Examining green production and its role within the competitive strategy of manufacturers

Purpose: This paper reviews current literature and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of the topic of green production. Design/methodology/approach: A literature review to capture, classify and summarize the main body of knowledge on green production and, translate this into a form that is readily accessible to researchers and practitioners in the more mainstream operations management community. Findings: The existing knowledge base is somewhat fragmented. This is a relatively unexplored topic within mainstream operations management research and one which could provide rich opportunities for further exploration. Originality/value: This paper sets out to review current literature, from a more conventional production operations perspective, and contributes a set of findings that capture the current state-of-the-art of this topic

The ten myths of manufacturing:what does the future hold for UK manufacturing?

The recent recession has caused upheaval for the economies worldwide. The impact has been felt enormously all over and especially in the manufacturing sector. This report discusses significant data on China's manufacturing industry that suggests they are already growing again despite recent events, while India has continued to maintain their efforts. One question the report raises is as the balance of economic power shifts to the East, what if the future for the once great UK manufacturing industry

Characterizing Customer Experience Management in Business Markets

Managing the customer experience has become a top priority for marketing managers and researchers. Research on customer experience management (CEM) has traditionally adopted a customer’s viewpoint. Few studies have explicitly embraced an organizational perspective, and existing research focuses mainly on business-to-consumer settings. The present study espouses the utility of CEM in business-to-business (B2B) settings on the grounds that interactions in B2B contexts are also “experienced”. It explains how B2B firms can design and manage the customer experience to influence the customer at different touchpoints. The paper develops a comprehensive framework that characterizes CEM in B2B. The paper articulates key challenges for B2B CEM; relationship expectations (mismatches in customer relationships, siloed customer experiences); actor interaction issues (mismatches across the customer’s journey, lack of touchpoint control); and temporal challenges (dynamics of the customer experience). The paper draws out the theoretical implications and develops managerial implications for B2B firms

Green Servitization in the Single-Use Medical Device Industry: How Device OEMs Create Supply Chain Circularity through Reprocessing

Establishing a circular supply chain for single-use medical devices would make a significant contribution to reduce health care-generated emissions. One way in which this can be accomplished is to apply the possibility of device recovery through high-level disinfection and sterilization (a process referred to as ‘reprocessing’). As increasing emphasis is being placed on reducing health care-generated emissions, several major OEMs of single-use medical devices have extended their business to reprocessing services, taking a green servitization orientation. The present paper examines the trend towards green servitization in the single-use medical device industry. It uses interviews with industry experts, complemented with information from secondary sources, to explore how the green servitization phenomenon is supporting the transition of the industry to a more sustainable economic model. The findings provide insights into the green servitization endeavors of device OEMs as regards services offered, strategic intents, dominant business models, use of collaborative relationships and capability requirements. The paper reveals that single-use device OEMs may have started to understand the perspective and the long-term market share gains of combining a service model and a manufacturing model, making reprocessing an integrated part of how they think about how to design, produce and deliver their products

Structuring Servitization-Related Capabilities: A Data-Driven Analysis

The existing literature investigates organizational capabilities for servitization in exploratory studies based predominantly on interviews with managers. This has led to classification frameworks that tend to reflect managerial perceptions regarding key capabilities (rather than actual firm capabilities) and in which associations and connections between capabilities remain anecdotal. This study examines the servitization-related capabilities existing in manufacturing firms that have taken strategic service initiatives and adopts a data-driven approach to explore their underlying structure. A quantitative study based on secondary data from annual report narratives is used to assess the servitization-related capabilities of 79 firms from the aerospace and defense sector and to identify the underlying factors through exploratory factor analysis. The study identifies seventeen capabilities structured into five factors: (i) management of production/delivery operations; (ii) development of valuable and sustainable offerings; (iii) identification of incentives; (iv) planning for uncertainty and change; and (v) relationship management. The study provides evidence of servitization-related capabilities in practice. By examining gaps between existing (current) capabilities and the capabilities identified in our five-factor model, business managers of aerospace and defense firms can assess the status of servitization-related capabilities at their firms and set objectives to develop such capabilities further. The study contributes to the systematic development of a reasonable and parsimonious representation of organizational capabilities for servitization, which is statistically supported and validated through empirical data

A contemporary thematic review of four major research streams

Servitization describes the addition of services to manufacturers' core product offerings to create additional customer value. This study aims to identify the key themes and research priorities in this body of literature over thirteen years from 2005 and 2017, based on four major research streams (general management, marketing, operations, and service management). Prior multi-theme literature reviews have focused on operations journals, overlooking important work in other streams, particularly marketing. Informed by a systematic literature review of 219 papers, the study identifies five main themes: service offerings; strategy and structure; motivations and performance; resources and capabilities; service development, sales, and delivery. Within each theme, gaps in the literature are identified and eleven research priorities presented. The review shows that the literature has evolved significantly in recent years, becoming increasingly diverse. A recent noteworthy topic is the use of digital technologies, which indicates the increasing relevance of technological developments to manufacturers' service activities. Our review highlights that there are still some fundamental aspects of servitization that warrant further research, primarily the need to replace the focal-manufacturer perspective with a multi-actor perspective that highlights the important role of relationships with existing and potentially new actors as a result of technological developments.peerReviewe