72
C. A. González Chávez et al.
6.1 Introduction
The last decades have successfully demonstrated the world’s potential for exploitation
of human and industrial capabilities. Megatrends in manufacturing such as digitalization, automation, and connectivity are changing the way organizations and their
customers perceive value. The manufacturing sector finds itself in a fierce competition
for differentiators that provide a competitive advantage to achieve growth within the
firm and the possibility of developing permanence within highly-innovative markets
(Gebauer et al. 2011). Efforts towards the development of more efficient, flexible
and automated manufacturing environments have benefitted from the revolutionary
Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Internet-of-Services which enable smart manufacturing
with vertically and horizontally integrated production systems (Thoben et al. 2018).
Additionally, manufacturing companies have invested in the development of personalized products with value-added services, servitised value proposition which is better
known as Product-Service Systems (PSS) and finds value with lifecycle concerns
through cooperation and interaction of a range of stakeholders (Zheng et al. 2018).
The imminent intersection of the digital and material world could provide
the infrastructure required for implementing feedback-rich systems throughout
the product lifetime, facilitating information transparency and process circularity
(Alcayaga et al. 2019), generating additional possibilities of achieving more sustainable processes. The convergence of these research trends has contributed to strong
PSS development which although is supported by more than 20 years of research, it
still requires further exploration to maximize the utilization of its capabilities.
This paper aims to understand the interactions of digital technologies and PSS by
identifying enablers, challenges, and effects these two domains have on one another.
A literature review is performed, justified by existing academic work which has
generated a large cloud of terminologies and made systematization of this knowledge
a highly complex process. Additionally, this study aims to contribute to the on-going
discussion regarding the relationship between PSS and sustainability.
6.2 Theoretical Background
6.2.1 Digital Technologies
Digitalization refers to the digital representation of a product or service, which at the
same time, allows easier delivery and manipulation of the mentioned assets (Bitner
2010). Consequently, digital technology has emerged as an umbrella term that aims
to englobe the tools used to achieve digitalization means. According to Cambridge
University’s dictionary, it is directly related to applications related to the usage of
connectivity and internet.
The concept of digital technologies has englobed many terms, one of them being
the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT was first coined by Ashton (2009) to describe
C. A. González Chávez et al.
6.1 Introduction
The last decades have successfully demonstrated the world’s potential for exploitation
of human and industrial capabilities. Megatrends in manufacturing such as digitalization, automation, and connectivity are changing the way organizations and their
customers perceive value. The manufacturing sector finds itself in a fierce competition
for differentiators that provide a competitive advantage to achieve growth within the
firm and the possibility of developing permanence within highly-innovative markets
(Gebauer et al. 2011). Efforts towards the development of more efficient, flexible
and automated manufacturing environments have benefitted from the revolutionary
Internet-of-Things (IoT) and Internet-of-Services which enable smart manufacturing
with vertically and horizontally integrated production systems (Thoben et al. 2018).
Additionally, manufacturing companies have invested in the development of personalized products with value-added services, servitised value proposition which is better
known as Product-Service Systems (PSS) and finds value with lifecycle concerns
through cooperation and interaction of a range of stakeholders (Zheng et al. 2018).
The imminent intersection of the digital and material world could provide
the infrastructure required for implementing feedback-rich systems throughout
the product lifetime, facilitating information transparency and process circularity
(Alcayaga et al. 2019), generating additional possibilities of achieving more sustainable processes. The convergence of these research trends has contributed to strong
PSS development which although is supported by more than 20 years of research, it
still requires further exploration to maximize the utilization of its capabilities.
This paper aims to understand the interactions of digital technologies and PSS by
identifying enablers, challenges, and effects these two domains have on one another.
A literature review is performed, justified by existing academic work which has
generated a large cloud of terminologies and made systematization of this knowledge
a highly complex process. Additionally, this study aims to contribute to the on-going
discussion regarding the relationship between PSS and sustainability.
6.2 Theoretical Background
6.2.1 Digital Technologies
Digitalization refers to the digital representation of a product or service, which at the
same time, allows easier delivery and manipulation of the mentioned assets (Bitner
2010). Consequently, digital technology has emerged as an umbrella term that aims
to englobe the tools used to achieve digitalization means. According to Cambridge
University’s dictionary, it is directly related to applications related to the usage of
connectivity and internet.
The concept of digital technologies has englobed many terms, one of them being
the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT was first coined by Ashton (2009) to describe