Review of Services Science and possible application in rail maintenance

This is the final article in the Services Science and Innovation series and the intention is to do two main tasks. In Part 1 we highlight some of the key messages that are captured in the expanding discussion of the management of services which constitute the majority of most developed countries’ GDPs. In Part 2 we then test and apply some of those lessons to a practical and challenging situation in the rail maintenance sector. This draws on a collaborative two year research project and the continuing involvement of one of the authors as a participant observer in the sector. It is one of the main thrusts of this paper that the debate is often too polarised, offering rather artificially extreme views from a pure product or pure services standpoint.