The Need for New Product Development Capabilities from Digitalization, Sustainability, and Servitization Trends

Sophie I. Hallstedt, Ola Isaksson and Anna Öhrwall Rönnbäck
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Sophie I. Hallstedt: Department of Strategic Sustainable Development, School of Engineering, Blekinge Institute of Technology, SE-37179 Karlskrona, Sweden
Ola Isaksson: The Division of Product Development, Department of Industrial and Materials Science, Chalmers University of Technology, SE-41296 Gothenburg, Sweden
Anna Öhrwall Rönnbäck: The Division of Humans and Technology, Department of Business Administration, Technology and Social Sciences, Luleå University of Technology, SE-97187 Luleå, Sweden

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 23, 1-26

Abstract: Apparent from the latest pandemic, the dynamics and rate of change in society accelerate on a global scale. Ongoing mega-trends in society, such as digitalization, sustainability, and servitization, fundamentally changes the conditions for manufacturers when developing and providing new products. This study clarifies the combined impact and consequences on product development capabilities in manufacturing firms of the three mega-trends: (i) digitalization, (ii) sustainability, and (iii) servitization. The research is based on a pre-study, complemented with a semi-structured interview study at small, medium-sized, and large Swedish-based manufacturing companies, and a systematic literature review. The research makes evident that the main challenge is to empower engineers and development teams to model, present, evaluate, and develop expected and smart digitalized solutions in a time-limited environment and prioritize the most resource efficient and sustainable solution. Therefore, four complementary support resources are suggested: (i) a knowledge management platform, (ii) a data management platform, (iii) a set of criteria and metrics measuring progression, and (iv) support methods and tools to define, model, and evaluate solutions. When integrated into a digital platform, developers can simultaneously access and process the necessary information needed for sustainable, digitalized, and servitized solutions.

Keywords: digitalization; sustainability; servitization; trends; sustainable product development; product-service systems; manufacturing companies; design capabilities (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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