Per Levén

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.

Balancing diversity in innovation networks : Trading zones in university-industry RaD collaboration

Purpose– Although the potential of innovation networks that involve both university and industry actors is great variances in cultures, goals and knowledge poses significant challenges. To better u ...

Regional IT innovation: a living lab approach

The paper provides an integrated view of value creation in the development of new products and services related to IT. We argue that customer and end-user integration into the development process as a whole is a key for enhanced innovation processes. Building on experiences from two regional IT innovation projects conducted with a living lab approach, we ask how this approach can help organisations utilise important resources in an open innovation system and guide universities – as driving engines in regional innovation systems – to improve their environments for research and education. Exploring the outcome from the projects and how customers are integrated into value creation processes during the course of IT design and use, we argue that innovation systems management and customer integration are important assets not only to increased efficiency and quality, but also for enhanced innovation.