Enabling organizational changes for development of product-service system offers

The manufacturing industry is going through a transition from developing of products to the provision of product-service systems (PSS). Earlier research has identified different types of PSS offers, from product offers that include services as “add-on”, to the sale of services that include tangible goods as “add-on”. This paper addresses what consequences this has on manufacturing organizations undergoing PSS transition. The purpose of the paper is to clarify key success factors for organizational changes needed in the transition process of developing different types of PSS offers. The results are based on a case study of a manufacturer in the aerospace domain; the analysis approached organizational changes from organizational theory perspective. The study identified four key areas that need to be considered in the organizational transformation to PSS development: Business strategy and decision-making, Internal organizational structure, Team composition, and External networks and customer relationship. Based on the analysis of empirical data from these four areas, the paper discusses the successful organizational changes that are required in the transition towards PSS development

Social media engagement strategy : Investigation of marketing and R&D interfaces in manufacturing industry

Research shows that effective marketing and R&D interface is pivotal in a company's new product development performance and future competitiveness. The increased popularity of social media promised to enhance interaction, collaboration, and networking between the two functions. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the key activities, infrastructure requirements, and potential benefits of social media in the marketing and R&D interface. This study aims to advance the current understanding of social media engagement strategies, which facilitates improved marketing and R&D interfaces and ultimately NPD performance for manufacturing companies. Based on a multiple-case study in two manufacturing companies, this study first presents the role of social media in facilitating improved marketing and R&D interface within a B2B context. Second, it presents the adoption process of the social media engagement strategy for an evolving marketing and R&D interface. The adoption process is divided into three phases, namely coordination, cooperation, and coproduction, to provide detailed insights regarding full-scale social media engagement. Taken together, the study provides novel insights into industrial marketing management literature by exemplifying the role of social media and proposing a systematic social engagement strategy for improved marketing and R&D interface in the manufacturing industry.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

CAPTURING AND SHARING LESSONS LEARNED ACROSS BOUNDARIES: A VIDEO-BASED APPROACH

In light of emerging product development trends, such as Product-Service Systems, manufacturing organizations are obliged to collaborate across functional and organizational borders. Hence, companies are increasingly investigating how to leverage knowledge management practices to enhance their dynamic learning capabilities to achieve continuous process improvements. Many researchers assert that lessons learned practices are possible ways for organizational learning, which allows for continuous capturing and sharing of experiential knowledge across boundaries in order to learn both from mistakes and successes. However, many organizations fall short in capturing and sharing lessons from projects and applying them in new situations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a video-based approach and related guidelines for capturing and sharing lessons learned in a dynamic manner across functional and organizational boundaries. Based on laboratory experiments as well as validation activities conducted in collaboration with an aerospace manufacturer, this paper compares the video-based approach with a more traditional text-based approach of documenting lessons learned from projects. The paper describes the results of testing activities conducted with a video-based lessons learned prototype and the authors reflect on its implications for design practice management in the aerospace industry

Intra-firm and inter-firm challenges in servitization ecosystem: Experiences from five product-centric firms in different industries

AbstractThe purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in the servitization journey of product-centric firms from an ecosystem perspective, considering both intra-firm and inter-firm levels. Prior research addresses the challenges of servitization in many sectors from different perspectives. However, the majority of studies primarily focus on the provider of an offering. There is a lack of in-depth studies on analysing servitization challenges from the broader set of network actors including customers, suppliers, and sub-suppliers at the intra-firm and inter-firm levels. A multiple case study method was used to analyse five product-centric firms from different industries that were engaged in servitization. At intra- firm level, our analysis shows that 'coordination' is a major challenge for the provider, supplier, and sub-suppliers, and that 'uncertainty' and 'risk' is a major challenge for the provider, customer, and supplier. At inter-firm level, 'partnership management' found to be a most significant challenge for provider, customer, supplier, and sub-suppliers. The study contributes to the discussion of the relational view approach for servitization research

Development of a methodology for lessons learned practice : From post-project learning to continuous process-based learning

Product development involves a set of complex problem-solving activities. Their effectiveness depends on how well companies share learnings from one problem-solving experience to another. “Lessons learned (LL) practices” are common knowledge management efforts through which companies attempt to foster experience-based learning environments within them. However, many companies fall short in utilizing LL at an action level—which is, capturing and sharing lessons learned and applying them in new situations is still difficult. This thesis is largely based upon qualitative data collected in three case studies that had two main objectives. Firstly, to investigate the current state of LL practice in order to identify potential barriers in the light of emerging product development trends. Secondly, to identify ways to improve current practices from both capture and reuse perspectives.The case studies showed that effective LL practice requires a continuous approach with a standard format that should be applicable not only to capture lessons from design projects, but also from manufacturing, use, and maintenance phases, where much of the learning is still tacit in nature and difficult to articulate. From a reuse perspective, current project-specific lessons lack contextual knowledge related to learning—that is, the lessons’ background, root-causes, and applicability—thereby demanding a method to capture LL at a process-based level with a richer context. In total, the research work identifies 11 functional requirements for improving LL processes based on the outlined potential barriers in as-is practice.Based on the functional requirements analysis, a methodology has been developed for representing LL in a standardized format together with guidelines, using videos and storytelling as enabling media. This methodology includes a seven-step representation of LL, consisting of: (1) lessons learned statement, (2) working context, (3) task description, (4) “what went wrong” or “what went well”, (5) lessons learned, (6) lessons learned measures, and (7) applicability and delimitations. Preliminary validation activities revealed that the methodology facilitates the preparation and formulation of concise LL with richer context than traditional text-based formats. The methodology has proved to be beneficial in capturing lessons from skill-oriented activities in a narrative form, by visually displaying defects, problems or improvements in complex products and associated actions in production or maintenance phases, for instance. Thus, a video-based LL captures a single learning point with more specific details and actionable recommendations than traditional post-project text-based approaches, thereby enabling process-based learning. Moreover, the reuse of video-based LL was found to facilitate the execution of new design tasks by increasing users’ contextual awareness, thus enabling them to select possible solutions and apply them in new design situations relatively quickly. The methodology has potential advantages in leveraging experience-based knowledge and learning in early product development phases to avoid reinventing the wheel, and repeating potentially costly mistakes in all relevant company environments.Godkänd; 2013; 20131108 (kotchi); Tillkännagivande disputation 2013-11-18 Nedanstående person kommer att disputera för avläggande av teknologie doktorsexamen. Namn: Koteshwar Chirumalla Ämne: Produktinnovation/Product Innovation Avhandling: Development of a Methodology for Lessons Learned Practice: From post-project learning to continuous process-based learning Opponent: Docent Anja Maier, Department of Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Danmark Ordförande: Docent Åsa Ericson, Institutionen för ekonomi, teknik och samhälle, Luleå tekniska universitet Tid: Tisdag den 10 december 2013, kl 09.00 Plats: A109, Luleå tekniska universite

A lightweight knowledge sharing approach for product-service systems development

The move towards offering product-service systems (PSS) requires the involvement of stakeholders from heterogeneous functions or companies with knowledge of the different stages of the life cycle. This challenges the way in which organizations create, share, and manage knowledge across functional and corporate boundaries. The management and reuse of knowledge within the cross-functional teams are still enormous tasks, especially when dealing with semi- structured or unstructured information, as well as with informal and tacit knowledge. The purpose is to explore how a lightweight collaborative approach can support knowledge sharing in cross-functional collaboration in the context of product-service system development. Through an empirical analysis of the knowledge management practices within cross-functional collaborative teams in the aerospace supply chain, this thesis describes the knowledge-related problems in light of the implementation of a PSS paradigm and explores how lightweight collaborative technologies can enable knowledge sharing in boundary-crossing collaborative working environments. The study adopts a qualitative research methodology whose empirical findings are based on two industrial case studies. Data have primarily been generated through interviews, focus group meetings, and survey questionnaires. The research work outlines the limitations of current knowledge management systems in capturing, managing, and reusing cross-functional knowledge in PSS development in terms of knowledge sharing, pointing to lightweight collaborative technologies as a key knowledge-sharing enabler for PSS development. Furthermore, the study elaborates upon the opportunities and challenges embedded in the lightweight concept by using SWOT analysis as well the development of several scenarios in which social, bottom-up technologies are applied in an engineering context. This approach results in the identification of promising areas for the significant impact of PSS development, such as in identifying new product opportunities, locating the right capabilities in the organization, and capturing the design intent and design rationale. These areas eventually highlight the features and requirements for effective lightweight knowledge sharing in PSS development efforts.The research work introduces Web 2.0/social software applications and methods as a bottom-up and lightweight collaborative approach for knowledge sharing in PSS development. First, the study determines that these technologies can enhance knowledge sharing by providing empowering opportunities and dynamic way of interactions for knowledge workers. Second, these technologies can improve teams’ capabilities by exploiting the network of connections through the collective creation and maintenance of shared knowledge assets with a common understanding. Such improvements will eventually enhance decision making and sense making in a global, virtual, and cross-functional team setting. Finally-and most importantly- these technologies can amplify access to individual tacit knowledge, thereby ensuring continuous organizational learning. This research work is particularly significant as the adoption of a Web 2.0/social approach in engineering collaboration is still not eminent. The thesis outlines several issues that have to be addressed from both methodological and technological perspectives before pursuing the wide adoption of lightweight tools in the areas identified.Godkänd; 2011; 20110520 (kotchi

Leveraging Web 2.0 in New Product Development: Lessons Learned from a Cross-company Study

The paper explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies to support product development efforts in a global, virtual and cross-functional setting. It analyses the dichotomy between the prevailing hierarchical structure of CAD/PLM/PDM systems and the principles of the Social Web under the light of the emerging product development trends. Further it introduces the concept of Engineering 2.0, intended as a more bottom up and lightweight knowledge sharing approach to support early stage design decisions within virtual and cross-functional product development teams. The lessons learned collected from a cross-company study highlight how to further developblogs, wikis, forums and tags for the benefit of new product development teams, highlighting opportunities, challenges and no-go areas.Validerad; 2011; 20101115 (berber);License fulltext: This article is freely available under the J.UCS Open Content License.Fastelaboratoriet - VINNEX

Social technologies for cross-functional product development : SWOT analysis and implications

Innovation is triggered by the cross-pollination of fields and disciplines. In product development, this means bringing together people with different expertise to develop breakthrough product and service offers. In spite of their great potential, cross-functional efforts are not yet adequately supported from a knowledge perspective, asking for a more open and bottom-up open approach to knowledge management. The paper aims to investigate how social technologies can enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing in complex, cross-functional and cross-organizational product development projects. It initially highlights the role of weak ties as enablers for more innovative design processes, especially when manufacturing companies move towards developing integrated offers mixing hardware, software and services. Emerging from data collected in two case studies conducted within the European aeronautical industry, it applies the Strength-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) framework to highlight how tools such as wikis, blogs, forum and microblogs can shorten and increase the quality of early design decisions. Furthermore it elaborates on how the design team can enhance its perception of the needs to be addressed and leverage its capability to develop solutions for the task at hand.Faste Laborator