but solutions aligned to their own value creation processes, and points out that achieving sustainable competitive advantage demands the development of each service encounter. In this dissertation, SERVQUAL was used to evaluate three complimentary services offered by a large private university in the Great Sao Paulo area in the perspective of its students. The applicability of the tools to this context was also evaluated. Results indicated a general degree of dissatisfaction with the evaluated services, and SERVQUAL was proved to work for such analysis but not recommended for the evaluation of several services simultaneously. Complementing the study, the perceptions of services by employees of two of the evaluated departments were measured in search of correlations with the opinion of the students. Such evaluation was not conclusive since the comparisons between departments presented opposite results / A expansão do ensino superior privado e sua profissionalização têm levado as instituições de ensino superior brasileiras a investir em melhores práticas de gestão e a buscar a qualidade de seus serviços para fazer frente à crescente competição no setor. A literatura em serviços aponta a qualidade como uma das chaves para o sucesso no mercado e ressalta que para se estabelecer uma estratégia efetiva de serviços é necessário conhecer as opiniões dos clientes. Gronroos (2003) explica que os clientes não buscam bens e serviços per se, eles procuram soluções que atendam seus próprios processos de geração de valor, e explica que o que cria vantagem competitiva sustentável é o desenvolvimento de cada etapa do relacionamento com o cliente, incluindo todos os tipos de serviços envolvidos na compra. Neste trabalho, através da aplicação da escala SERVQUAL, avaliou-se a qualidade dos serviços prestados por três setores de apoio de uma grande instituição de ensino superior da grande São Paulo. Avaliou-se também a utilidade da aplicação da ferramenta SERVQUAL nesse tipo de contexto de análises múltiplas. Verificou-se a insatisfação geral dos alunos com os serviços avaliados para os quais foram feitas sugestões de correção. Concluiu-se também que a referida ferramenta é adequada para a avaliação desse tipo de serviço, porém não é recomendada sua utilização em avaliações simultâneas de serviços que possuam características distintas. Complementando este estudo, avaliaram-se ainda as percepções dos funcionários prestadores de serviços de dois dos setores estudados com o objetivo de buscar correlações com as percepções dos alunos. Tal avaliação não foi conclusiva, dado que os departamentos apresentaram resultados divergentes.

Tyrimo objektas – socialinių paslaugų kokybė. Tyrimo dalykas - socialinių paslaugų kokybės vertinimas. Tyrimo tikslas – parengti socialinių paslaugų kokybės vertinimo modelį ir išbandyti jį vertinant socialinių paslaugų namuose kokybę Mažeikių rajone. Uždaviniai: 1. Išanalizuoti socialinių paslaugų kokybės sampratą, klasifikavimą bei socialinių paslaugų rūšis. 2. Nustatyti socialinių paslaugų kokybės vertinimo kriterijus. 3. Parengti socialinių paslaugų kokybės vertinimo modelį. 4. Įvertinti socialinių paslaugų namuose kokybę Mažeikių rajone naudojant sukurtąjį modelį. Tyrimo laikotarpis: 2000 m. – 2007 m. Tyrimo metodai: mokslinės literatūros, monografijos, dokumentų analizė ir sintezė, interviu, anketinė apklausa, indukcija bei dedukcija, loginio mąstymo bei grafinio vaizdavimo metodai. / The subject of research - quality of social services The object of research - evaluation of social services quality. The purpose of work – to formulate a model of social services quality evaluation and test it evaluating social services at home quality in Mažeikiai district. Tasks: 1. To analyze conception of social services quality, classification and type of social services. 2. To define criterions of social services quality evaluation. 3. To formulate a model of social services quality evaluation. 4. To evaluate social services at home quality in Mažeikiai district using made-up model. Time of exploration: 2000 – 2007 year. The methods of research: analysis and synthesis of monographs, scientific literature and documents, interview, questionnaire poll, induction, deduction, logical thinking and graphical representation methods.

Integrated model for evaluation of consulting services quality have been created having analysed scientific literature. This model was tested practically by evaluating the quality of seminars.

CAPES / Os Sistemas Produto-Serviço (PSS) têm como finalidade satisfazer as necessidades dos clientes por meio de um serviço que integra produtos, redes de apoio e infraestrutura. Embora o PSS seja estudado por autores em nível mundial, existem muito poucos métodos para o projeto de PSS a partir da qualidade percebida pelo cliente. O propósito do presente trabalho é sugerir uma ferramenta que incorpore a voz do cliente nas etapas iniciais do desenvolvimento de Sistemas Produto-Serviço, visando criar um modelo de referência e propor as oportunidades de pesquisa futuras. Para atender o objetivo geral, é apresentada a fundamentação teórica baseada numa recompilação da literatura, passando pela definição de PSS, os diferentes tipos de PSS, as vantagens e barreiras na sua aplicação, diferentes modelos para o projeto de PSS e as ferramentas de apoio que incorporam a voz do cliente no Processo de Desenvolvimento de Produtos (PDP) e que, possivelmente, poderiam auxiliar o processo de projeto de PSS. A ferramenta que melhor abordou os requisitos do projeto de PSS é o desdobramento da função qualidade (QFD). O QFD é uma ferramenta efetiva para traduzir a voz do cliente em parâmetros de engenharia, capaz de introduzir o tema da qualidade no desenvolvimento de PSS. A proposta da presente dissertação parte dos trabalhos existentes da aplicação de QFD no projeto de PSS; são melhorados os trabalhos até agora desenvolvidos e exemplificadas por meio da aplicação do modelo numa lavanderia. O modelo para apoiar o desenvolvimento de PSS tem duas barreiras principais, que estão associadas com a avaliação qualitativa da matriz de relacionamento e com a possível complexidade em trabalhar grandes quantidades de requisitos e características de qualidade. / Product-Service Systems (PSS) are designed to satisfy customers’ needs through a service that includes: products, support networks and infrastructure. Although many authors around the world have studied PSS, there are very few methods for service design based on the customers’ quality perception. The purpose of this work is to provide a tool that incorporates the customers’ voice at the early stages of the development of Product-Service Systems and, with this, to provide a reference model and propose future research opportunities. To meet the main objective, literature review was conducted, including the definition of PSS, the different types of PSS, the benefits and barriers of its implementation, different models for designing PSS and the support tools that incorporate the customer´s voice in the Product Development Process (PDP) and that could possibly assist the designing process of PSS. The tool that best addressed the requirements of the PSS design was the Quality Function Deployment (QFD). QFD is an effective tool for translating the customers’ voice into engineering parameters, as it is able to introduce the quality topic into the development of PSS. The starting point of the present work was to improve existing studies of QFD utilization in PSS development. Then the model is application is illustrated with a laundry business case. The model that supports PSS development has two main barriers, which are associated with the relationship matrix qualitative evaluation and with the possible complexity in working with large amounts of quality characteristics.

The paper examines the quality of domiciliary services as seen by their recipients - senior citizens. The paper consists of two parts. The first one defines the main notions {--} old age and ageing, demographic changes in society, social services goals, domiciliary services, importace of ethical norms for social workers and people in direct contact with elderly people, vulnerability of people doing some auxiliary jobs and mobilizing activities for senior citizens. The second part consists of the research carried out among the recepients of domiciliary services, its analysis, data evaluation and comparison of senior citizen´s and their home nurses´ view.

The quality of social services can be guaranteed by inspection according to predefined, measurable criteria. In the social sphere these comprise quality standards of social services. Quality standards are defined as a set of criteria through which the level of quality of provision of social services in the sphere of personnel and operational provision of social services and in the sphere of relations between the provider and the clients is defined. The aim of the work was to find out what problems are encountered by residential facilities in the Plzeň Region when they are introducing quality standards of social services. A partial aim of the work was to outline possible options as to how to optimise the given state. Data was obtained through a qualitative survey. The interviewing method, semi-guided interview technique and content analysis of documents were selected in order to achieve the goals of the work. The survey took place in selected residential social-care facilities in the Plzeň Region. The conducted survey implied that standard No. 2 Protection of personal rights and standard No. 5 Individual planning are considered by the facilities as more complex in terms of implementation yet very beneficial in practice. Also, the formulation and definition of standards, especially in the case of standard No. 1 Goals and methods of provision of social services created difficulties. Other problems that are encountered by the facilities include motivation, time demands and administrative load of the staff. Proposed solutions for the optimisation of the current situation are directed into the area of awareness, use of information technologies, and improvement of the lifelong education system. The following hypothesis was formulated based on the qualitative survey: the qualifications of social workers and social service workers achieved influence the introduction of quality standards. The diploma thesis may become an inspiration and a source of information for facilities that are adjusting the existing proposals or are dealing with the initial introduction of quality standards of social services. In particular, the above suggestions for optimisation, a more detailed elaboration of which could become the subject of another work in the social sphere, can be of major benefit.

A forma de operação descentralizada de serviços possui peculariedades próprias de operação. Estas características, especialmente no que se refere à forma de relacionamento entre alguns elementos da organização, como a organização do trabalho, estrutura, tecnologia e estratégia, ainda são poucos discutidas pela literatura. Com relação especificamente à organização de trabalho, a literatura explora bastante a questão da autonomia na industria, principalmente em estudos relacionados a atuação de funcionários de chão de fabrica, porém é carente em estudos relativos a funcionários de nível gerencial e em organização de serviços. A análise da atuação de funcionários de linha de frente é crítica para o sucesso e a qualidade de uma operação de serviços. Neste trabalho, são estudadas a organização de trabalho, as estruturas organizacionais possíveis de escolha para a empresa analisada e de que maneira a atuação do gerente é fator determinante na percepção de qualidade final sentida pelo cliente. A pesquisa é desenvolvida em forma de estudo de caso em uma empresa especializada em administração predial. Constatou-se que há benefícios em se proporcionar autonomia ao funcionário de linha de frente, sendo esta uma escolha estratégica da empresa estudada. A escolha da estrutura organizacional mais apropriada para a empresa neste tipo de atuação é ainda um ponto que deve continuar a ser motivo de atenção e estudo, sendo que os principais problemas de implementação de um novo modelo organizacional nessa empresa residem nos aspectos relativos a tecnologia e organização do trabalho. / The decentralized operation of services has its own particular characteristics. Such characteristics have received little attention in literature, especially regarding the way in which some organizational elements relate to each other: work organization, structure, technology and strategy. It is clear that, regarding work organization, literature has focused on the issue of autonomy in the industrial sector - specifically, past and recent studies have addressed the role factory employees play in industry. However, there still is a lack of discussion of autonomy related to the perform of both the managerial level of employees and services organization employees. For a corporation to guarantee a successful and high quality delivery of its services, it must thoroughly, analyze and understand the behavior of its front-office employees This study investigates work organization, the autonomy of the managerial level employee, the possible organization structures available and the ways in which the manager\'s behavior can be significant when it comes to the client\'s final perception of quality. This research adopts a case-study of a company whose core business is building management. It was verified that there are many beneficial outcomes for the company that invests in the autonomy of its front-office employees - which in fact is the studied company\'s strategic position. Nevertheless, the choice of the appropriate organizational structure should be the subject matter of further studies. The main implementation problem of the new organizational model in the case-study lies in the technology, the structure and the work organization particular to the case.

Esta tese de doutorado tem como objetivo principal, a proposta de um sistema onde é possível avaliar abordagens diferentes para composição automática de Web services, baseando-se em parâmetros de QoS que dependem da execução para serem medidos. O objetivo foi atingido por meio da implementação de um sistema denominado AWSCS (Automatic Web Service Composition System). O AWSCS é um sistema onde é possível implementar abordagens diferentes para composição automática de Web services e também executar os fluxos resultantes dessas abordagens. Com o objetivo de demonstrar os resultados desta tese de doutorado, foram elaborados cenários, onde fluxos empíricos foram construídos para fazer a demonstração do funcionamento do AWSCS, uma vez que algoritmos para composição automática não foram encontrados para download na literatura. Com os resultados foi possível fazer um estudo do comportamento da execução de fluxos de Web services compostos, quando fluxos com mesma funcionalidade, mas estratégias de solução do problema diferentes foram comparados. Além disso, foi possível observar a influência das cargas aplicadas no sistema em execução, uma vez que o tipo de carga submetida ao sistema é um fator importante para se definir qual abordagem para composição de Web services pode levar ao melhor desempenho, de acordo com o ambiente e tipos de cargas que ele vai receber, quando em produção. / This PhD thesis has as main goal the propose of a system where it is possible to evaluate different approaches for automatic composition ofWeb services, based on QoS parameters that depend on the execution to be measured. The goal was reached by means of the implementation of a system named AWSCS (Automatic Web Service Composition System). The AWSCS is a system where it is possible to implement different approaches for automatic composition of Web services and also to execute the resulting flows from these approaches. Aiming at demonstrating the results of this PhD thesis different scenarios were developed, where empirical flows were built to demonstrate the operation of AWSCS, once algorithms for automatic composition were not found to download in the literature,. With the results it was possible to study the behavior of running composite Web services, when flows with the same functionality but different problem-solving strategies were compared. Furthermore it was possible to observe the influence of the load applied on the running system once the type of load submitted to the system is an important factor to define which approach for the Web service composition can take to the best performance according to the environment and types of load it will receive when in production.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters in Management Sciences: Marketing, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. . / The increasing interest in people’s wellbeing has seen the growth of health and fitness centres (HFC) all across South Africa. It has been a decade since Virgin Active and Planet Fitness expanded their business into townships, with this endeavour resulting in the opening of HFC in Khayelitsha and Soweto. The motivation behind this study is therefore to examine the effect of service quality on customer satisfaction in the HFC industry in Ntuzuma, Umlazi, Kwa-Mashu, Clermont, and Phoenix, all townships in the greater Durban Area. Thus, the main purpose of this research is to ascertain service quality at selected HFC in townships within the greater Durban area. Interest in service quality has grown over the last decade due to increasing competition, which has led managers to finding ways of improving profitability. One area of interest is service quality and how it affects customer satisfaction and its impact on the bottom line, which is why ascertaining service quality at selected HFC in the greater Durban area’s townships is significant. The study was descriptive, quantitative and cross-sectional in nature, probing the effect of service quality on clients’ customer satisfaction. From these findings the Health and Fitness Centres can identify more specifically the failures in its service quality and seek to improve upon them. Service quality dimensions that are deemed to be good predictors of service quality for members of the HFCs offering have been related to factors such as the “Tangibility”, Reliability”, “Responsiveness”, “Assurance” and “Empathy. It is hoped that the results obtained will aid to support these centres in adopting practical customer service quality measures that will assist them to succeed in the highly competitive health and fitness industry. / M