Establishing Smart Service Systems is a Challenge: A Case Study on Pitfalls and Implications

Abstract

The trend for 'servitization' reflects manufacturers' increasing efforts to offer services along with their physical goods. Organizations establish smart service systems with digitally networked products-e.g., cars, industrial machinery, or home appliances-as boundary objects that connect the organization with customers, offering them digital channels for communication and interaction. While anecdotal evidence indicates that many manufacturers fail to establish profitable services, few studies have traced the underlying causes for failure. We perform a revelatory case study at a global white-goods manufacturer to identify pitfalls and derive guidelines for establishing smart service systems. Based on interpreting qualitative data from interviews and additional organizational resources, we analyze how and why the manufacturer's efforts to establish pay-per-use services based on a smart laundry machine failed. While we provide insights that can guide management in establishing smart service systems, our findings also motivate updating concepts and methods currently discussed in service science.

Innovating Smart Product-Service Systems in Manufacturing SMEs: Current Practices, Affordances, and Constraints

“…Other works study the pitfalls of smart service systems and reveal that the methods available are "too complex, fragmented and timeconsuming" [27, p. 115] and hence are "over-engineered [and] overwhelmingly cumbersome to use" [28, p. 378]. To address this increasing complexity, an updated methodological approach for sPSS innovation is required [27], and future research on sPSS should focus on easy-to-use toolboxes of "loosely coupled means" [29, p. 14].…”

9th International Conference on Business Servitization

“…From a methodological perspective, scientific research has examined the servitization journey of manufacturing firms mainly by conducting case studies (Baines et al, 2020;Kowalkowski, Kindström, Alejandro, Brege & Biggemann, 2012; and interview studies (Lütjen, Tietze & Schultz, 2017;Martinez, Neely, Velu, Leinster-Evans & Bisessar, 2017). In this regard, a broad in-depth understanding of service innovation in manufacturing firms Schüritz, Seebacher, Satzger & Schwarz, 2017), knowledge of advantages and disadvantages of product-service systems (Benedettini, Neely & Swink, 2015;Wolf, Franke, Bartelheimer & Beverungen, 2020), and a consideration of different phases of the servitization journey (Baines et al, 2020;Martinez et al, 2017) exists.…”

Using Work System Theory, Facets of Work, and Dimensions of Smartness to Characterize Applications and Impacts of Artificial Intelligence

“…That approach to AI has led to important breakthroughs and efficiencies in many situations, but is nothing like science fiction dreams of "strong AI" exhibited by humanoid robots that can reason and interact at a human or superhuman level [7]. This paper describes current AI capabilities using a set of dimensions of smartness in devices and systems that diverges from views of smartness in most current papers related to smartness involving things, devices, systems, cities, and so on (e.g., [8,9,10,11,12,13,14]). This paper's classification matrix for smart capabilities is organized around four categories: information processing, internal regulation, action in the world, and knowledge acquisition [8].…”