ROADS: METHODOLOGY FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF REMOTE UNITS IN SERVICE-BASED OPERATIONS
Operations Management; Remote Work; Services Standardization; Operational Efficiency
Historical trends from all over the world - including Brazil - have shown the increase in the importance of service provision, not only regarding the wealth generated but also the amount of generated jobs. Besides the natural urbanization tendency of the economy -pushed up by agriculture and industrial production throughout the previous centuries-, a current trend of the market is the "offer of experiences" increasing the number of companies providing services to their customer and the importance of services on the global economy. Additionally, the globalization of companies and the work regime becoming remote in many companies -which was hugely accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic- increased the need to improve the management of units, departments, or teams that operate from a different address than the main company's branch. Considering that scenery, the current project aimed to research possible solutions for the needs pointed out previously, besides testing and developing a management methodology for companies that operate through remote units and provide services. This analysis and development of the method were made by action research and a qualitative approach, including the study of different management tools that focus on the analyzed management perspectives -strategy, processes, quality, people, and control. The tests happened in a real environment -a Marketing-tech startup- and the company's team's notes complemented the author's observations. At the end of the research, tests, analysis, and development iterations, the ROADS methodology was compiled composed of both the studied tools that fitted the analyzed cases, and the specific tools developed specifically for it, considering not only the individual use of those tools but each one's group of inputs and outputs during their utilization. It's expected that the tested and developed methodology will help service providers with remote units to achieve more efficient and effective management, just like observed during the tests, besides being new support for decisions making for those cases.