Modularity Canvas – A Framework for Visualizing Potentials of Service Modularity

Service modularity has been proposed as a possible solution to the dilemma between the customer-driven thirst for individualization and the standardization ambitions of service providers. However, current modularization methods that intend to support the corresponding transformation process remain mostly on a conceptual level with little real-life application. Therefore, we develop the Modularity Canvas – a generic framework for the structured information capturing and identification of potentials for advancing towards a modular service architecture. The artifact is developed following the Design Science Research Methodology. The results include the artifact itself and first insights from five demonstration workshops at industrial service providers from contract logistics, wind energy and automotive engineering sectors. The contribution of the paper lies in the deeper understanding of what dimensions need to be considered when preparing service providers for their move towards a modular service architecture

Analyzing and Evaluating today’s Power of Open Source: The Open Source Value Canvas

The drastically progressing digitalization of society and economy shines a new light on the open-source paradigm. Previously, open-source was merely a developer paradigm to share code openly and make it available to others. However, given the need for innovation and optimization, companies can leverage open-source components to use out of the box, build services on top, or replace commodifiable services. Subsequently, there is great potential to create new value in companies using open-source components. To assist companies and researchers in achieving this, the paper presents the Open Source Value Canvas for companies’ collaborative and interdisciplinary identification of open-source value. It particularly aims at analyzing and aligning the open-source potentials from the business and IT perspectives. We draw on rich insights from an ongoing research project providing tailored open-source components for the European logistics sector

'License to VIT’ - A Design Taxonomy for Visual Inquiry Tools

Visual Inquiry Tools are valuable assets to work conjointly on an ill-structured or wicked problem and solve it creatively. With visual inquiry tools, designers can sketch the problem-space of an artifact-to-be-designed and generate solutions in a priori defined ontological elements. While there exists guidance in how visual inquiry tools should be designed content-wise, there is a lack of clarification on the design options available to design them. Subsequently, the paper proposes a taxonomy of visual inquiry tools outlining options for their design. We do this by incorporating a sample of 24 visual inquiry tools developed in the scientific literature corpus as well as 15 through empirical example

The exploration of experiential aspects of fiber casting machinery in the sales process

Modularity is an area of research with lots of applications that is slowly being used in services of different companies ranging from product to sales process. The use of service design methodologies is needed to implement the modular concepts in a product or service. This can be quite challenging without proper methodology and knowledge in how to research to achieve the desired result. This study explores how experiential elements of fiber casting modular technology can be used to improve and demonstrate modular concepts in the case company’s sales process. The exploration of experiential elements is important as they can increase the user experience of the product and sales process, which can lead to more sales and a more personalized sales experience. Modular concepts are investigated and followed to understand how to best describe them in the sales process. This thesis begins by analyzing the modularity concepts, competition in the fiber casting product area and service design methods. Then it proceeds to talk about the state-of-art literature that exists in service modularity fol-lowed by the methods used. Interviews with four sales professionals were carried out to better investigate the experiential aspects of the sales pro-cess. As an outcome of this study and interviews, a prototype tool was developed that presents the experiential element of the fiber casting modular technol-ogy and presents modular concepts in a simple way. This tool will be used to identify the needs of customers early in the sales process of the case company’s modular products. The findings suggest that experiential aspects such as visual sales material have a positive impact and can be beneficial for the sales process in terms of identifying the needs of the customers much quicker and more effective-ly. Additionally, they suggest the further use of modularity concepts in the sales process as those were presented in the literature review

ASSESSING PRODUCT CONFIGURATOR CAPABILITIES FOR SUCCESSFUL MASS CUSTOMIZATION

Mass customization is becoming a competitive strategy for companies offering individualized products. Product configurators provide a platform for companies to do interactive product configuration which is essential for mass customization. Companies need to realize the degree of customization appreciated by the customers and the extent of customization that can be offered competitively. This research is an effort to develop an approach to ascertain the product configurator requirements to achieve mass customization. The frameworks developed for this research are validated with a case study

Understanding service modularity - antecedents, processes, and operationalization

The concept of service modularity has emerged as a promising solution to achieve a sound balance between growing customer requirements for individualization and a companya s necessity to standardize services for cost efficiency reasons. Although service modularity has been on the academic agenda for some time, not many examples of modularized service portfolios can be identified. Therefore, this dissertation aims to examine service modularity in the context of professional services by connecting the decisions made before, during, and after service modularization with a specific focus on the effect on the sales process. The enhanced understanding of the concept is expected to uncover new research gaps in service modularity, as well as promote its application in the context of professional services. Apart from its theoretical contribution, this dissertation will provide practitioners with an improved understanding with respect to what it means to offer a modular service portfolio, what needs to be done for the transformation, as well as what to expect from its completion

Geppetto: a reusable modular open platform for exploring neuroscience data and models

Geppetto is an open-source platform that provides generic middleware infrastructure for building both online and desktop tools for visualizing neuroscience models and data and managing simulations. Geppetto underpins a number of neuroscience applications, including Open Source Brain (OSB), Virtual Fly Brain (VFB), NEURON-UI and NetPyNE-UI. OSB is used by researchers to create and visualize computational neuroscience models described in NeuroML and simulate them through the browser. VFB is the reference hub for Drosophila melanogaster neural anatomy and imaging data including neuropil, segmented neurons, microscopy stacks and gene expression pattern data. Geppetto is also being used to build a new user interface for NEURON, a widely used neuronal simulation environment, and for NetPyNE, a Python package for network modelling using NEURON. Geppetto defines domain agnostic abstractions used by all these applications to represent their models and data and offers a set of modules and components to integrate, visualize and control simulations in a highly accessible way. The platform comprises a backend which can connect to external data sources, model repositories and simulators together with a highly customizable frontend.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Connectome to behaviour: modelling C. elegans at cellular resolution'

Social Space and Social Media: Analyzing Urban Space with Big Data

This dissertation focuses on the key role that big data can play in minimizing the perceived disconnect between social theory and quantitative methods in the discipline of geography. It takes as its starting point the geographic concept of space, which is conceptualized very differently in social theory versus quantitative methodology. Contrary to this disparity, an examination of the disciplinary history reveals a number of historic precedents and potential pathways for a rapprochement, especially when combined with some of the new possibilities of big data. This dissertation also proposes solutions to two common barriers to the adoption of big data in the social sciences: accessing and collecting such data and, subsequently, meaningful analysis. These methods and the theoretical foundation are combined in three case studies that show the successful integration of a quantitative research methodology with social theories on space. The case studies demonstrate how such an approach can create new and alternative understandings of urban space. In doing so it answers three specific research questions: (1) How can big data facilitate the integration of social theory on space with quantitative research methodology? (2) What are the practical challenges and solutions to moving “beyond the geotag” when utilizing big data in geographical research? (3) How can the quantitative analysis of big data provide new and useful insight in the complex character of social space? More specifically, what insights does such an analysis of relational social space provide about urban mobility and cognitive neighborhoods