Katrin Jonsson

Developing integrated solution offerings for remote diagnostics: A comparative case study of two manufacturers

Purpose – This paper analyzes two manufacturing firms entering condition based maintenance business reveals the complex nature of establishing integrated solutions. Existing literature on integrate ...

Technologies for value creation: an exploration of remote diagnostics systems in the manufacturing industry

Abstract.  With firms increasingly relying on ubiquitous computing to implement major business initiatives, it is becoming ever more necessary to understand the technological aspects of business developments. This paper analyzes the use of remote diagnostics systems in the manufacturing industry and discusses the opportunities and challenges for the early adopters. It pays specific attention to the impact on business aspects such as the value creation process consisting of relationships, roles, and architecture and the value proposal consisting of a business offer and customer value. The study shows how ubiquitous computing allows manufacturers to become remote service providers while customers can either become co‐creators of value or passive receivers of created value. Ubiquitous computing also creates possibilities for the manufacturing industry to design new kinds of business offers based on remote presence. Studying remote diagnostics systems shows that ubiquitous computing creates value when deployed in products, and not just in relation to individuals. Moreover, the design of the value‐creation process should not be limited to the single supplier or customer organization, as ubiquitous computing applications take no notice of organizational boundaries.

Turn to the material: Remote diagnostics systems and new forms of boundary-spanning

To learn and adapt, organizations engage widely in Information Technology (IT)-mediated boundary-spanning. This involves making sense of a swath of peripheral information made available by digital means so as to expand local knowledge. Prior research on boundary-spanning has paid scant attention to material differences between IT systems in enabling or constraining such activity. In this article, we argue that material features do matter: features afforded by IT systems have a significant impact on the form and content of boundary-spanning. We analyze material features and related affordances provided by remote diagnostics systems - a family of ubiquitous IT systems. These features allow remote diagnostics systems to collect, store, and continuously analyze data about the state of machinery and related production processes across space, time and organizational boundaries. Organizations use these systems to determine when maintenance intervention is needed, or to improve their production processes. Often, these systems are run by external service providers at remote sites, which become the new ears and the eyes of a focal organizations production processes. Building on a longitudinal multi-site case study of two organizations, we explore the impacts of remote diagnostics systems on boundary-spanning. We observe that material features afforded by the remote diagnostics led the organizations to change their boundary-spanning in contradictory ways. On one hand, they reinforced existing boundaries. On the other hand, they crossed or cut down others, or created new ones. This suggests that the material features of these systems, when combined with new knowledge creation and sharing practices, within and between the local and the remote sites generate richer, multi-faceted inter-organizational knowledge flows. We surmise that ITs new material features will continue to significantly shape organizing logics that determine where and when organizational boundaries are drawn and crossed. Future boundary-spanning will increasingly be shaped by socio-technical assemblages brought together by increasingly pervasive IT capabilities.

Organizational dimensions of e-maintenance: a multi-contextual perspective

A key objective for e-maintenance efforts is to align maintenance processes with business- and operational processes in order to reach organizational objectives. In the context of the process- and manufacturing industry a key objective for firms is to avoid downtime and to make sure all critical production equipment is up and running. To this end, e-maintenance has become increasingly important for the process- and manufacturing industry. Successful e-maintenance is realized by the organizational use of advanced information technology-solutions which aims at moving maintenance work from being primarily reactive (e.g. to react and respond to equipment breakdowns) to predictive (e.g. to predict when equipment are in need of maintenance before it breaks down). Building on a collaborative project with industrial organizations in the pulp and paper and the mining industry this paper explores organizational opportunities and challenges associated with the design and implementation of IT-based services for remote diagnostics of industrial equipment. We observe opportunities and challenges related to organizational innovation and learning. The paper introduces a multi-contextual perspective to better understand the opportunities and challenges associated with organizational learning and innovation. We argue that in order for e-maintenance services to be successful it must not only build on leading-edge technological solutions but also be built on an explicit model for how the maintenance work is organized and how e-maintenance efforts are aligned with overall organizational objectives.

Ubiquitous Computing and the Double Immutability of Remote Diagnostics Technology: An Exploration into Six Cases of Remote Diagnostics Technology Use

The aim of this paper is to display the use a specific type of ubiquitous computing technology—remote diagnostics technology—in organizations and, in particular, the way in which the technology is enacted in remote and local maintenance groups. By taking a case study approach, we look into the use of remote diagnostics technology in the maintenance industry. Drawing from actor—network theory, and in particular the notion of double immutability, we argue that we need to establish a stable relationship that uses remote diagnostics technology for monitoring machine performance from a remote place while also keeping a level of local responsiveness toward machine performance. The stability of the remote diagnostics technology is seemingly effective in that critical data can be collected, diffused, and manipulated. The stability of the network of relations surrounding the technology is, however, yet to emerge. The borders between the central group and the local maintenance workers must be considered and we need to acknowledge that it takes effort to sustain stable networks of relations. We need to establish a new relationship that uses ubiquitous computing technology for monitoring processes and activities from the remote group while also keeping a level of local responsiveness toward machine performance. Taken together, the remote and the local group, along with the remote diagnostics technology, constitute a maintenance work collective.

Desituating context in ubiquitous computing : Exploring strategies for the use of remote diagnostic systems for maintenance work

Context awareness forms a core concern in ubiquitous computing and goes hand in hand with today’s extensive use of sensor technologies. This paper focuses on the use of sensors as part of remote di ...

Representation and mediation in digitalized work: evidence from maintenance of mining machinery

The increased digitalization of work results in practices that are increasingly networked and knowledge-based. As such, we need to continuously inquire how digital technology leads to changes in work and not be content knowing that it leads to change. This paper contributes to advancing such knowledge through an analysis of digitalized condition-based maintenance of machinery in a Swedish iron ore mine. Drawing on the distinction between digital representation and digital meditation figurations of human and material agency, we analyze how the distributed network of workers used a diverse portfolio of digital technologies to make complex knowledge-based decisions on when and how to maintain the mining machinery. We combine these empirical insights with extant literature to advance a new theoretical perspective on how key characteristics of digital technologies are implicated in networked, knowledge-based work practices.

Aspects of Data Quality in eMaintenance: A Case Study of Process Industry in Northern Europe

Increased environmental awareness in industry combined with the globalized market economy has created an increase in demand for sustainable and efficient resource utilization. In this context, maintenance plays a critical role by linking business objectives to the strategic and operational activities aimed at retaining system availability performance, cost-efficiency, and sustainability. Performing maintenance effectively and efficiently requires corresponding infrastructure for decision-support provided through eMaintenance solutions. A proper eMaintenance solution needs to provide services for data acquisition, data processing, data aggregation, data analysis, data visualization, context-sensing, etc. For Quality of Service (QoS) in eMaintenance solutions, the performance of both system-of-interest, enabling systems, and related processes have to be measured and managed. However, the QoS has to be considered on all aggregation levels and must encompass the aspects of Content Quality (CQ), Data Quality (DQ), and Information Quality (IQ). Hence, the purpose of this paper is to study and describe some aspects of DQ in eMaintenance related to the process industry in northern Europe.

Making IT visible : the paradox of ubiquitous services in practice

This paper describes the efforts in ensuring research relevance by means of an industrial PhD project. The project is aiming at strengthening the relevance of research and development by educating ...This chapter explores issues associated with the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in process industries and the inherent tension between control and flexibility in IT infrastruc ...

Embedded Relationships in Information Services: A Study of Remote Diagnostics

Information technology (IT) is increasingly used in the production of services, enabling a self serve channel that challenges the embedded relationship in services. To examine the implications of IT for embedded relationships, we undertook an interpretative case study of a remote diagnostics service in the mining industry. Our analysis suggests that the combination of IT and social efforts by the participants can support embedded relationships to a larger extent than has been shown in previous research.