Sustainable Value Proposition Design in a Product-Service System

Many companies have started to add services to their tangible products in order to defend themselves from increased competition from low-cost economies. Research regarding the transition towards product-service systems (PSS) and how the PSS providers' business models are affected exists, but there is a lack of research regarding how the suppliers to the PSS providers are affected by the transition towards PSS. Therefore, this thesis studies the situation for a supplier/partner to an OEM that has changed their business model to a PSS providing one. As the first step in a development of a new business model aims this thesis to provide guidelines for how to set up value propositions suitable for a supplier/partner in this new environment. When technologically complex products, such as aircraft engines, are provided through PSS offerings it is hard to translate customer needs into quality parameters, which makes it hard to sustain the value to customer over time. Therefore, how to keep the value offering sustainable over time is also investigated in this thesis. The aim of this study was to investigate how a sustainable value proposition can be designed for a product and technology supplier/partner to an OEM that offers PSS solutions. The research has been performed through studying relevant literature and collecting empirical data from a case company through semi-structured interviews and a workshop. The case company in this research is Volvo Aero Corporation (VAC). The empirical findings show that VAC wants to offer product-service bundled solution, which fit the whole spectra of PSS value propositions, to their partners/customers. To be able to deliver these different types of product-service bundled solutions different value propositions that suit the different kinds of PSS offerings are needed. Requirements that must be fulfilled to be able to offer and deliver the different types of value propositions exist in terms of securing sufficient information access, aligning the incentives of all actors involved and achieving an internal consensus of what is delivered

Information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom: Emerging trends and implications

This article examines the modal choices, key activities and motivations of non-dominant information technology and electronics firms from Taiwan Province of China in the United Kingdom, against the backdrop of recent trends in the global economy. Its main findings include the limited prospects of the sample firms' evolution into manufacturing activity in the United Kingdom and the increasing importance of inter-firm logistics collaboration. Among the key policy implications discussed in the article are: the need for appropriate measures to support the United Kingdom's positioning as a gateway to, and a preferred base for intelligence gathering on, other European markets; the need for "high-wage" advanced economies to capitalize upon their not-easily-replicable location-specific advantages (e.g. reputable research-anddevelopment clusters; substantial domestic market) in targeting foreign direct investment in the research and development, design and sales-related areas; and the importance of a more balanced investment attraction strategy that actively targets major global players (and their capacity to attract secondary inward investment) without compromising support for indigenous growth companies. Future research should pay greater attention to the intra-regional, rather than intra-country, context of firms' evolution in international markets

An Ontology for Product-Service Systems

Industries are transforming their business strategy from a product-centric to a more service-centric nature by bundling products and services into integrated solutions to enhance the relationship between their customers. Since Product- Service Systems design research is currently at a rudimentary stage, the development of a robust ontology for this area would be helpful. The advantages of a standardized ontology are that it could help researchers and practitioners to communicate their views without ambiguity and thus encourage the conception and implementation of useful methods and tools. In this paper, an initial structure of a PSS ontology from the design perspective is proposed and evaluated

Strategic Outsourcing through Specifications

Outsourcing is one of the top priorities on the strategic agenda of Original Equipment Manufacturers [OEMs] in many industries. The decision of outsourcing an activity as opposed to doing it in-house and the development of a part or parts system is one of the most complex decisions facing today's industrial managers. Several models have been developed in order to aid in this process. The present paper analyses some of these models, and proposes an extension based on the role that specifications might play in outsourcing decisions. Based on how the specification is generated and on the nature of the data it contains, it can be of significant help in outsourcing decisions. The research reported in the paper is based on a longitudinal study of one automotive OEM [global family], one truck OEM and four medium sized expert supplier, all located in Europe. A procurement matrix is developed in which guidance for outsourcing decisions is provided in terms of specification generator, type of supplier, and contract relationship.Outsourcing; Specifications; collaboration; automotive industry

The impact of trust and power on knowledge sharing in design projects: some empirical evidence from the aerospace industry

It is acknowledged by aerospace engineers that relationships between partners are influenced by topics such as trust and that they enable or inhibit knowledge flow. This paper presents findings from interviews with engineers in the aerospace industry on how trust and power within supply chain teams impact knowledge sharing and integration. From a trust perspective, the results of the paper indicate that individually, engineers are aware of its importance but that there is little organisational awareness and consequently no framework or support exists for managing it. With regards to power, we show that there are positive as well as negative impacts on knowledge sharing to be considered

Egyptian pyramid or Aztec pyramid: How should we describe the industrial architecture of automotive supply chains in Europe?

This article questions a terminology that is frequently used to describe automotive supply chains’ industrial architecture. Since vertical disintegration became a trend in the 1980s, this architecture has been represented using the image of the pyramid. Implicitly, authors have had the image of an Egyptian pyramid in mind, one that is pointed at the top and broad at the base. We will demonstrate that even if pyramids are an appropriate image, in the auto industry the Aztec variant, with its shortened peak and room for SMEs, is more accurate. The paper’s first section – with its more historical focus – explains the birth of the Egyptian pyramid. The section 2 puts forward the idea that the Egyptian metaphor is more misleading than informative. We start by demonstrating that overusing this metaphor will ultimately exclude a number of very strategic companies from analysis. This is followed by a presentation of the findings from a study of 750 French SMEs*, in which it is demonstrated both that some continue to maintain direct access to carmakers and also that the hierarchy of tiers comprising this supply chain features greater porosity than is commonly recognized.modularity, supply chain, industrial architecture, SME, automobile.

Integrating business-to-business customers in original equipment manufacturers’ supply chains through information systems integration

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are increasingly being urged to integrate their business-to-business customers into their supply chain. This involves integrating the information systems of the OEM’s supply chain with those of the customers. However, the literature has little to say about what it takes to integrate the information systems of OEMs’ supply chain and business customers. This paper develops a framework that identifies different levels of integration of business customers’ information systems with those of the OEM’s supply chain. It then discusses how this integration affects market performance and strategic gains that accrue to the chain. However, if such systems are integrated without appropriate conditions within and outside the OEM’s supply chain, it may not be possible to actualise the potential of such integration. Therefore, we also identify and examine how a variety of contextual factors moderate the effectiveness of customers’ systems integration in a supply chain.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Co-production of the car as a ‘service': involving customers in the value chain

This article is dealing with a possible scenario for the future of the automobile thanks to the shift from an artefact vision to a services vision by which the customer might be involved as a true partner in the design of cars. This paper is therefore quite speculative but is challenging the supposedly stabilised relationship between the OEMs and their ultimate clients.Automobile ; Customers ; Co-makership ; Service ; Value chain

PLM adoption in SMEs context

The increasing market needs and technologies evolution, push companies to develop competitive advantages based on adequate and intensive use of information technology and communication (ICT). However, SMEs do not realize the importance of ICT adoption, which becomes vital for the development, and are not always well equipped to adopt and integrate them to their activities. The paper focused on issues regarding the ICT adoption, especially PLM solutions by SMEs. By analyzing the PLM definitions and works done, we explored indicators that impact positively or negatively ICT and PLM adoption. This paper proposes a model, currently theoretical, with empirical validation proposal through a survey

A collaborative framework for feasibility analysis in automotive product development with global supply chain

In the competitive world, time to market, new technology and innovation are the measures of the performance of New Product Development (NPD). Companies tend to use a conventional approach to NPD by assigning representatives from their own support functions to review and recommend changes as projects evolve. In recent years, this approach has been questioned since it is a costly and time-consuming approach due to its iterative nature. Researchers argue that the time to market process and the cost of NPD can be reduced considerably by involving the support functions of the supply chain to a greater extent and also earlier in the NPD process. There is a potential industrial requirement for a collaborative framework that facilitates the linkage between Supply Chain Management (SCM) and New Product Development (NPD). This research project focuses on the early stages of the collaborative product development process in the extended enterprise. The research output includes the functional requirements of a framework and a developed prototype methodology with tools and technologies that are tested from case studies within industry. The research also introduces the development and analysis of the framework that allows the integration of the flow of product development related activities within original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and suppliers providing future business benefits. An industrial investigation of an OEM in the automotive industry within the research identified that there are different decision making points in product development and manufacturing. The proposed methodology and framework use key drives to predict and quantify its impact on four main criteria namely: feasibility, time, cost and capability that support or advise on key decision making of OEM’s product development and management process