Despite the fact that the service sector plays an important role in contributing to the national economy of most advanced industrialized countries, its representation in ergonomics research and practice is underrated. The term “services” comprises – exemplified as technical services for industrial physical goods production along a product lifecycle – invention and customer demand oriented engineering, marketing and provision, production planning & control, enterprise resource management, logistics and warehousing, repair and maintenance, recycling and reuse. So contributions to the Track on Service Ergonomics and Human Factors Practice are invited, concerning:
     • analysis of service tasks and respective environments by adapted or specialized methods in terms of description, simulation and intervention
     • allocation of functions of and in services to units, system components in departments and companies and their consequences in terms of employment modes, labour conditions and design of workplaces
     • life cycle phases of service products in service engineering and practical service design combined with anticipative exploration and evaluation of stressors and strain for service personnel
     • quantity modelling of services with consequences for cooperation in service providing, personnel management and personnel measurement, workload and strain symptoms (e.g. burn-out)
     • quality modelling of services with impacts on competency and “confidence” aspects in the interrelation of providers and customers, especially in terms of HF of service quality management and “game theory” considerations
     • typologies of services especially respecting variables of necessary human inputs and properties (like qualifications and skills) of the service workforce
     • role-, functions-, actions-models in services with consequences for evaluation and design of cooperation, coordination, communication (C3-processes) as focuses of service management and teamwork
     • special support of services by information technologies, like Workflow Systems, Advanced Planning Systems, CASE-Computer Aided Service Engineering, Teleservice etc. and change management of labour partition by technological innovations
     • promotion of “service engineering” as discipline with the objects “service design” as company unit, with a specific human resource management over the service product lifecycle, with a professionalized view on the different phases of service demands analysis, service invention and design, service planning, implementation, service test and control etc. This disciplinary development should especially include “human factors” as essential component of service engineering.
     • comparative analysis of “service engineering concepts” like prototyping, reverse engineering, normative phase and cascade modelling, spiral and feedback/feed forward modelling in terms of the HF/ergonomics role in the development process

Email Holger Luczak, h.luczak@fir.rwth-aachen.de if you have proposals for discussion.