Dear Colleagues,

“Servitization” is a term originally introduced by Vandermerwe & Rada (1988), who first argued that manufacturers needed a way to set themselves apart from competitors, and most importantly, to retain their customer base and increase the differentiation. Today, this term refers to industries using their products to sell “outcome as a service” rather than a one-off sale. A modern example of this is the delivery of media as a service, as done by many different apps, which replaces the need for customers to buy CDs or DVDs.

In a very different context, manufacturing and logistics can also benefit from servitization. Indeed, production environments can offer additional services (e.g. maintenance) to supplement their traditional products. However, if manufacturers are to become service providers, then it is their responsibility to keep the service up and running. Indeed, servitization is only a continuous and reliable revenue source for as long as the service provided by a company is continuous and reliable. There are, in particular, three levels of servitization within manufacturing companies:

1) Product Provision - This is the basics of manufacturing business, i.e. build and sell. Once it leaves the factory, the product ceases to be a concern to the manufacturer, but it also ceases to be a revenue stream;

2) Aftersales Servicing, repairs and condition monitoring: The maintenance of a product provides an ongoing source of revenue for manufacturers;

3) Advanced Services Taking aftersales to the next level: advanced services are more relationship focused and customer-centric than just selling and maintaining a product. In many cases, advanced services are delivered on a subscription model in which the consumer pays for the outcome – whether that be hours of jet propulsion or pages printed.

In contexts in which manufacturing companies remain the owner of the product, “servitization” means that companies should take responsibility for reverse logistics and waste management in cases where the product still remains in the manufacturer’s ownership and responsibility, which has obvious implications for logistics. More in general, supply chains which support the provision of servitized value propositions are different to those that support only products or services provisions (Johnson & Mena, 2008).

There are a number of benefits for businesses adopting a servitization model, the first being meeting customers’ demands, leading ultimately to greater customer retention. No longer can a business assume that products alone will sustain the profit, as customers are becoming more demanding with their requirements and offering additional services that can meet those demands. However, when a manufacturing or logistics business makes the decision to adopt a servitization model, it will also have to face specific challenges, primarily because the “service” culture is different from the mere production culture. The transition from a traditional product-based supply chain to a service value chain requires a reconsideration of the whole supply chain management. Both structure and relations between partners could be affected when a firm moves to provide industrial services (Bustinza et al., 2013). In such context, supply chain ability to change and to adapt successfully to changes become fundamental. A further challenge for businesses implementing a servitization model is the uncertainty of profitability: for instance, servitized business tend to generate lower percentage sales and can be more subject to bankruptcies (Neely, 2008).

In recent decades we have entered a phase of radical techno-economic changes, so that the progressive conceptualization of issues related to “servitization” have necessarily been significantly affected (Brax & Visintin, 2017). Modern Industry 4.0 technologies, in particular, are expected to enhance the potentials for business servitization. For example, the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine embedded sensors are expected to play a huge role in keeping servitized business models up and running. Sensors within equipment will be able to feed data back to the manufacturer or service provider about the condition of parts and the overall product which should mean that maintenance issues can be resolved before the problem occurs. Or, should anything break unexpectedly, the manufacturer/service provider will be notified automatically by the broken part. Recent studies have demonstrated that digital servitization, including software and data processing services, can enhance business resilience (Cusumano et al., 2015). In general, it has been proved that many service business models are more resilient than traditional models focused on selling products (Rapaccini et al., 2020). Servitization needs strong relationships with customer and dynamic connections among partners. The need to continuously assess quick market changes and customer requirements leads a higher ability of resilience.

In line with this premise, the aim of this special issue is to attract research focused on the general theme of servitization, with a particular attention to the manufacturing and logistics contexts and to the potentials of Industry 4.0 to enhance service capabilities and resilience of firms. We are confident that this topic will capture a variety of contributions, due to its relevance in modern business environments.

Prof. Teresa Murino
Prof. Dr. Eleonora Bottani
Prof. Daria Battini
Prof. Marta Rinaldi
Guest Editors

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• Servitization
• Manufacturing industry
• Logistics and supply chain
• Industry 4.0
• Resilience
• Industrial service operations
• Digital servitization business models
• Digitalized product-service systems
• Service supply chain management
• Data-based value chains
• Cloud-based approaches for maintenance
• Remote maintenance
• Maintenance services
• Operational services
• Customer services