Gunilla Ölundh Sandström

Framing research for service orientation of manufacturers through PSS approaches

Purpose - In order to respond to the industrial trend towards service design and delivery, research must address a vast area partially related to value creation, marketing and network theories. How ...

Management of radical innovation and environmental challenges: Development of the DryQ capacitor at ABB

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the driving forces for taking environmental considerations to a higher level in a project involving radical innovation.Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative case study is based on ten in‐depth interviews with respondents from the development team for the DryQ project at ABB.Findings – In order to achieve substantial environmental benefits, radical product development is essential. Radical product development has attributes that differ from those of incremental product development. It is important that these differences be acknowledged when preparing to manage environmental challenges in development projects. In radical product development, environmental considerations should be taken into account very early on, at the strategic level of the design process. Setting challenging environmental targets and rewarding environmental improvements was crucial to the outcome of the project presented in this paper.Research limitations/implications – The resea...

Remanufacturing of Products used in Product Service System Offerings

As a product service system provider it is important to consider its benefits and drawbacks. Connecting the product service system with a remanufacturing system has a good potential of being economically and environmentally beneficial. This paper elucidates the case of three different remanufacturers and how their relation with their core provider affects their business. Products sold as a part of a product service system have great potential of being remanufactured in an efficient manner. This is for example due to large possibilities to plan the remanufacturing operations and to achieve pre-information about the cores coming in to the remanufacturing facilities.

Learning networks : a method for Integrated Product and Service Engineering - experience from the IPSE project

The aim with the Integrated Product and Service Engineering (IPSE) project is to develop a methodology for companies that want to make the journey of moving from selling products to also sell Integrated Product and Service Offerings. In order to achieve that major changes are needed in the companies. In this paper the learning network approach is described as well as the content of the workshop series that the companies participated in. The findings show that a learning network approach is beneficial methodology for achieving changes in the companies, since the participants learn from each other and from the researchers.

Management of radical innovation and environmental challenges

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the driving forces for taking environmental considerations to a higher level in a project involving radical innovation.Design/methodology/approach – This qualitative case study is based on ten in‐depth interviews with respondents from the development team for the DryQ project at ABB.Findings – In order to achieve substantial environmental benefits, radical product development is essential. Radical product development has attributes that differ from those of incremental product development. It is important that these differences be acknowledged when preparing to manage environmental challenges in development projects. In radical product development, environmental considerations should be taken into account very early on, at the strategic level of the design process. Setting challenging environmental targets and rewarding environmental improvements was crucial to the outcome of the project presented in this paper.Research limitations/implications – The resea...

Using company-academia networks for improving Product/Service Systems at large companies

Many manufacturers are shifting focus for different reasons from being providers of mainly physical products to providing increased services in their customer offerings. Traditionally, the focus of manufacturing companies has been more on product development than service development; this is one reason why it is important for Product/Service Systems (PSS) developers to meet others who understand this situation. This chapter describes challenges large PSS providers in Sweden are facing, and how these can be explored and discussed within a PSS company–academia network setting. It is concluded that during the three first years of network meetings, this approach has been a success. In addition, the experiences gained from participation in this network have resulted in recommendations for PSS providers and researchers thinking of starting up similar networks and/or building ones has already begun.