Digital servitization and modularity: Responding to requirements in use

Hughes, Ellen; Parry, Glenn; Davies, Phil

Abstract

When moving towards digitally enabled advanced services firms are faced with the challenge of servicing heterogeneous customer requirements that emerge during product use. Whereas offers may have been designed with fixed functionality and a focus on stable outcomes, in the advanced service environment providers must respond to a variety of demands emergent from multiple contexts of use. Using a case example from healthcare, this chapter illustrates that adopting a modular systems approach to a firm’s offer enhances its ability to meet customers’ heterogeneous requirements in use. The chapter shows that through the application of modularity, in combination with digital and material technology, products can have the flexibility to absorb variety in use. Modularity and digitisation permit the binding of form and function to be postponed until requirements emerge in use, allowing the organisation to quickly tailor the offering to emergent demand.

• Online Publication Date: Jul 27, 2021
• Publication Date: Jul 27, 2021
• Deposit Date: Jun 20, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jul 28, 2023
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 457-469
• Book Title: The Palgrave Handbook of Servitization
• Chapter Number: 29
• ISBN: 9783030757700, 978-3-030-75773-1
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-75771-7_29
• Keywords: Digital Servitization; Modularity; Systems Thinking; Innovation; Healthcare
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9643852
• Contract Date: Mar 30, 2021