Professor Tim Baines’ name is synonymous with all things servitization and advanced services. Today, he is talking to Field Service News about Servitization Live, the business event solely dedicated to Servitization and advanced services, taking place 4-6 October.

Servitization: where, what, how? Internationally, the appetite for servitization is growing and the idea that services can be key to business growth is gaining ever more traction. Not only that, but a focus on delivering outcomes is increasingly seen as a valuable ambition for those business executives looking to make their company stand out from the crowd. And more and more are recognising that through such services, businesses can grow, become greener, more productive, make better use of digital and improve their resilience to economic disruption.

Yet with this growing enthusiasm come challenges and uncertainty.

Servitization Live is the event where we set the record straight! It is a business event exclusively exploring servitization and advanced services and this year, we will turn the spotlight on how servitization is turning the way we use and consume products and services on its head. Over three days, Servitization Live will showcase how the as-a-service trend affects us all on a daily basis, and how services business models present the solutions to some of the biggest challenges our planet has faced such as climate change, a growing and ageing population and health crises.

With themes that we can all relate to in our everyday lives, Servitization Live challenges you to imagine how the learning from our consumer lives can be taken into your own industries and how you can innovate the services-led business models of the future.

The keynote line up will feature experts in fields such as health, the built environment and food production, who will set the scene regarding the global challenges we face and how technology and services are beginning to address these issues in innovative ways. Speakers from manufacturers and technology businesses, will then showcase their services offerings, how they deliver additional value both to the customer and the manufacturer, and how they help to address some of the challenges facing the planet.

These speakers include Ben Wilson, Marketing and Offer Manager at Schneider Electric who will speak about how Schneider went from conceptualisation to launch and delivery of its Secure Power-as-a-Service offering in little over a year. Schneider’s offering supports the likes of hospitals and care homes to both minimise capital expenditure and energy costs, and focus on their core business of looking after people’s health and wellbeing- their strapline being ‘ Dedicate your time, expertise and capital to your core business – let us take care of the rest!’

Oliver Moffat, Segment Manager for Multi-Occupancy, Heat Networks & Heat-as-a-Service at the domestic boiler manufacturer Baxi Heating, will speak about how the company is exploring the technologies and services business models that will support a whole new way of heating our homes. They are working on ideas to enable a move away from buying gas-powered boilers and towards newer, cleaner technologies and, potentially, payment models for customers based around buying heat rather than a physical product.

Day three of the event will be dedicated to a celebration of regional SMEs and their innovation in services. We will showcase the very best of SMEs who have transformed their business models though servitization. You will hear how these business leaders changed their approach, capitalising on their expertise and getting closer to their customers, all through the adoption of services based strategies and ultimately resulting in increased revenue.

Following on from last year’s World Servitization Convention where over 360 attendees joined online to explore exhibits from the likes of Goodyear, Legrand and Omron and heard keynotes from Tetra Pak, Rolls-Royce and Thales, the event is hosted by the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School who are at the forefront of thought leadership in this field. Servitization Live is delivered as part of our mission to educate and inform those business leaders shaping industrial practice.

Servitization Live will take place 4-6 October 2021 online. Centred on an exhibition of business models from mainstream manufacturers that are leading in way in servitization, the event features a packed programme of industrial keynotes, workshops and panel discussions from leading industry experts. Visit https://www.servitizationlive.com/ for more information and to register.

The three-day event is sponsored by IFS, Xait CPQ, DLL, and Servitly and supported by Field Service News.

Who is the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School?

Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Professor Tim Baines on Field Service News @ www.fieldservicenews.com/tim-baines
• Learn more about The Advanced Services Group @ www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/
• Read more about Servitization and Advanced Services @ fieldservicenews.com/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Get in touch with The Advanced Services Group @ www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/contact

Professor Tim Baines, Director of the Advanced Services Group, Aston University and Dr. Ali Zia Bigdeli, Senior Lecturer in Industrial Services Innovation at Aston University argue manufacturing should embrace services as part of its post-COVID-19 strategy.

Change, a 1985 paper argued, can be characterised as a “punctuated equilibrium”: long periods of relative calm and small incremental alterations that are interrupted by brief, but radical, seismic shifts. COVID-19 means that we are now living through one of those revolutionary moments.

Advanced Services and Positive Business

But that also means that there is an opportunity to look at things in a new way. For the past 20 years, we’ve been conducting research and advising manufacturers to compete through services – activities aimed at solving customers’ problems – rather than simply just pushing boxes out of the factory.

And our reasons are simple: services are good for business, good for the economy and environment, and good for society. Now accounting for 80% of the UK’s economic output, services have grown by 30% over the past 20 years. By comparison, gross domestic product (GDP) generated from selling products has contracted – a trend that is being replicated in every developed economy across the world.

But it has been a slow and sometimes painful journey – “What is this thing called servitization,” we are asked. “And how do you spell it?!” Up until now, change in this field, like in so many others, has been evolutionary, somewhat incremental and exploratory. But then arrives a global pandemic that shatters the equilibrium and stimulates radical innovation.

These are challenging times, and it’s important not to make light of the struggles facing the global economy. Business activity is currently polarised around sector and geography. On the one hand are manufacturers who support the food and health sectors and have never been busier. On the other are those businesses linked to the aerospace, automotive, and oil and gas industries which are being forced to mothball facilities and lay off staff in their tens of thousands.

For some, the implications are so severe that they may not survive. Even those that are doing well are having to deal with a reduced workforce, social distancing in the workplace, and the economic fallout of customers being unable to pay their bills.

Disrupting the old norms

How appealing the old norms may now seem. Until just a few months ago, most executives within manufacturing organisations had a rather passive, established view of services. For us, it was frustrating, but comfortingly familiar.

We could work with these manufacturers to help them better understand the value of services, influence key decision-makers and then hopefully get a chance to support their innovation of new business models, technologies and organisational structures. But we often experienced an equilibrium – the harder we helped manufacturing executives to push for more services, the harder the system pushed back.

Now, however, that equilibrium is being disrupted.Take performance advisory services. These are services that allow manufacturers to use digital technologies to gain insight into how customers use their products, and then offer data and/or intelligence back to that customer on how to gain more value from those products.

"The end of this period of disruption will bring a new set of norms, and it’s beyond belief that we will return to the days of simply shifting boxes..."

An example of this type of service is Siemens’ monitoring of the condition of airport baggage carts. The company gathers acoustic and vibration data from rail-mounted luggage carts around the airport and uses this data to assess the likelihood of breakdowns before they happen.

Breakdowns cost time and money. So spotting potential breakdowns in advance saves airport operators the penalties that must be paid when luggage isn’t loaded onto flights on time, and improves the passenger experience through the punctual delivery of baggage.We have seen a wealth of technically excellent digital systems like this. Most, however, have so far failed to be commercially viable and manufacturers have been reluctant to invest in and push them to customers. But in the current climate, that may change.

As well as opening up a huge new market opportunity, these services could be far more profitable than simply selling the products themselves. Such services can also develop enviable intimacy with and loyalty from customers as the provider is able to address their customers’ demands and problems much more quickly and effectively.

And now times are changing, the economic potential of services is becoming more visible. Indeed, remote support and performance advisory services – helpdesks, remote support for breakdowns, digital installations – provide obvious solutions in an age of social distancing, remote working and lockdowns.

Customers either want remote advice on how to fix problems themselves, or they want the manufacturer to remotely fix and upgrade their equipment. It’s not all about technology, of course – customers still value speaking to a person, just not face to face. But manufacturers no longer need to gamble as much on selling these new systems; customers actively are seeking them. Both parties are starting to look at the bigger picture, and services are proving vitally important to both.

Accelerated change

For some time yet, change will be accelerated and hastened. The end of this period of disruption will bring a new set of norms, and it’s beyond belief that we will return to the days of simply shifting boxes. At the very least, business plans will need to include how to deal with disruption – whether it’s related to health, the economy or the environment.

The opportunities that this creates for services are potentially dramatic. Services are in the midst of radical change and, of course, we all look forward to returning to those long periods of relative calm. However, in so many ways, things will never be the same. Business models for manufacturers will have been disrupted, and there will be new and different conversations about the value of services. These business models have the potential to deliver huge value, and a level of resilience that we may never see again for production-based ways of competing.

Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Tim Baines @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/tim+baines
• Read more articles by Ali Zia Bigdeli @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/AliZiaBigdeli
• Find out more about the World Servitization Conference @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/wsc2020
• Read more articles about servitization @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• This article first appeared The Conversation.com here
• Follow the work of the Advanced Services Group @ www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/
• Follow the Advanced Services Group @ twitter.com/theasgroup

Aston University’s Professor Tim Baines reflects on how the impact of the coronavirus pandemic has meant that he has had to re-evaluate his predictions from 2019 as industries rapidly pivot and shift their priorities and why servitization has a role to play in that recovery.

People don’t like to admit their mistakes and professors are no different. Indeed, we like to believe that we give more attention to the science anfacts than others may do. But I was wrong. Late last year, I wrote a piece that predicted that the three priorities for manufacturing business in the 2020s would be about responding to the challenges of poor productivity and climate change, and grasping the opportunities of digital.

Servitization's role in Covid recovery

I think it’s now quite safe to say that although these will remain important, priorities will shift towards the recovery of the economy – in particular the recovery and rebuilding of industry large and small. I also think that we will start to pay more attention to embedding greater industrial resilience, in an attempt to insure against similar disruptions in the future. It’s early days, but how might we do this?

My earlier judgment seemed sound at the time. I based my prediction on what I saw, was told and read about. I rationalised that there were three principal forces driving change, and my logic went something like this:

The UK, among other western economies, has an historical problem with productivity, we work too many hours to generate the level of wealth we create and this adversely affects growth something that everybody is keen to address. The evidence of climate change is becoming more acute; it can be seen in the melting ice sheets in Greenland and raging bushfires of Australia.

Customers and consumers are becoming more sensitive to the environmental impact of consumption, and supply chains are being restructured. Meanwhile, digital innovation is all around - whether you see it as IOT, Industry 4.0 or simply a new App - and its adoption within industry is being widely advocated.

What my logic did not account for was the seismic shock of a pandemic. Business has changed in a way none of us could have foreseen; borders have closed, travel is banned, staff are in isolation, society is in lock-down, working from home is the new norm and the kids are off school! Business activity is polarising; some factories are being mothballed, while those that service the food and healthcare sectors, for example, are exceptionally busy. Indeed, governments are intervening in ways unimaginable since, in many countries, the Second World War. At this time, I know it’s difficult to look beyond the next few weeks, but it is important to look forwards, albeit with a little care and sensitivity.

"Resilience is key and business models based around services are more conducive to achieving this..."

Economic activity is essential and it must recover. Undoubtedly, there will be many government initiatives to kick-start the economy, but how do we rebuild the manufacturing industry to be more resilient to future shocks, whether these shocks are health-related, trade-related, or indeed from the adverse effects of climate change. Quite clearly, the same as before is not sufficient. We have a unique opportunity to move industry forward and adopt business models that are better-aligned with the new world we will enter.

The 1900s and early 2000s were dominated by production-consumption business models, exemplified by mass production, Henry Ford and the consumer society – make, sell, dump. Feeding a growing world population, ruthless in its consumption of resources, servicing hungry global markets and all too often insensitive to the impact on the environment. This was not sustainable, and now many sectors have ground to a halt.

While mass production of course is still alive across some sectors - food and medicine to name a few - in other sectors this lockdown has shown that we do not need cars, airports and shopping centres to the extent we used them. As such, there is a great opportunity for services, delivered remotely and consumed locally, which help to build the quality of our lives without the need for consumption. If industry can build new business models on this basis, we will also create a truly resilient economy.

So, I believe that resilience is key and business models based around services are more conducive to achieving this. But what could such services look like in practice? In my next blog, I will reflect on some of the businesses that are making great progress in this space.

Further Reading:

• Read more articles by Tim Baines @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/timbaines
• Read more on servitization @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/servitization
• Read more about Covid-19 in service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/covid-19
• Read more about the Advanced Services Group @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk
• Read more about the World Servitization Conference @ https://www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/wsc2020

New research from the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School suggests that a focus on product as a platform and a clear understanding of the operational network can positively influence servitization efforts. Dr Kawaljeet Kapoor explains…

Servitization is widely recognised in the manufacturing sector today for its potential to bring about sustainable business growth and realise benefit from society’s appetite for services. Servitization is generally understood as the process by which a manufacturing company transforms its business model and capabilities to compete through a combination of products and services, rather than just products alone. For manufacturers, achieving their servitization goals means going beyond their product-driven internal capabilities.

It requires them to move away from the traditional linear supply chain models, in favour of collaborative working with external partners, which can evolve into a network with multiple, interacting actors.In this setting, which we would call an ecosystem, platforms enable increased interactions and transactions between the multiple actors and partners, which were not necessarily a part of the initial supply chains.

There is a plethora of companies that successfully utilise platform strategies. Intel and Windows, for example, bring together third party companies and developers to create innovation platforms.

Others, such as Airbnb and Amazon, allow producers, consumers and organisations to find each other and enable a multitude of transactions with each other. Clearly, businesses across a range of industries are investing in platforms. However, examples from the manufacturing sector are far and few between.

An exploratory research project by The Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School, is looking to change that. The project focuses on understanding the servitization process in a manufacturing setting and investigates the influence platforms have on a manufacturer’s journey to servitization.

What do we mean by platform and ecosystem?

Simply put, a platform can be a product, service, or technology owned by a company that external innovators use as a foundation to develop new products, services or technologies. These newly developed offerings always complement a platform owner’s original offerings, which is why we call such offerings, the complements. By the same logic, we call the companies or people who develop such complements, the complementors.

For instance, on a Fire TV platform, Amazon is the platform owner, and the app developers are the complementors, who use the Fire TV stick as a foundation to develop a multitude of apps for the end-users. A platform, its complements and all network actors put together, is what we call a platform ecosystem. In a platform-based ecosystem, you can typically expect to see a platform owner, the complementors, and the end users as its key actors.

"Modularity makes enabling varied functionalities very simple. In a manufacturing setting, product offerings can be modularized and broken down into services associated with product spares, preventive maintenance, fleet management, and so on..."

These platforms can have varying architectural types. They can be of internal – closed nature, such as Makita’s cordless power tool platform, where all tools can only be powered by a battery developed in-house. They can be across a supply chain – partially open, examples of which can be found across all assembly industries. Both of these types aim at increasing offering variety without complicating internal structures.

They can also be external – open for all external innovators in an industry-level ecosystem setting. An example of this is IBM’s collaboration with Intel and Microsoft in the 1980s, which led to the development of the IBM PC, an open platform used by complementors to develop compatible software, such as Word and others.Irrespective of the types, these architectures are increasingly modular in nature, which means that platforms increase flexibility and reusability.

Complicated production processes are broken into smaller parts or modules that deliver an intended technological function in the overall system, and by doing so, enhance the core functionality of a platform. For example, Google Chrome is a search engine, and its extensions are ‘modules’ developed to offer extended functionalities like a calendar, dictionary or storage drive. In other words, when modules connect to a platform, they add new functionalities to include extended utilities and features.

Therefore, modularity makes enabling varied functionalities very simple. In a manufacturing setting, product offerings can be modularized and broken down into services associated with product spares, preventive maintenance, fleet management, and so on. In essence, manufacturing firms can configure multiple offerings using different combinations of the same modules.

Why the ecosystem view is important

The concept of platforms has been a topic of discussion for more than two decades. Both research and practice have shared fundamental insights on platform dynamics and how they work. But the focus on platforms alone is not enough – the ecosystem in which the platform operates is just as important. Understanding the ecosystem, identifying the different actors and understanding your own role will ultimately determine the platform’s success.

Taking a full view of the ecosystem will account for all actors involved and help manufacturers understand which actors can add the most value to the platform and deliver the service-led offerings intended in the first place - beyond.

Platforms in servitizing companies

The word platform is often associated with all things digital, such as a software component or an application. In fact, platforms are more than just a piece of software, particularly in a servitization-based setting. It would not be too far fetched to suggest that if a manufacturer is acting as a platform leader, then their platform will essentially be their ‘product’.

As they have ownership of the product, it is their decision if and how much of the product and/or its specifications can be shared with complementors to produce novel offerings. Let’s take Trucknology, MAN’s fleet management solution, as an example here. Looking for solutions to better manage fuel costs and truck uptime - their customers’ main pain points - commercial truck manufacturer MAN partnered with telematics company Microlise.

"Technology is only one of the many components that go into building an ecosystem, and there are social and architectural aspects that are key and deserve due recognition..."

Together, Microlise and MAN produced a rating system across a range of driver characteristics, such as harsh braking and harsh cornering. The result was the Microlise Tracking Unit (MTU3), which was installed in MAN trucks to feed back driver and vehicle performance data. Customers can now view driver reports, which help to better manage drivers and inform driver training. Drivers can also access the reports to assess their own performance and improve their skills based on accurate data.In this example, MAN represents the platform owner and Microlise represents the complementor, i.e. the external innovator.

The Microlise Tracking Unit is the complement, and because it can only be of value once installed onto the MAN truck, the truck as MAN’s original product offering has become the platform. Successful examples like MAN are evidence that in manufacturing, collaborating with an extended network of actors can derive benefits of maximum value from investments, as well as lasting relationships with the customer even after product sales.

Research on Platforms and Ecosystems

Yet, not many manufacturers have adopted this approach in their servitization strategies. Whilst the terms platform ecosystems, platform thinking, and platform approach are increasingly used in business and manufacturing, they are often used to describe technology alone. Our research suggests, however, that technology is only one of the many components that go into building an ecosystem, and there are social and architectural aspects that are key and deserve due recognition.

The aim of this research project is to explain how platform ecosystems influence manufacturers developing servitization-based offerings. The project is based on interviews with manufacturing companies on their way towards servitization. A key outcome of this research will be a guide to help servitizing firms position themselves across the different roles (platform leader, complementors, etc.), map dominant players and potential partners, in order to use their network dynamics strategically to pursue collaborative innovation.

Dr Kawaljeet Kapoor is a Research Fellow at The Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School.

"Performance advisory services are situated in between intermediate and advanced services..."

Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Ulrika Lindberg, Vice President, Global Service at Alfa Laval AB following on from her keynote presentation at the Spring Servitization Conference, about why having a customer-centric strategy is key to developing advanced services...

One thing stood out very clearly when Ulrika Lindberg, Vice President, Global Service at Alfa Laval AB posted up her organisations mission statement during her presentation at the Spring Servitization Conference, hosted by Copenhagen Business School and the Advanced Services Group, part of Aston University in the UK, that was that even within this small, yet carefully crafted sentence which captures Alfa Laval's corporate identity, it is clear the value they place on their customers.

On the surface, it certainly seemed indicative of an organisation that already had a clear Outside-In philosophy with regards to how they view their relationship with their customers.

Against a backdrop of a conference where advanced services are the sole talking point, I was keen to see just how important Lindberg and her colleagues at Alfa Laval believe such a mindset is when seeking to establish service as a core strategy within an organisation.

“How important is it? Well it’s in our DNA,” begins Lindberg.

"Whilst we have a wide range of products, we have an even wider range of industries that we serve and we would never be able to do that successfully unless we understood our customers’ needs..."

“Part of the reason why that is, is because whilst we have a wide range of products, we have an even wider range of industries that we serve and we would never be able to do that successfully unless we understood our customers’ needs within their industry.”

“We need to understand how our products can benefit an industry and our customers’ within that industry - and if we don’t have that understanding then we wouldn’t be successful. That is how our whole company has grown, by actually finding where our products could benefit certain industries and how.”

“Some of our products, although customised are not that unique, but one of the things we’ve been able to be successful at is tailoring those to a certain customer or a certain industry.”

It is this industry knowledge, largely fed by a desire to get close to their customers and understand the challenges that they face that has become an intrinsic part of how Alfa Laval approach growth and development - and this is something that ultimately builds upon itself over time.

“The more critical it becomes for us to understand the needs of the sector, the bigger the industry becomes to us and then the further knowledge and insights we develop - which embeds us even further into the industry and into our customer’s processes,” Lindberg explains.

Of course, operating across such a wide array of vertical sectors means that Alfa Laval have to establish a flexible approach to their service offerings as what is good for the goose is not always good for the gander. This is something that becomes particularly prescient when we look at servitization.

One of the big discussions across the conference and beyond is whether there is a need for either a customer pull or a market in decline and in need of disruption for a company to successfully introduce advanced services.

We all see that data is going to be hugely important in the future and we need to build our services around that but I think that we have a lot of work to do to build on that“I’m not sure,” Lindberg responds, giving the question consideration when I put it to her.

“I think certain industries are more advanced and it is easier in those. Equally some geographies are more advanced and it is easier there also. Personally, I would say the geography dimension might influence more whether a company is able to introduce advanced services.”

"I think across the globe, in terms of data and analysing data, there is a big interest but I still think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of the complexity this is going to drive in terms of who is going to look at the data and what kind of advice are they going to be delivering?"

"If we look at predictive maintenance who is going to be calling the customer and saying the service is required? If we need to go in and stop the machine what power do we have to do this in a critical environment for the customers where that maintenance might have significant consequences for the customer.”

“I think we all see that data is going to be hugely important in the future and we need to build our services around that but I think that we have a lot of work to do to build on that. The appetite for this is big all around the globe, but the most critical question is 'are we ready?' That is the question I would suggest most companies need to be asking themselves.”

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Rolls Royce’s Andy Harrison has been playing a pivotal role in the Through Life Engineering Services Centre’s work in putting together a blueprint for how organisations can establish advanced services capabilities - a topic he recently discussed at this year’s Spring Servitization Conference. Kris Oldland sat down with him to find out more...

When the topic of servitization comes up it is usually only a matter of time before Rolls Royce and Power by the Hour is mentioned. Indeed, Rolls Royce alongside a select number of other organisations such as Caterpillar and Alstom have essentially become the de-facto poster boys for all things advanced services.

Who better then, to lead a multi-organisation committee created to help distil the complexities of servitization into a meaningful framework than one of one of their key service executives, Andy Harrison, Engineering Associate Fellow - life cycle engineering?

But what exactly is the Through Life Engineering Services Centre, which Harrison heads up?

“For a number of years here in the UK we have had a group of companies get together around through life engineering services. In essence, a sort of working club made up of people working in the services space and in particular services around complex long-life engineered products,” he explains.

“For a number of years, we had struggled to get a framework diagram around what we meant by that this particular space. Then in mid-2016 the EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing Through Life Engineering Services, which was run out of Cranfield and Durham Universities, issued a strategy paper which called for the creation of a national council - something we have subsequently created.”

So what is the key function of this council?

One of the challenges we have taken on has been to develop a relatively simple explanation of what exactly through life engineering services are“One of the challenges we have taken on has been to develop a relatively simple explanation of what exactly through life engineering services are,” Harrison explains.

“In addition to this, we have also moved onto tackling the question of what a national educational program within this area would look like. If we wanted our engineering graduates to arrive at the doors of organisations already understanding the value of through life support, which we think is 16% + of GDP, then what would that involve?”

It’s an ambitious project, but one that is absolutely critical as we see economies both in the UK and beyond become increasingly more service-centric and Harrison has played an integral role in fulfilling the council’s vision, which is now coming together at pace.

“I’ve led the working group that has put that framework diagram and the education program that goes around it. That is in the process of being embodied into a publicly available specification by the British Standards Institute and it is due for publication sometime very soon,” he comments.

“Essentially what we’ve got is a framework diagram that outlines the topics that make up this thing called Though Life Service, then dividing those topics into further subheadings with information and direction as to what a company would need to know to understand each of those sub-headings.”

In fact, one of the highlights of The Spring Servitization Conference, held this year in Copenhagen, was when Harrison very eloquently and concisely walked the attendees through this framework.

“Basically, the framework diagram is essentially setting the scene when we talk about this space,” Harrison explains.

It’s a way of thinking about the big picture and breaking it out into commonly described terms so that when the industry practitioners review the academic material they have a frame of reference“It’s a way of thinking about the big picture and breaking it out into commonly described terms so that when the industry practitioners review the academic material they have a frame of reference - they can look at it and say ‘OK so this is addressing this part of the equation.’”

This is a huge part of the discussion that needs to come to the fore if the worlds of academia and industry are to fully align around the concept and strategies of servitization - a common language is essential. This is also why the bringing together of a number of different companies from disparate sectors to work on this project alongside Harrison and his team at Rolls Royce is also imperative.

“The fundamentally important part of this is that if you let any one organisation try to write this they would do it in their own language in their own context. It might work for them but it is unlikely to work for a broad range of companies,” Harrison explains.

We have deliberately forced ourselves to argue how to get this down to a small number of items“We have deliberately forced ourselves to argue how to get this down to a small number of items,” he adds.

Within the framework itself, the group has essentially identified three core areas of activity.

“Firstly, there is the business context where the sub-elements are all centred around if and how you understand your customers. Can you identify with them the value opportunities are - and this can be either getting more work out of a machine or spending less money obtaining that work,” Harrison begins.

“Do you have the organisational set up to deliver these benefits and do your customers have the right set up to receive those benefits? Do you have all of the underpinning capabilities that are required such as the consumable elements you need to deliver this level of service - for example, can you model x and predict y? Can you gather the data required? Do those things exist and do you have them within your organisation? We then have to consider what are the service value streams that you have to offer? We divide that up into four streams which are avoid, contain, recover and convert.”

The road to servitization is challenging and the journey for every company of course slightly different reflecting the unique needs, processes and goals an organisation may face“Avoid is can you change the reality of how much damage the product is accumulating and the likely consequences of that? Contain is about an organisation's ability to step in and make the decisions around when and what to do as intervention activities -  so there is no physical activity in this step, it is all around decision making. Recover is your ability to re-inject life back into the asset, through overhaul, repair and inspection. Finally Convert is about your ability to take the experience that you gain in the other three and to generate additional value out of those.”

“The final dimension is the basic life-cycle of the product and the service which talks about the need for planning throughout the life-cycle, the creation process of your products and service, standing up ready for operation, the operational activity of making the products and delivering the support service and eventually the retirement phase of the downturn of the supply chain, the de-commissioning of assets and the eventual retirement of the entire of service offering around them.”

The road to servitization is challenging and the journey for every company of course slightly different reflecting the unique needs, processes and goals an organisation may face.

However, the framework Harrison and his peers have put in place does an excellent job of signposting the way, to help companies navigate the path successfully.

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Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News talks to Prof. Tim Baines about the recent Spring Servitization Conference hosted by The Advanced Services Group and how the conversation around servitization is continuing to evolve as academia and industry come together to drive advanced services forwards...

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