Smartifying Manufacturing Companies: Understanding, Developing, and Implementing Smart Service Systems

• Main Author: Huber, Rocco Xaver Richard
• Format: Dissertation
• Language: English
• Published: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses 01.01.2021
• Subjects: Business models; Communication; Computer science; Customer services; Decision making; Engineering; Engineering firms; Grounded theory; Industrial engineering; Industry 4.0; Information processing; Information systems; Information Technology; Language; Management; Manufacturers; Manufacturing; Performance management; Process planning; Readability; Software; Sprinkler systems; Subject specialists; System theory
• ISBN: 9798426872721

Driven by the emergence and rapid adoption of digital technologies, an influential development associated with organizations’ digital transformation is the “smartification” of physical products. In the context of the Internet of Things (IoT), it is possible to equip traditional products with digital technologies (e.g., for sensing and communication). These digital technologies enable new forms of intelligence and turn traditional products into smart things that can offer customers smart services. With smart things as their core and smart services as their value proposition, smart service systems have received significant attention. As self-organizing and self-optimizing product systems, they enable more efficient and flexible processes as well as new value propositions. Smart service systems are expected to profoundly influence manufacturers’ competitiveness and affect productivity, economic growth, and working profiles. Despite their growing importance, smart service systems remain poorly understood, which is mainly due to their interdisciplinary nature and complexity by combining different technologies. This hampers scientific progress and practical application. Against this backdrop, this dissertation elaborates on the fundamental understanding of smart service systems and provides guidance on their development and implementation.To complement the understanding of smart service systems, two different perspectives are taken. Research article #1 investigates the term “smart” and how it manifests by taking an information systems (IS) perspective. Based on a structured review of domain-specific literature, the research article sheds light on how smartness manifests in the context of digital technologies. It defines smartness and proposes the concept of a “smart action.” This concept structures and describes the components and patterns involved in creating smartness and can be interpreted as the nucleus of smart service systems. Supplementing this understanding, research article #2 embeds the topic of smart service systems into the context of digital transformation. Due to its importance and progress in research and practice, the article builds upon the understanding in academic literature and includes a broad interview and workshop series with domain experts. As a result, research article #2 develops a framework with six fields of action that are required for digital transformation. The framework sheds light on topics related to using and integrating digital technologies effectively, which are highly connected to and interdependent of smart things and services.Due to the interdisciplinary nature of smart service systems, their development is often challenged by a lack of shared understanding and collaboration tools among experts in different domains. As a result, development projects are often drawn-out and expensive. To address this challenge, research article #3 develops a domain-specific modeling language for smart service systems. The modeling language provides researchers and practitioners with a visual and easily understandable representation of smart services and smart service systems. It supplies a common terminology as well as a tool to analyze existing and future smart service systems.To implement and offer smart service systems, manufacturers are also challenged when they have to identify and develop the required capabilities. While the “why” of transforming is usually straightforward, the “how” remains unclear and challenging. To contribute to closing this gap, two perspectives are taken. First, research article #4 develops a framework of the capabilities required to implement smart service systems in manufacturing by taking an IS perspective. The framework includes technical as well as strategical, operational, and cultural capabilities. Research article #5 takes a business model perspective and summarizes the capabilities required for the business model transition. As smart services lead to an increased role for services in manufacturers’ business models, several changes are needed. Research article #5 develops a maturity model that maps capabilities to distinct business models. The maturity model provides descriptive knowledge by structuring relevant capabilities and builds the foundation for developing transition strategies and making long-term decisions.