Remote monitoring in industrial services: need-to-have instead of nice-to-have

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to better understand the efficient use of remote monitoring systems (RMS) to create business value for industrial services in manufacturing firms. A business view to RMS is a key prerequisite for the successful application of the Internet of Things (IoT) in industrial services. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative multiple-case study was conducted in six engineering companies. The main source of data was semi-structured interviews with 16 managers. Findings The findings highlight the role of RMS in enabling manufacturing firms to collect data from customers to complement their limited knowledge about their customers. The study demonstrates the business value of using RMS in industrial services and the necessity of capturing the business value through advanced IT technologies. Research limitations/implications The qualitative research design and choice of six target companies limit the findings to business-to-business manufacturing firms. Further, the focus is on the manager’s viewpoint. The findings imply new business value through an efficient use of RMS to complement direct customer contact. Practical implications The study draws attention to the skilled use of advanced RMS and information and communication technology as a prerequisite for the successful application of the IoT in manufacturing firms that provide services for complex solutions and customers dispersed globally. Originality/value The research shows that using information collected through RMS is an important factor in creating business value in a manufacturing firm’s customer relationships. The study contributes by integrating RMS into the customer information collection process to increase the amount, validity and quality of data.

Industrial customers’ organizational readiness for new advanced services

“…Customers have divergent needs and different levels of service readiness and, therefore, the benefits they may receive from services will also vary, making some services uninteresting or unsuitable for some customers. Understanding each customer's perspective is therefore extremely important for the manufacturing firm (Brax and Jonsson, 2009); for example, understanding the customer's IT resources and remote technology acceptance can be a key consideration for the manufacturer's service transition strategies (Momeni and Martinsuo, 2018;Sakyi-Gyinae and Holmlund, 2018). Therefore, the firm should be concerned with customers' readiness for new services and their intent to adopt them.…”

“…Adding new services to manufacturing firms' offering portfolios has attracted broad attention (Bigdeli et al, 2017;Kowalkowski et al, 2017). Some new services that manufacturing firms are increasingly concerned with involve advanced technologyenabled and data-based services (Momeni and Martinsuo, 2018). Advanced industrial services are contracts with a long-term orientation, in which manufacturing firms deliver the capability, capacity, availability or performance the customer needs as part of its core business processes .…”

“…They also need a clear, well-packaged service offering (e.g. Groß et al, 2017;Raja et al, 2013); must understand customer demands and define their services to fit customer needs, despite possibly ill-defined customer specifications 1075 Industrial customers' organizational readiness (Ulaga and Loveland, 2014); and convince customers of the value of the service (Penttinen and Palmer, 2007) and related remote technologies (Momeni and Martinsuo, 2018). Customer focus is also needed in research and development (R&D) processes, as customer involvement and cocreation are considered key ingredients in developing new services (Alam, 2006;Brax and Jonsson, 2009;Westergren, 2011) and a high degree of co-creation in intermediate and advanced services has been found to have a positive effect on servitization (Ruiz-Alba et al, 2018).…”

“…Previous research suggests that adopting, for example, remote technologies and related services may be challenging (Westergren, 2011). At the same time, the use of such technologies may be quite necessary for manufacturing firms to access relevant customer information (Momeni and Martinsuo, 2018), and manufacturers may need to develop new ways of interacting with customers . Manufacturers must therefore understand their customers' readiness for adopting new advanced services.…”

Proactive customer orientation and joint learning capabilities in collaborative machine to machine innovation technology development: the case study of automotive equipment manufacturer

“…In cases where problems arise with M2M interactions in a newly designed technology, human control of the technological process is limited. This may sometimes mean, because of remote management, that there is no direct human control over processes (Momeni & Martinsuo, 2018) in which M2M interaction is used.…”