A webinar hosted by Professor Tim Baines previewing September's World Servitization Conference will feature manufacturers exhibiting at the event and hosted on the 5th May 2020
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May 01, 2020 • News • Professor Tim Baines • Servitization • Servitization Conference • Servitization and Advanced Services
A webinar hosted by Professor Tim Baines previewing September's World Servitization Conference will feature manufacturers exhibiting at the event and hosted on the 5th May 2020
The webinar, which takes place on Tuesday 5 March at 2pm (BST), serves as a digital preview to the forthcoming World Servitization Conference and will feature some of the manufacturers who will be exhibiting at the re-arranged event which now takes place in September - its original date in May having to be moved due to the Corona Virus pandemic.
The Increasing Importance of Servitization
The World Servitization Conference is in its first iteration of the a new event but already has an excellent pedigree being a natural extension of the Spring Servitization Conference which Field Service News has been a long standing media partner.
Run out of Aston University and hosted by the Advanced Services Group the global nature of this event in 2020 is testament to the increasing significance of servitization within industry - something that many are anticipating will be further increased by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The guest line-up includes:
- Chris Dodd, Managing Director, Assisted Living & Healthcare at Legrand UK & Ireland;
- Alec Anderson, Founder and Managing Director at Koolmill Systems;
- Lee Cassidy, Chief Executive Officer,Tactile Technology and
- Tim Hughes, Managing Director at CHH Conex.
As well as looking forward to September's conference, the webinar will look at manufacturing's relationship with servitization and how it might be affected in post-pandemic world.
You can register for the webinar here.
The World Servitization Conference takes place from 14 to 16 September at the NEC in Birmingham, UK. For more information on the event including details on how to register click here.
Apr 01, 2020 • Features • Management • Events • Servitization Conference • Leadership and Strategy
Professor Tim Baines of Aston University, looks back across his personal 30 year journey with servitization whilst looking forward to an industry defining event in the servitization space taking place in Birmingham later this year…
Professor Tim Baines of Aston University, looks back across his personal 30 year journey with servitization whilst looking forward to an industry defining event in the servitization space taking place in Birmingham later this year…
My first article on servitization was published in the late 1990s. Of course, we didn’t call it servitization then, rather the article talked about something called Total Service Manufacture. I didn’t think of it as anything special, I was simply trying to understand different competitive strategies that manufacturers might adopt - at that time Western manufacturers were being bombarded with outsourcing and offshoring ‘no brainer’ advice. ‘Do services’ was my reaction!
Focus on Services
Reflecting on the past 20 years, it is interesting to see how this focus on services has grown. Take the term servitization; first it was a case of ‘what is this word’, then ‘how do you spell it’, moving to ‘we do it already’, and now ‘this could help, tell me more’. Each stage in our evolution of understanding servitization brought with it its own challenges, and bizarrely we are now perhaps in the most dangerous phase.
Manufacturing businesses are recognising that servitization is a valuable phenomenon, and those that sell technologies and services to this industry are asking how they can get on the bandwagon. We now see re-branding and re-styling everywhere. Companies that used to sell technology and systems that enable efficient spare part delivery to field service engineers, are now promoting themselves as ‘partners on your servitization journey’. Yet in practice, nothing has changed in what they offer. It happened with Lean and it’s happening now with servitization. Pollution is all around us!
So where do you look now for real thought leadership? Well, I am biased, but I’ve dedicated my working life to what I believe in, and that is the university system. You see, a fundamental role of a Business School is to educate business.
This education is based on research, evidence and logic, and a translation of the broad body of science into digestible and reliable chunks of knowledge. This is what we do at Aston for servitization and advanced services, and we have a duty to be custodians of these concepts. What we need to do right now, is to overcome the pollution and ensure that industry is set on a reliable and informed understanding of servitization.
"The World Servitization Convention has been designed to raise awareness and the adoption of servitization and advanced services..."
This is why we have created the World Servitization Convention. This convention will be different to every field service conference or trade show you might consider attending this year. Firstly, it is coupled with the Spring Servitization Conference – the established research conference for the international academic community. Secondly, it has a series of industry keynotes and panel sessions from true industry leaders in this space – Thales, Rolls-Royce, Baxi, Goodyear, Alstom, Legrand, Domino, Mazak, etc. And we have an equally impressive range of small businesses – KoolMill, AE Aerospace, UV Light, CHH ConeX.
Thirdly, the is the exhibition where over 20 manufacturers are sharing (not selling!) what they do in this space: Heat-as-a-service, Health-as-a-service, Mobility-as-a-service. Not just talking about servitization, but demonstrating what this looks like in practice. Finally, the convention is covering a comprehensive range of topics: from service strategy to finance, and digital technologies to business model innovation. A true one-stop-shop.
The World Servitization Convention has been designed to raise awareness and the adoption of servitization and advanced services. It is targeted at the owners, executives and senior management of manufacturing, engineering and technology businesses. This is a not-for-profit event hosted by the Advanced Services Group (ASG) at the Aston Business School.
This event is funded in part by a carefully selected group of four partners; IFS, DLL, Blueprint AMS and Servitly. Just like our manufacturing exhibitors, these sponsors are genuine thought leaders in this space and have worked closely with the Aston team to ensure the event fulfils its objective.
So, all you need to know about servitization will be in one place in September.
The World Servitization Convention brings together the global community of leading servitization researchers and business executives to advance their servitization strategies, experience demonstrations of the technologies enabling advanced services and transform the future of manufacturing. This three day convention in Birmingham, UK really is intended to move you forwards on your servitization journey; delivering a true outcome rather than just selling you things!
To find out more about the event and to register, please visit www.advancedservicesgroup.co.uk/wsc2020
Mar 12, 2020 • Features • future of field service • Salesforce • servicemax • Servitization Conference
The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...
The Field Service News editorial team offer analysis on the stories circling in the service sector...
An investment injection from Salesforce is set to advance ServiceMax’s focus on assset-heavy industries such as manufacturing and utlities. Mark Glover spoke to CEO Neil Barua after the news broke...
I initially wanted to use this space to focus on the much needed calls for drone advancement and how it has the potential to postively impact on last mile delivery.
However, news that ServiceMax had received a cool $80 million investment from their long-time platform partner Salesforce came to my attention and with that an opportunity to speak to CEO Neil Barua about the announcement.
“The money was probably the least important part of the news,” he told me. “It’s great to be able to fund our growth and development but it’s the strategeic partnership element and the acknowledgement by Salesforce [that] in asset-centric industries ServiceMax is the chosen leader and they’re supporting our innovation for our customers in those industries. It’s a very monumental time in the industry for that decision to have been made,” he said.
Rumours around ServiceMax’s relationship with Salesforce have been circulating for some time now, with some speculating the software firm were ready to show its platform supplier the door, however this news concretes their partnership.The funding injection, the firm says, will enable them to focus on asset-heavy sectors such as manufacturing, oil and gas and utilities.
But it’s the firm collaboration with Salesforce that Barua was keen to extoll and in particular its place at ServiceMax’s varied board room table. “So we have a very dynamic board structure here at ServiceMax including Silverlake participants, incuding GE partcicpants and we’re now going to add Salesforce to that,” he explained. “So the adults in the room can look at things from a board perspective and make sure the two companies are thinking about what’s best independently but most importantly what’s best for customers.”
We shall see ultimately if this windfall affect ServiceMax’s end-user. Next month however my news focus will be drone-based and how that industry could do with $80 million to propel its offering.
... and Field Service News’ Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, also reflects on what the big stories in the news are for him...
Having reviewed the big stories I think I am acrtually going to do the slightly crass thing and highlight our own involvement at the inaugral World Servitization Conference.
However, in my very best humble brag style, I’d really like to bring your attention to just how impressive the journey has been for my good friends at Aston University and the Advanced Services Group and just what an achievement launching the first World Conference is for Professor Baines and his excellent collection of colleagues.
I have had the honour of attending the Spring Servitization Conference for a number of years as both a guest of Aston University and latterly as a Media Partner for the Advanced Services Group and as such have been a first hand witness to just how the conference has grown over the years. I’ve had the pleasure of attending the conference in various pockets of Europe including Manchester, Copenhagen, Luzerne and its great to see it return home to Birmingham in its latest all grown up iteration.
The world of academia and industry really can flourish when they come together to search out solutions and drive each other forward and the Spring Servitization Conference has been an absolutley pioneering and pivotal point within the calendar where that meeting of minds has been able to take place.
And whilst it may sound like an increase in capacity going from the humble Spring Servitization Conference to the more grandly titled World Servitization Conference, the truth is that the name change should have happened a few years back as this annual meet up of the great and the good of the academic servitization community, increasingly being joined by larger and larger numbers of their industry colleagues, really does attract a global audience.
I for one am extremely proud that we are still strongly associated with the conference and am very much looking forward to working with TIm and the Aston team on this event and for many years to come.
Feb 19, 2020 • News • Professor Tim Baines • Servitization • Servitization Conference • Servitization and Advanced Services
Industry and academia combine for new servitization event.
Industry and academia combine for new servitization event.
Rolls-Royce, Goodyear and Alstom will share with share their experience of growing business through services at the inaugural World Servitization Conference in Birmingham in May.
The World Servitization Convention, organised by The Advanced Services Group, part of Aston Business School, will see industry experts join academics to demonstrate the way that servitization can be used to transform the future of manufacturing through keynote speeches, developmental workshops and live demonstrations.
Some of the keynote speakers attending the event include Andy Harrison, Engineering Associate Fellow for Life Cycle Engineering at Rolls-Royce, Marc Preedy, Managing Director of Truck Replacement Sales in Europe at Goodyear, Mike Hulme, Managing Director of Trains and Modernisation at Alstom and Antony Bourne, President of IFS Industries.
Professor Tim Baines, Director of The Advanced Services Group and regular Field Service News’ contributor said: “What will set the World Servitization Convention apart from other conferences is the exhibition – or as I like to think of it, ‘Servitization Live’ – with demonstrations from businesses at the forefront of the business model.
“We will bring servitization alive with exhibits and demonstrations of advanced services and the technologies that enable them.”
Keynote speaker Andy Harrison, from Rolls-Royce, said: “The World Servitization Convention provides an excellent opportunity for businesses to network and learn about the benefits of advanced services from those already offering them.Servitization is quite prolific in the business world, but relatively few people recognise what it is. This event will be a great way to address that and encourage more companies to adopt the model.”
The three day event, sponsored by IFS, Blueprint AMS, DLL, Servitly and Field Service News, will take place on 5, 6 and 7 May at the International Convention Centre (ICC) in Birmingham, UK.
As official media partner of the event, Field Service News are able to offer our manufacturing audience complimentary admission by quoting code WSC20-FSN during the registration process which you can find here.
Dec 02, 2019 • Features • future of field service • Professor Tim Baines • Servitization Conference • conference
Professor Tim Baines’ is synonymous with all things servitization and advanced services as well as a long-term contributor to Field Service News. His Advanced Services Group are launching the World Servitization Convention in 2020 an exciting new...
Professor Tim Baines’ is synonymous with all things servitization and advanced services as well as a long-term contributor to Field Service News. His Advanced Services Group are launching the World Servitization Convention in 2020 an exciting new project Field Service News is proud to be working alongside. Here we speak to him exclusively to get the low down on what to expect...
Jul 18, 2019 • Features • Advanced Services Group • aston business school • Professor Tim Baines • Servitization • Servitization Conference
While attending the Spring Servitization Conference, Mark Glover caught up with Professor Tim Baines (pictured), Director of the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School. Conversation ranged from the discipline’s origins to the impact of...
While attending the Spring Servitization Conference, Mark Glover caught up with Professor Tim Baines (pictured), Director of the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School. Conversation ranged from the discipline’s origins to the impact of Industry 4.0 and why societal shifts in sustainability and service consumption are key factors behind servitization’s next movement...
When I joined Field Service News one word appeared more frequently in my browser and in-box than any others: servitization. Its resonance was affirmed by my Editor Kris Oldland; who, during one of our early induction meetings, explained the pivotal role it plays in modern manufacturing. Three months’ on, I flew to Stockholm, and then took a two-hour car journey to Linkoping where I was to attend a conference dedicated solely to the discipline.
So, it was during a coffee break I sat down with Tim Baines, Professor of Operation Strategy at the Aston Business School and a significant player in servitization’s evolution. I was pleased to have an audience with someone who could shed some light on an area that to a layman (me) can be slightly overwhelming. We both grabbed a coffee and one of the many excellent Swedish pastries on offer before finding a quiet corner to talk.
I started off (perhaps boldly) by explaining my slight surprise that a whole three-day conference on servitization existed; that universities have whole departments dedicated to its research – many of whom were here in Sweden presenting – and that academic papers on the subject are being circulated widely. “Business researchers observe industry,” Tim said, sipping his drink. “They’re looking for phenomena, which they are trying to conceptualize and describe and test their hypothesis and understanding. They ultimately arrive at a clinical description of what that phenomena is.”
The phenomena of servitization emerged from the marketing community in the 1980s, Tim tells me, with its first research work appearing in the European Management Journal. Sandra Vandermerwe and Juan Rada’s paper Servitization of Business: Adding Value by Adding Service was published in 1988 and the former is now credited with introducing the term ‘servitization’ to represent the addition of services to enhance a manufacturer’s commercial offerings.
However, the discipline went into incubation. That was until the 2000s when Tim, along with Andy Neely from Cambridge University and Raj Roy from Cranfield niversity respectively, were awarded a research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to resurrect its study. “We all put a lot of effort into it,” Tim recalls. “If you look at the citations; the academic citations on servitization; look at the highest cited papers on servitization, it was really down to our collective work.”
Thanks in part to the funding, as well as the efforts of Tim and his fellow academics interest in the discipline flourished both academically and in practice. Demand for a specialist, academic event grew and eight years ago the Spring Servitization Conference was born; its eight years testament to its growth and popularity. Its first incarnation was a workshop of sorts laying out the basic principles of what the group wanted to achieve; essentially something that was crossdisciplinary within a tight-knit, specialised community.
Tim explains: “The conference is a platform for people to network, to meet each other, to share those ideas, those insights, and to learn from a few carefully chosen manufacturers how they’re seeing the world. I think what we will see in a few years’ time, we’ll have a stronger group coalescing around the key topics. Ultimately, this is a community which could very well define an
equivalent of Industry 4.0 or Industry 5.0.”
“Don’t be put-off by the word servitization... all manufacturers can gain some value through service...”
Industry 4.0 discussions were a key part of that morning’s presentations. Chairing a debate himself, Tim asked panelists if servitization was part of Industry 4.0 or vice-versa? Away from the conference hall I pushed him on his own thoughts. “Most manufacturing companies,” he said, “would associate Industry 4.0 with what’s going on inside the factory. Servitization invariably is what’s going on beyond the factory gate. In reality servitization predates industry 4.0. It will exist concurrently, and in a few years’ time will be still going on and industry 4.0 will have come and will have gone.”
Aligning with the conference’s theme, Delivering Services Growth in the Digital Era, Tim suggests firms feel more comfortable adopting servitization as digital offered a layer of security. “Digital is de-risking, enabling those more advanced services to be offered with lower risk,” he says. “It’s making it easier for manufacturers to do it.”
The other driver, Tim continued, is a broader societal shift around service consumption superseding product consumption. “If you think about servitization; it’s not a question in my mind whether companies will make more money from services or less money from services – that’s an outdated question, an outdated conversation. It’s really a case in the way that society is going. We are consuming more services where the appetite is for more sophisticated services.” Sustainability, another large societal issue is also being bearing down on the servitization sphere.
Tim is hopeful that servitization - and industry 4.0 - can ultimately negate the environmental impact of material-heavy supply chains. He referenced a presentation that morning from Cranfield University’s Tobias Benjamin Widmer, who talked about the de-materialisation of the chain; reducing the consumption of raw materials while still achieving a desired outcome.
From that, our conversation naturally turned to regulation and the influence of Government on sustainability initiatives. Firm polices around electric cars, for example, would Tim Says, have an impact on the supply chains. “If the incentives are there for electric cars, why would you have a diesel manufacturing plant? If you don’t have a diesel manufacturing plant, then your whole supply chain evaporates.”
“Here’s an interesting one,” he smiles. “The number of rotational components in a diesel engine car: about 1,500. In an electric car: about 22. Now what’s that going to do your material supply chain?”
We finish our drinks, aware of the slow movement of delegates at they file back into the conference room, themselves refreshed by caffeine and pastries. I shake hands with Tim and thank him for his time, and we both agree to keep in touch.
The next day, I send Tim an email asking if he could possibly spare a copy of his book he wrote with Howard Lightfoot, Made to Serve. The book is seen as an excellent primer into servitization, and I said as much Tim in my email; how it could enhance my learning on a topic that I was beginning to find rather intriguing.
The book arrived in my mailbox a few days’ later; a good-looking tome with a striking cover. A contemporary, simple image of three factories, the middle one with a striking red path leaving its front gate; fanning in perspective to the base of the cover. I read the book’s preface: “Don’t be put-off by the strange word of servitization,” part of it said, “all manufacturers can gain some value through service.”
I recalled the interview in Sweden, when Tim told me about the early days of servitization; when people queried the term, wondering how you spell it, asking if they would make money out of these advanced services. “Now, we don’t have these questions anymore,” Tim had said.
What is a relatively young area of research, servitization now seems to be an integral cog of a manufacturer’s approach to revenue. As Tim suggested, technology will evolve and eventually become exctinct (Industry 4.0, for example), but servitization, as a theory and practice, will continue to grow alongside and compliment manufacturing. In short, making money from selling spare parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was.
When I joined Field Service News one word appeared more frequently in my browser and in-box than any others: servitization. Its resonance was affirmed by my Editor Kris Oldland; who, during one of our early induction meetings, explained the pivotal role it plays in modern manufacturing. Three months’ on, I flew to Stockholm, and then took a two-hour car journey to Linkoping where I was to attend a conference dedicated solely to the discipline.
So, it was during a coffee break I sat down with Tim Baines, Professor of Operation Strategy at the Aston Business School and a significant player in servitization’s evolution. I was pleased to have an audience with someone who could shed some light on an area that to a layman (me) can be slightly overwhelming. We both grabbed a coffee and one of the many excellent Swedish pastries on offer before finding a quiet corner to talk.
I started off (perhaps boldly) by explaining my slight surprise that a whole three-day conference on servitization existed; that universities have whole departments dedicated to its research – many of whom were here in Sweden presenting – and that academic papers on the subject are being circulated widely. “Business researchers observe industry,” Tim said, sipping his drink. “They’re looking for phenomena, which they are trying to conceptualize and describe and test their hypothesis and understanding. They ultimately arrive at a clinical description of what that phenomena is.”
The phenomena of servitization emerged from the marketing community in the 1980s, Tim tells me, with its first research work appearing in the European Management Journal. Sandra Vandermerwe and Juan Rada’s paper Servitization of Business: Adding Value by Adding Service was published in 1988 and the former is now credited with introducing the term ‘servitization’ to represent the addition of services to enhance a manufacturer’s commercial offerings.
However, the discipline went into incubation. That was until the 2000s when Tim, along with Andy Neely from Cambridge University and Raj Roy from Cranfield niversity respectively, were awarded a research grant from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to resurrect its study. “We all put a lot of effort into it,” Tim recalls. “If you look at the citations; the academic citations on servitization; look at the highest cited papers on servitization, it was really down to our collective work.”
Thanks in part to the funding, as well as the efforts of Tim and his fellow academics interest in the discipline flourished both academically and in practice. Demand for a specialist, academic event grew and eight years ago the Spring Servitization Conference was born; its eight years testament to its growth and popularity. Its first incarnation was a workshop of sorts laying out the basic principles of what the group wanted to achieve; essentially something that was crossdisciplinary within a tight-knit, specialised community.
Tim explains: “The conference is a platform for people to network, to meet each other, to share those ideas, those insights, and to learn from a few carefully chosen manufacturers how they’re seeing the world. I think what we will see in a few years’ time, we’ll have a stronger group coalescing around the key topics. Ultimately, this is a community which could very well define an
equivalent of Industry 4.0 or Industry 5.0.”
“Don’t be put-off by the word servitization... all manufacturers can gain some value through service...”
Industry 4.0 discussions were a key part of that morning’s presentations. Chairing a debate himself, Tim asked panelists if servitization was part of Industry 4.0 or vice-versa? Away from the conference hall I pushed him on his own thoughts. “Most manufacturing companies,” he said, “would associate Industry 4.0 with what’s going on inside the factory. Servitization invariably is what’s going on beyond the factory gate. In reality servitization predates industry 4.0. It will exist concurrently, and in a few years’ time will be still going on and industry 4.0 will have come and will have gone.”
Aligning with the conference’s theme, Delivering Services Growth in the Digital Era, Tim suggests firms feel more comfortable adopting servitization as digital offered a layer of security. “Digital is de-risking, enabling those more advanced services to be offered with lower risk,” he says. “It’s making it easier for manufacturers to do it.”
The other driver, Tim continued, is a broader societal shift around service consumption superseding product consumption. “If you think about servitization; it’s not a question in my mind whether companies will make more money from services or less money from services – that’s an outdated question, an outdated conversation. It’s really a case in the way that society is going. We are consuming more services where the appetite is for more sophisticated services.” Sustainability, another large societal issue is also being bearing down on the servitization sphere.
Tim is hopeful that servitization - and industry 4.0 - can ultimately negate the environmental impact of material-heavy supply chains. He referenced a presentation that morning from Cranfield University’s Tobias Benjamin Widmer, who talked about the de-materialisation of the chain; reducing the consumption of raw materials while still achieving a desired outcome.
From that, our conversation naturally turned to regulation and the influence of Government on sustainability initiatives. Firm polices around electric cars, for example, would Tim Says, have an impact on the supply chains. “If the incentives are there for electric cars, why would you have a diesel manufacturing plant? If you don’t have a diesel manufacturing plant, then your whole supply chain evaporates.”
“Here’s an interesting one,” he smiles. “The number of rotational components in a diesel engine car: about 1,500. In an electric car: about 22. Now what’s that going to do your material supply chain?”
We finish our drinks, aware of the slow movement of delegates at they file back into the conference room, themselves refreshed by caffeine and pastries. I shake hands with Tim and thank him for his time, and we both agree to keep in touch.
The next day, I send Tim an email asking if he could possibly spare a copy of his book he wrote with Howard Lightfoot, Made to Serve. The book is seen as an excellent primer into servitization, and I said as much Tim in my email; how it could enhance my learning on a topic that I was beginning to find rather intriguing.
The book arrived in my mailbox a few days’ later; a good-looking tome with a striking cover. A contemporary, simple image of three factories, the middle one with a striking red path leaving its front gate; fanning in perspective to the base of the cover. I read the book’s preface: “Don’t be put-off by the strange word of servitization,” part of it said, “all manufacturers can gain some value through service.”
I recalled the interview in Sweden, when Tim told me about the early days of servitization; when people queried the term, wondering how you spell it, asking if they would make money out of these advanced services. “Now, we don’t have these questions anymore,” Tim had said.
What is a relatively young area of research, servitization now seems to be an integral cog of a manufacturer’s approach to revenue. As Tim suggested, technology will evolve and eventually become exctinct (Industry 4.0, for example), but servitization, as a theory and practice, will continue to grow alongside and compliment manufacturing. In short, making money from selling spare parts is no longer the revenue stream it once was.
Jul 11, 2019 • aston business school • manufacturing • Professor Tim Baines • Christian Kowalkowski • Servitization • Servitization Conference
Now in its eighth year and welcoming over 80 delegates from all over the globe, the Spring Servitization Conference focused on the impact of digitalisation and sought to affirm the benefits this discipline can bring to service in manufacturing....
Now in its eighth year and welcoming over 80 delegates from all over the globe, the Spring Servitization Conference focused on the impact of digitalisation and sought to affirm the benefits this discipline can bring to service in manufacturing. Attending the event in Linköping, Sweden, Mark Glover spoke to some of the keynote speakers and academics to gauge how important this gathering is...
Located in Southern Sweden, Linköping is the country’s seventh largest city. However, its dwarfed in comparison to London and New York, yet its charming and dotted streets littered with shops and cafes give it a very welcoming feel.
A five-minute walk from my hotel nestles an exhibition centre, the venue for this year’s Spring Servitization Conference, and like the rest of Linkoping it has a certain charm to it. Compared to conference hubs like London’s Excel and Birmingham’s NES, this is an idyllic setting: set among a lush green park littered with benches, where workers sip coffee enjoying the sun before heading to the office, the only sound is a polite bicycle bell or a the low drone of a tram.
I settle at the back of the main conference room on day one of the event, sipping my own coffee and grazing on some excellent Swedish pastries while awaiting the opening address from Professors Tim Baines and Christian Kowalkowski.
“I’ve taken a back seat this year,” says Professor Baines addressing delegates. This is the eighth year of the annual conference and the Director of the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School has always played a key role in the content, but this year has ably passed the reins to Professor Kowalkowski from Linkoping University
“It’s an event that straddles disciplines and the [servitization] community,” Professor Baines says, extolling the conference’s benefits, “and is excellent to theory and research and relevant to application and practice.”
It’s a valid point: the event has always sought to bridge the gap between industry and application while creating a servitization community that can share ideas, best practice and findings. It remains the only event of its kind and its eighth year is testament to its development, where over 80 participants would come through the conference doors.
“It’s very important because we call come from different disciplines,” Professor Kowalkowski says, taking time out to grab a coffee with me during the first day. "Typically, we have a lot of academic conferences where you go to a conference belonging to a particular discipline, for example marketing or operations management, strategy or innovation or something else. This [servitization conference] is a multidisciplinary conference, so you can connect with other researchers from other disciplines. Because this is ultimately multi-disciplinary research, we are doing on servitization.”
Themed around ‘Delivering services growth in the digital era’, this year’s three-day event was structured, as always, round one single track of academic presentations, split into morning, mid-morning and afternoon sessions and each concluding with a panel debate discussing that session’s major points.
To meld industry and academia, Professor Kowalkowski was able to arrange a suite of excellent key-note speakers to begin each morning and afternoon session, including Ellen Molin, Head of Business Area Support and Services at SAAB and Magnus Savenas, VP Customer Care and Quality at Electrolux.
"It’s an event that straddles disciplines..."
To begin proceedings however, the conference welcomed speakers from Toyota Material Handling Europe (THME): Joakim Plate, Director Service Market and his colleague Patrick Carlsson, Senior Manager Business Development, Service Market.
TMHE the pair told us, carry out four million customer visits every year, with an impressive 96 per cent first-time fix-rate however, with connectivity (which Carlsson called a “game changer in service”) and other technology developments. They expect to improve these figures in the future.
Of course, the challenge lies in managing the rate of technology development, which the pair acknowledged, particularly in big data solutions and prediction models. A challenge into digitalization they’ve ratified by partnering with Microsoft.
Following the event, I caught up with both speakers to press them further on this link-up. “It’s two big brands working together for big future challenges,” Carlsson told me. “we have aligned to utilise technology going forward.”
“In more concrete terms,” Plate added, “they [Microsoft] have been a partner with is us throughout the process, initially by trying to predict how will a service technician in our industry work in five or six years’ time. With that starting point we were able to develop the new platform, which will be developed and deployed in several steps. So, we’ve only really just started the journey here.”
T-Stream, the TMHE digitalization platform for service runs on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud used by all its technicians to get access information in real time including online documentation, parts ordering, quote creations, planning, remote error code reading and GPS. These are collected in one user interface delivering engineers to assets before they have broken down.
I ask what takeaways the pair have gained attending and presenting at an academic conference focused on servitization. “For us, it’s about sharing our challenges with the academic world and to try and bridge the gap between the industry and the academic world,” Plate explains. “I think both parties have a lot to gain in working more closely together and for us it’s an opportunity to convey the challenges that we see, and to get input from the academic world. One area could be big-data handling, for instance.”
Michael Kato is Chief Digital Officer at commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania and made the short journey by train to deliver day one’s afternoon key note. Kato told delegates, fresh from an excellent sit-down lunch, about driving a digital strategy with a focus on customer service and service development, the heart of which, he explained, is to “walk extensively in your customer’s shoes”.
Having been in the role for two years, I asked Kato what challenges he found, culturally, in integrating a digital strategy into a well ingrained core business of a company that has 52,000 employees. “I viewed it like an adventure,” he says smiling.
“We had to establish the values we’re after and what are the levers for higher customer value. We needed to formulate an awareness of what we wanted to do and then prioritise it. It’s taken nearly a year and a half to work out how can we drive digital in business both in a long and medium-term way, because it’s massively complex.”
And academically, what did Kato gain from attending the conference in Linkoping? “I think it is of big value,” he says. “From my point of view, you have to understand what you want to take out of it. So, it might be a framework giving a higher clarity on things that you need to focus on. It might be of viewing different capabilities or it might be understanding the complexities of driving change that you might not have reflected on.
“Many companies have problems on getting progress on different areas, they know what they need to do but they don’t know why they’re not getting there.”
Of course, academic presentations make-up most of the conference content and universities across Europe explored strands around SMEs, Industry 4.0 and advanced services. Generally, delegates saw how the digital side of servitization can be turned into actual value creation for customers and suppliers alike.
On this, Chris Raddats, a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Liverpool attending and presenting, told me that the conference shines a light on the potential of digitilisation for manufacturing servicing. “The Spring Servitization Conference provides a unique opportunity to discuss servitization from both practical and academic perspectives,” he told me at the evening’s drinks reception.
“This year’s conference was particularly interesting as it focused on digitalisation, a phenomenon that is disrupting many industries and one that could profoundly change how manufacturers develop and deliver services.”
It was during this drinks gathering that I met Lina Sunden, a young PHD student from the Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. Lina had a poster on display at the event, which she was due to present on the third day. She was looking forward to the prospect and excited to be part of this event. She told me that a specialist servitization event like the SSC was important as it focused on a discipline that may get lost in other conferences, something which inspires her throughout her academic pursuits.
It’s this coming together of like-minded academics that makes the SCC such an important gathering. Not only bridging the gap between academia and practice, the event offers a place for scholars whose research can be overlooked. However, the potential value that servitization brings to manufacturing, particularly when viewed through digitilisation could be hugely significant.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.
Located in Southern Sweden, Linköping is the country’s seventh largest city. However, its dwarfed in comparison to London and New York, yet its charming and dotted streets littered with shops and cafes give it a very welcoming feel.
A five-minute walk from my hotel nestles an exhibition centre, the venue for this year’s Spring Servitization Conference, and like the rest of Linkoping it has a certain charm to it. Compared to conference hubs like London’s Excel and Birmingham’s NES, this is an idyllic setting: set among a lush green park littered with benches, where workers sip coffee enjoying the sun before heading to the office, the only sound is a polite bicycle bell or a the low drone of a tram.
I settle at the back of the main conference room on day one of the event, sipping my own coffee and grazing on some excellent Swedish pastries while awaiting the opening address from Professors Tim Baines and Christian Kowalkowski.
“I’ve taken a back seat this year,” says Professor Baines addressing delegates. This is the eighth year of the annual conference and the Director of the Advanced Services Group at Aston Business School has always played a key role in the content, but this year has ably passed the reins to Professor Kowalkowski from Linkoping University
“It’s an event that straddles disciplines and the [servitization] community,” Professor Baines says, extolling the conference’s benefits, “and is excellent to theory and research and relevant to application and practice.”
It’s a valid point: the event has always sought to bridge the gap between industry and application while creating a servitization community that can share ideas, best practice and findings. It remains the only event of its kind and its eighth year is testament to its development, where over 80 participants would come through the conference doors.
“It’s very important because we call come from different disciplines,” Professor Kowalkowski says, taking time out to grab a coffee with me during the first day. "Typically, we have a lot of academic conferences where you go to a conference belonging to a particular discipline, for example marketing or operations management, strategy or innovation or something else. This [servitization conference] is a multidisciplinary conference, so you can connect with other researchers from other disciplines. Because this is ultimately multi-disciplinary research, we are doing on servitization.”
Themed around ‘Delivering services growth in the digital era’, this year’s three-day event was structured, as always, round one single track of academic presentations, split into morning, mid-morning and afternoon sessions and each concluding with a panel debate discussing that session’s major points.
To meld industry and academia, Professor Kowalkowski was able to arrange a suite of excellent key-note speakers to begin each morning and afternoon session, including Ellen Molin, Head of Business Area Support and Services at SAAB and Magnus Savenas, VP Customer Care and Quality at Electrolux.
"It’s an event that straddles disciplines..."
To begin proceedings however, the conference welcomed speakers from Toyota Material Handling Europe (THME): Joakim Plate, Director Service Market and his colleague Patrick Carlsson, Senior Manager Business Development, Service Market.
TMHE the pair told us, carry out four million customer visits every year, with an impressive 96 per cent first-time fix-rate however, with connectivity (which Carlsson called a “game changer in service”) and other technology developments. They expect to improve these figures in the future.
Of course, the challenge lies in managing the rate of technology development, which the pair acknowledged, particularly in big data solutions and prediction models. A challenge into digitalization they’ve ratified by partnering with Microsoft.
Following the event, I caught up with both speakers to press them further on this link-up. “It’s two big brands working together for big future challenges,” Carlsson told me. “we have aligned to utilise technology going forward.”
“In more concrete terms,” Plate added, “they [Microsoft] have been a partner with is us throughout the process, initially by trying to predict how will a service technician in our industry work in five or six years’ time. With that starting point we were able to develop the new platform, which will be developed and deployed in several steps. So, we’ve only really just started the journey here.”
T-Stream, the TMHE digitalization platform for service runs on Microsoft’s Azure Cloud used by all its technicians to get access information in real time including online documentation, parts ordering, quote creations, planning, remote error code reading and GPS. These are collected in one user interface delivering engineers to assets before they have broken down.
I ask what takeaways the pair have gained attending and presenting at an academic conference focused on servitization. “For us, it’s about sharing our challenges with the academic world and to try and bridge the gap between the industry and the academic world,” Plate explains. “I think both parties have a lot to gain in working more closely together and for us it’s an opportunity to convey the challenges that we see, and to get input from the academic world. One area could be big-data handling, for instance.”
Michael Kato is Chief Digital Officer at commercial vehicle manufacturer Scania and made the short journey by train to deliver day one’s afternoon key note. Kato told delegates, fresh from an excellent sit-down lunch, about driving a digital strategy with a focus on customer service and service development, the heart of which, he explained, is to “walk extensively in your customer’s shoes”.
Having been in the role for two years, I asked Kato what challenges he found, culturally, in integrating a digital strategy into a well ingrained core business of a company that has 52,000 employees. “I viewed it like an adventure,” he says smiling.
“We had to establish the values we’re after and what are the levers for higher customer value. We needed to formulate an awareness of what we wanted to do and then prioritise it. It’s taken nearly a year and a half to work out how can we drive digital in business both in a long and medium-term way, because it’s massively complex.”
And academically, what did Kato gain from attending the conference in Linkoping? “I think it is of big value,” he says. “From my point of view, you have to understand what you want to take out of it. So, it might be a framework giving a higher clarity on things that you need to focus on. It might be of viewing different capabilities or it might be understanding the complexities of driving change that you might not have reflected on.
“Many companies have problems on getting progress on different areas, they know what they need to do but they don’t know why they’re not getting there.”
Of course, academic presentations make-up most of the conference content and universities across Europe explored strands around SMEs, Industry 4.0 and advanced services. Generally, delegates saw how the digital side of servitization can be turned into actual value creation for customers and suppliers alike.
On this, Chris Raddats, a Lecturer in Marketing at the University of Liverpool attending and presenting, told me that the conference shines a light on the potential of digitilisation for manufacturing servicing. “The Spring Servitization Conference provides a unique opportunity to discuss servitization from both practical and academic perspectives,” he told me at the evening’s drinks reception.
“This year’s conference was particularly interesting as it focused on digitalisation, a phenomenon that is disrupting many industries and one that could profoundly change how manufacturers develop and deliver services.”
It was during this drinks gathering that I met Lina Sunden, a young PHD student from the Lulea University of Technology in Sweden. Lina had a poster on display at the event, which she was due to present on the third day. She was looking forward to the prospect and excited to be part of this event. She told me that a specialist servitization event like the SSC was important as it focused on a discipline that may get lost in other conferences, something which inspires her throughout her academic pursuits.
It’s this coming together of like-minded academics that makes the SCC such an important gathering. Not only bridging the gap between academia and practice, the event offers a place for scholars whose research can be overlooked. However, the potential value that servitization brings to manufacturing, particularly when viewed through digitilisation could be hugely significant.
I’m already looking forward to next year’s event.
Aug 01, 2018 • Features • Advanced Services Group • Alfa Laval • Future of FIeld Service • field service • Servitization • Servitization Conference • Through life Engineering • Ulrika Lindberg • Servitization 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...
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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Jul 24, 2018 • Features • Advanced Services Group • Andy Harrison • Aston Centre for Servitization Research and Practi • Future of FIeld Service • field service • Rolls Royce • Service Management • Servitization • Servitization Conference • Through Life Engineering Services • Servitization and Advanced Services
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...
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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