Service Process Modeling through Simulation and Scenario Development for Insurance Analysis
Subject Areas : Business StrategyReza Shakerin 1 , Abbas Toloie Eshlaghy 2
1 - Department of Management,
Roudehen Branch, Islamic Azad University, Roudehen, Iran
2 - Department of Management, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Keywords: Scenario Development, Discrete- Event Simulation (DES), Modeling, Service Systems, Insurance,
Abstract :
Insurance companies are among the service organizations, which maintain close relationships with their clients by providing insurance services. Clients are the most important resource for service companies. And profitability of insurance companies undoubtedly hinges on clear analysis of client satisfaction and improved productivity of service providers. An important factor of client satisfaction with insurance services in insurance companies is short policy issuance lead time. Insurance companies have rarely paid enough attention to this problem; therefore, this paper aims to provide a strategy for improving policy issuance lead time by simulating the existing system and observing simulation results. After a software model was developed, the discrete-event simulation (DES) results were analyzed. Then model validation tests were conducted. After a valid simulated model was developed, it was decided to design system improvement scenarios. According to the results, policy issuance lead time decreased by changing each of these parameters: the number of operators issuing insurance policies, client referral time to a specialist, specialized test response time, and insurance representative referral time to a policy issuance center. As a result, the service process improved, and productivity increased. This indicates the effectiveness of the DES technique and expansion of operations research methods in the service industry.