What does this change in practice?

Without it, "preventive maintenance" means six different things in six contracts. The consequence shows up when comparing quotes, measuring what was delivered and disputing invoices — and none of those is fixable afterwards, once the service has been performed.

Is this the same as material description standardization?

The practice is the same; the object changes. Materials have dimensions, standards and finishes; services have scope, unit of measurement and frequency.

Do recurring and one-off services use the same standard?

The structure is the same, and frequency is one of the characteristics. It is what separates "monthly maintenance" from "repair on demand".

Glossário · SDS

Service Description Standardization

Service description standardization is the practice of describing every contracted service the same way: same verb, same unit of measurement, same set of characteristics. A service has no physical dimension, so what gets standardized is scope — what is included, how delivery is measured, and what characterizes execution.

See the glossary Material Description Standardization

In practice

What this changes in your master data

The unit of measurement is the critical point

Per hour, per point, per metre, per ticket. A service without a declared unit is a service you can neither compare nor audit.

Scope is a characteristic, not a paragraph

What is included and what is not become fields. In prose, each reader understands it differently.

It precedes contracting

Standardizing after the contract is signed does not change what was contracted. The description is what the quote answers.

Questions

Frequently asked questions about this term

Keep going

Related terms

Material Description Standardization · Material taxonomy · Master data

See service description standardization

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