A maturity framework for autonomous solutions in manufacturing firms: The interplay of technology, ecosystem, and business model

Abstract

Significant advancements within the fields of digitalization, electrification, and automation have enabled the development, testing, and implementation of increasingly advanced autonomous solutions. Current examples of industrial automation promise significant economic and sustainability-oriented benefits for industrial customers. Yet, implemented autonomous solutions have rarely advanced beyond ‘islands of autonomy’. Although enabling initial improvements in the efficiency and effectiveness of operations, they have not led to the systemic process improvements that fully integrated site-wide solutions can achieve. It is becoming increasingly clear that the major challenges in this shift extend beyond technology to focus on business transformation and ecosystem relationships. Yet, extant research offers few insights into these domains. There is a need to develop a business-focused maturity framework for autonomous solutions to contribute to a predominantly technical discourse and support equipment actors and their wider ecosystems in commercializing autonomous solutions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how industrial equipment manufacturers can align the development of technology, business models and ecosystem relationships for the advancement of autonomous solutions. We build on case studies that include 32 interviews from four industrial equipment manufacturers and their extended ecosystems of customers and partners. We capture our findings in a three-level maturity framework for industrial autonomous solutions. This framework unwraps the attributes of each level from the perspectives of technical system development, ecosystem configuration, and business model design and is complemented by three overarching principles for the successful commercialization of autonomous solutions.

Inherent paradoxes in the shift to autonomous solutions provision: a multilevel investigation of the shipping industry

“…Shifting from technology provider to autonomous solutions provider requires internal changes in technology development and organizational identity, as well as changes in relationships with external entities. The materialization of an autonomous solutions value proposition simultaneously drives change and is driven by changes in the ecosystem structure (Thomson et al 2021 ). On the meso level, common elements regarding the ecosystem position would be present in most industry settings.…”

“…Autonomous solutions are essentially product–service–software systems (PSSS) that can function independently of human supervision (Thomson et al 2021 ). Conceptually, autonomous solutions have been placed on the supreme end of a digitalization spectrum, reflecting digital technology features ranging from monitoring to control, optimization, and autonomy (Porter and Heppelmann 2014 ).…”

“…Additionally, as autonomous solutions allow technology providers to take more responsibility of customers’ operational processes, customer maturation can be a substantial barrier to this advanced form of digital servitization (Lerch and Gotsch 2015 ). Similarly, as digitalization generally raises the need for collaboration across firm boundaries (Kamalaldin et al 2021 ; Sklyar et al 2019 ; Parida et al 2019 ; Nambisan et al 2017 ), the development of suitable business models that ensures alignment of ecosystem partners as well as customers may be key to overcoming these barriers (Thomson et al 2021 ).…”

“…A key challenge facing traditional industries that are engaged in this transformation to autonomous solutions is the persistent tensions between the established ways of doing business and embracing new business models (Thomson et al 2021 ). For example, technology providers face internal tensions between developing customized solutions and maintaining efficient standardization (Kohtamäki et al 2020 ).…”

“…As various autonomous products have been commercialized for consumer markets, marketing scholars have already begun to dissect the effect of autonomous products on consumers (Leung et al 2018 ; Rijsdijk and Hultink 2003 ; de Bellis and Johar 2020 ; Chiang and Trimi 2020 ). Similarly, as autonomous solutions have the potential to transform industrial markets, scholars have started to investigate the link between technology, business models, and ecosystems (Thomson et al 2021 ). In a B2B setting, manufacturers may benefit from a digital servitization strategy in the move to providing autonomous services.…”