More precisely, SSME has been defined as the application of science, management, and engineering disciplines to tasks that one organization beneficially performs for and with another.
[3] [4] For instance, large-scale service systems include major metropolitan hospitals, highway or high-rise construction projects, and large IT outsourcing operations in which one company takes over the daily operations of IT infrastructure for another.
In all these cases, systems are designed and constructed to provide and sustain service, yet because of their complexity and size, operations do not always go as planned or expected, and not all interactions or results can be anticipated or accurately predicted.
[5] SSME has been used to describe higher education as a service delivered by colleges and universities that are viewed as complex systems.
The journal publishes innovative and original papers on all topics related to service, including work that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries.