The Digital Servitization of Manufacturing Sector: Evidence from a Worldwide Digital Servitization Survey

To boost revenues and create a lasting competitive advantage in the present global market, an increasing number of manufacturing companies are experimenting with shifting from product-centric offerings to service solutions leveraging digital technologies according to the Industry 4.0 paradigm. This (digital) transformation, known as “Digital Servitization”, aims to provide new (digital) services and/or enhance existing ones. Yet, this transformation is challenging and manufacturing companies frequently have trouble meeting their expectations. To shed light on the current state of the Digital Servitization trend in the global manufacturing sector, researchers involved in the ASAP Service Management Forum and the IFIP WG5.7 Special Interest Group on “Service Systems Design, Engineering and Management” have conducted an international survey targeting manufacturing SME managers. The main survey objectives are twofold: (i) to analyse how manufacturing companies are implementing digital technologies to support their Digital Servitization transformation from traditional business models based on product sales to models focused on service delivery, and (ii) to identify which critical issues and best practices are characterizing the Digital Servitization transformation of manufacturing companies. Survey results have demonstrated a rising trend in the global manufacturing sector towards the use of digital technologies for service delivery, but more mature servitization strategies, data management activities, coordination efforts at the ecosystem level, and supporting tools for conscious decisions in the delivery of (digital) services are still required to succeed in the new Digital Servitization arena.