Evaluation and assessment of two simulation software for Service Engineering

The service industry is recognized as a central element of modern economies. Services represent an important topic both for practitioners and researchers: although they may contribute substantially to a company’s bottom line, they still lack a methodological support and a systematic study for the design phase. To make service provision profitable in the long term, it is of utmost relevance to balance the excellence in the value channel to the customer with a high efficiency and productivity of the service processes. In this respect, simulation can support companies during their service engineering process by providing a support in the identification of the best scenario, as well as a qualitative and quantitative assessment of the company’s decisions. Nonetheless, no specific service-oriented simulation software is available on the market. Therefore, this chapter aims at comparing two simulation software solutions originally oriented to the manufacturing area. Through a real-case example, we discuss a comparative analysis between two widespread commercial simulation software, evaluating which one is the most suitable to be used in the service contexts.