Smart manufacturing as an enabler of servitization: A framework for the business transformation towards a smart service ecosystem

In recent years, many companies have been forced to move their businesses from a product-centric perspective to a product-service integrated offering. This strategic transformation has been called “servitization” and represents one of the major opportunities for companies that wish to add value to their traditional product-based offerings, differentiating from competitors and generating additional revenues. Moreover, the introduction of new digital technologies is pushing the transformation of traditional manufacturing into smart manufacturing, in order to enhance the productivity and the efficiency of the production exploiting IT technologies. Starting from the German initiative called “Industry 4.0”, many researchers and practitioners are trying to describe the transformation path towards smart manufacturing. In this paper, the digital transformation of enterprises is considered as an enabler of the servitization process. In particular, a set of technologies and methodologies of Industry 4.0 are associated to the challenges that companies have to face, moving their business from a product-oriented to a service-based value proposition. The aim of the paper is to jointly analyze the servitization and Industry 4.0 transformation processes and to formalize a combined transformation path that can enhance companies’ competitiveness. Starting from the analysis of academic and industrial literature, a framework describing the servitization and smart manufacturing transition is presented to depict the steps required to build a digital servitized ecosystem. The work contributes to both theory and practice to the fields of servitization and Industry 4.0. Managerial implications and limitations of the presented framework are discussed and further developments of the research are proposed.