From data to value: conceptualising data-driven product service system

Abstract

With the rise of digital technologies, the possibility to retrieve a large amount of data from connected sources can become a key source of value creation in the context of service provision. Nevertheless, product service offerings that can be built on data retrieved from connected products, that we will call data-driven product service system, remains poorly covered from both the academic and the practitioners’ perspectives. Notably, a univocal definition of the characteristics of data-driven product service system is still missing. Therefore, this paper represents a first attempt in the systematic definition of data-driven services types and their features as a fundamental step to support their understanding and development. To accomplish this aim, the paper proposes a holistic view of data-driven product service system characteristics, employing a two-level hierarchical conceptual framework for business to business applications. The framework is constructed with a theory-building approach involving multiple industrial companies. The paper eventually reports a case study to demonstrate the applicability of the framework.

Keywords:

• Data-driven services
• digital servitization
• conceptual framework
• PSS
• typology

Acknowledgments

This paper was inspired by the activities of the ASAP Service Management Forum, an industry–academia community aimed at developing knowledge and innovation in product-service systems and service management (www.asapsmf.org).

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michela Zambetti

Michela Zambetti is a PhD candidate at the Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, at the University of Bergamo (IT), where she is also part of the CELS laboratory (Research Group on Industrial Engineering, Logistics and Service Operations). She is actively collaborating with industrial realities, being sponsored by ABB company and involved in ASAP Service Management Forum initiatives. Her research activities concern servitization and digitalisation, with particular reference to data-driven Product Service Systems and their engineering phase.

Federico Adrodegari

Federico Adrodegari is postdoc researcher at the Department of Industrial and Mechanical Engineering at University of Brescia, where he teaches in the operations management area. Since 2011 he is a member of the RISE Laboratory (www.rise.it) and his research activity concerns the areas of supply chain management and service management, in particular the servitization and digital servitization fields. He is author of numerous of scientific publications on national and international conferences and journals. He is currently the national coordinator of the ASAP Service Management Forum (www.asapsmf.org) an industry-academia community about servitization and product-service systems, performing research, transfer projects with companies and dissemination activities in these fields.

Giuditta Pezzotta

Dr Giuditta Pezzotta, is Assistant Professor at the Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering - University of Bergamo. She received her PhD degree in Management, Economics and Industrial Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 2010. Through her work at CELS, since 2006 she has been involved and has coordinated several industrial and research projects related to the Operations filed with a specific focus on Product-Service Engineering. She coordinated the ProSSaliC (Product-service System along Lifecycle) project financed European Project - IRSES - EC Marie Currie action. She was the technical coordinator for UNIBG of the DIVERSITY project, a H2020 funded project (G.A. 636692) in the area of Product-Service Engineering, she is now working within Erasums + KA DigiFoF project. Her current research interests are Service Engineering, Product-Service System and PSS in the Industry 4.0 migration and Modelling and Simulation. She is author of more than 60 refereed international and national journals and conference papers.

Roberto Pinto

Roberto Pinto, Ph.D is professor of Logistics and Supply Chain Management at the School of Engineering, University of Bergamo. He is a member of CELS - Research Group on Industrial Engineering, Logistics, and Service Operations. He develops research and technology transfer activities with companies on logistics, supply chain management, and process optimisation. He published more than 20 papers on international scientific journals and three books.

Mario Rapaccini

Mario Rapaccini, Ph.D. Mech. Eng. is professor of Business Strategy and of Innovation Management at the School of Engineering, University of Florence. His research focuses on digital innovation and servitization of manufacturing companies. He has also teaching collaborations with Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna of Pisa, Bergamo University and Pisa University. In 2003 he was among the founders of the ASAP FORUM, which today is the most important community in Italy on servitization. He collaborates with global companies such as Ricoh, Canon, Leonardo, Electrolux, Engie, Tim, General Electric, Baker Huges, Lilly, in education and innovation projects.

Cosimo Barbieri

Cosimo Barbieri is a Mech. Eng, PhD student of Smart Industry, a jointly proposed PhD program by the University of Florence, Pisa and Siena (IT), which focuses on the paradigm of Industry 4.0. Graduated in 2017 with a master thesis on the use of Machine Learning algorithms in measuring the performance of field-services, in 2019 he has won a scholarship - sponsored by the Tuscan region – with his PhD research project on the role of digital twins in the servitization of manufacturing companies. He is currently part of the ASAP Service Management Forum (www.asapsmf.org), the most important industry-academia community in Italy about servitization.