Despite ambitious efforts in various fields of research over multiple decades, the goal of making academic research relevant to the practitioner remains elusive: theoretical and academic research interests do not seem to coincide with the interests of managerial practice. This challenge is more fundamental than knowledge transfer, it is one of diverging knowledge interests and means of knowledge production. In this article, we look at this fundamental challenge through the lens of design science, which is an approach aimed primarily at discovery and problem solving as opposed to accumulation of theoretical knowledge. We explore in particular the ways in which problem-solving research and theory-oriented academic research can complement one another. In operations management (OM) research, recognizing and building on this complementarity is especially crucial, because problem-solving-oriented research produces the very artifacts (e.g., technologies) that empirical OM research subsequently evaluates in an attempt to build explanatory theory. It is indeed the practitioner-not the academic scientist-who engages in basic research in OM. This idiosyncrasy prompts the question: how can we enhance the cross-fertilization between academic research and research practice to make novel theoretical insights and practical relevance complementary? This article proposes a design science approach to bridge practice to theory rather than theory to practice.

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This paper presents an overview of the eld of Intelligent Products. As Intelligent Products have many facets, this paper is mainly focused on the concept behind Intelligent Products, the technical foundations, and the achievable practical goals of Intelligent Products. A novel classication of Intelligent Products is introduced, which distinguishes between three orthogonal dimensions. Furthermore, the technical foundations in the areas of automatic identication and embedded processing, distributed information storage and processing, and agent-based systems are discussed, as well as the achievable practical goals in the contexts of manufacturing, supply chains, asset management, and product life cycle management.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the forms that combinations of digital manufacturing, logistics and equipment use are likely to take and how these novel combinations may affect the relationship among logistics service providers (LSPs), users and manufacturers of equipment. Design/methodology/approach – Brian Arthur’s theory of combinatorial technological evolution is applied to examine possible digital manufacturing-driven transformations. The F-18 Super Hornet is used as an illustrative example of a service supply chain for a complex product. Findings – The introduction of digital manufacturing will likely result in hybrid solutions, combining conventional logistics, digital manufacturing and user operations. Direct benefits can be identified in the forms of life cycle extension and the increased availability of parts in challenging locations. Furthermore, there are also opportunities for both equipment manufacturers and LSPs to adopt new roles, thereby supporting the efficient and sustainable use of digital manufacturing. Research limitations/implications – The phenomenon of digital manufacturing-driven transformations of service supply chains for complex product does not yet fully exist in the real world, and its study requires cross-disciplinary collaboration. Thus, the implication for research is to use a design science approach for early-stage explorative research on the form and function of novel combinations. Practical implications – Digital manufacturing as a general-purpose technology gives LSPs an opportunity to consolidate demand from initial users and incrementally deploy capacity closer to new users. Reengineering the products that a manufacture currently uses is needed to increase the utilization of digital manufacturing. Originality/value – The authors outline a typology of digital manufacturing-driven transformations and identify propositions to be explored in further research and practice.

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The concept of a digital twin has been used in some industries where an accurate digital model of the equipment can be used for predictive maintenance. The use of a digital twin for performance is critical, and for capital-intensive equipment such as jet engines it proved to be successful in terms of cost savings and reliability improvements. In this paper, we aim to study the expansion of the digital twin in including building life cycle management and explore the benefits and shortcomings of such implementation. In four rounds of experimentation, more than 25,000 sensor reading instances were collected, analyzed, and utilized to create and test a limited digital twin of an office building facade element. This is performed to point out the method of implementation, highlight the benefits gained from digital twin, and to uncover some of the technical shortcomings of the current Internet of Things systems for this purpose. INDEX TERMS Building information modeling, digital twin, life cycle management, Internet of Things, wireless sensor network.

The digitalization of intra‐ and inter‐organizational processes offers significant opportunity for research in the field of operations and supply chain management (OSCM). This essay summarizes the contributions of the special issue articles, highlighting their focus on additive manufacturing and the encapsulation of design and production information in a digital artifact. We conceptualize the digital artifact as containing the digital genes of the associated physical object. Digital encapsulation thus involves the integration of product design information with additional information on how that design is to be translated into a physical object, delivered to the customer, and used. Building on insights from the special issue articles, we identify three pathways by which digital encapsulation affects OSCM practice, as well as theory elaboration and extension. First, digital encapsulation allows each unique digitally encapsulated artifact to be acted on independently by OSCM systems. Second, digital encapsulation enables the redistribution of activities across organizational and geographic landscapes. Third, digital encapsulation facilitates interactivity of the digital artifact with external environment inputs. We conclude with a number of directions for future research.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to describe and evaluate the potential approaches to introduce rapid manufacturing (RM) in the spare parts supply chain. Design/methodology/approach -Alternative conceptual designs for deploying RM technology in the spare parts supply chain were proposed. The potential benefits are illustrated for the aircraft industry. The general feasibility was discussed based on literature. Findings -The potential supply chain benefits in terms of simultaneously improved service and reduced inventory makes the distributed deployment of RM very interesting for spare parts supply. However, considering the trade-offs affecting deployment it is proposed that most feasible is centralized deployment by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), or deployment close to the point of use by generalist service providers of RM.Research limitations/implications -The limited part range that is currently possible to produce using the technology means that a RM-based service supply chain is feasible only in very particular situations. Practical implications -OEMs should include the consideration of RM in their long-term service supply chain development. Originality/value -The paper identifies two distinct approaches for deploying RM in the spare parts supply chain.