Researchers at CTF have been awarded 4.6 million SEK from the KK Foundation for research on servitization in manufacturing companies. In the project, the researchers will develop a reference model to create a better understanding of how servitization is done in practice.
Globalization and increased competition have led to that many manufacturing companies have increased their service offers, not least in terms of advanced services. The term serivitization is used to describe this process, that is, when manufacturing companies change focus and begin offering services linked to their products, thus creating new value together with their customers. For companies with a traditional product logic, there are a number of challenges and, in order to succeed, a new approach that permeates the entire organization is needed.
"Changing approaches within an organization is a major challenge in itself and something that many manufacturing companies are struggling with today. This is demonstrated by, for example, trying to find profitable business models for service or overcoming internal opposition from sellers", says Maria Åkesson, Lecturer at CTF and project leader.
The purpose of the project is to create understanding and knowledge about servitization and how this process can be translated into practice and provide competitive advantages.
"We will study how companies can manage and organize their operation for this type of transformation. We will focus on how resources can be used and configured in new ways, how value can be crated and captured, how routines and processes may need to be updated, and what norms and values are needed in the company to be able to make servitization work."
The project “ServzChall” is implemented over a three-year period in collaboration with the companies BillerudKorsnäs AB, Rolls-Royce AB, Voith Hydro AB and Cellcomb AB. It is funded by the KK Foundation, Karlstad University and the participating companies. The project also involves CTF researchers Nina Löfberg and Peter Magnusson.
