Accessing servitisation potential of PLM data by applying the product avatar concept

Abstract

Manufacturers of complex, high-value consumer products are increasingly forced to think of ways to satisfy their customers’ needs, stand out from competition and access new revenue streams. One way to accomplish that is to utilise the potential of product service bundles, which allow customers to enjoy a more holistic experience of products. The objective of this study was to investigate how the development of a novel concept, the product avatar and its application to existing products can contribute to servitisation. After establishing a solid foundation through a literature review, the theory behind the product avatar concept is introduced. In the following, the support of the product avatar concept for the main drivers of servitisation is discussed. The theoretical findings are then evaluated through a case study describing the development and application of the product avatar to leisure boat product lifecycle management data in the European boat industry. The results indicate that the product avatar concept does support servitisation by e.g. supporting industrial stakeholders to create new services around their core product which, in turn, may create new revenue opportunities.

Keywords:

• product avatar
• servitisation
• data presentation
• individualised service generation
• PLM
• PSS

Acknowledgement

This work was partly funded by the EC through the BOMA ‘Boat Management’ project in FP7 SME-2011-1 ‘Research for SMEs’ and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through a Ph.D. fellowship (DAAD Jahresstipendium für Doktoranden). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Commission, DAAD and all BOMA project partners. The results presented are partly based on a student project at the University of Bremen. The authors would like to thank the participating students for their significant contributions: Conrads, A., Galipoglu, E., Mursinsky, A., Pergande, B., Selke, A., Severengiz, M. Finally, the authors would like to thank the reviewers for their comments that helped to improve the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Holonix iLike platform http://www.holonix.it/en/platform.php.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly funded by the EC through the BOMA “Boat Management” project in FP7 SME-2011-1 “Research for SMEs” and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) through a Ph.D. fellowship (DAAD Jahresstipendium für Doktoranden).