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The purpose of this paper is to identify the commonalities and differences in manufacturers’ motivations to servitise.

UK study based on interviews with 40 managers in 25 companies in 12 sectors. Using the concept of product complexity, sectors were grouped using the Complex Products and Systems (CoPS) typology: non-complex products, complex products and systems.

Motivations to servitise were categorised as competitive, demand based (i.e. derived from the customer) or economic. Motivations to servitise vary according to product complexity, although cost savings and improved service quality appear important demand-based motivations for all manufacturers. Non-complex product manufacturers also focus on services to help product differentiation. For CoPS manufacturers, both risk reduction and developing a new revenue stream were important motivations. For uniquely complex product manufacturers, stabilising revenue and increased profitability were strong motivations. For uniquely systems manufacturers, customers sought business transformation, whilst new service business models were also identified.

Using the CoPS typology, this study delineates motivations to servitise by sector. The findings show varying motivations to servitise as product complexity increases, although some motivational commonality existed across all groups. Manufacturers may have products of differing complexity within their portfolio. To overcome this limitation the unit of analysis was the strategic business unit.

Managers can reflect on and benchmark their motivation for, and opportunities from, servitisation, by considering product complexity.

The first study to categorise servitisation motivations by product complexity. Identifying that some customers of systems manufacturers seek business transformation through outsourcing.

The authors provide new quantitative evidence of the relationship between technologies and organizational design in the context of complex one-off products. The systems that produce complex, one-off products in mature, fragmented industries such as construction lack many of the typical organizational features that researchers have deemed critical to product development success (e.g., team familiarity, frequent communication, and strong leadership). In contrast, the complexity of these products requires a diverse knowledge base that is rarely found within a single firm. The one-off nature of construction’s products further requires improvization and development by a distributed network of highly specialized teams. And because the product is complex, significant innovations in the end product require systemic shifts in the product architecture. Riitta Katila, Raymond E. Levitt and Dana Sheffer use an original, hand-collected dataset of the design and construction of 112 energy-efficient “green” buildings in the United States, combined with in-depth fieldwork, to study these questions. A key conclusion is that the mature US construction industry, with its particularly fragmented supply chain, is not well suited to implementing “systemic innovations” that require coordination across trades or stages of the project. However, project integration across specialists with the highest levels of interdependence (i.e., craft, contract integration) mitigates the knowledge and coordination problems. There are implications for research on how technology shapes organizations (and particularly how organizations shape technology), and on the supply chain configuration strategies of firms in the construction industry as well as building owners who are seeking to build the best buildings possible within their budgets.

This paper applies the knowledge-based genetic algorithm to solve the optimization problem in complex products technological processes.

The knowledge-based genetic algorithm (KGA) is defined as a hybrid genetic algorithm (GA) which combined the GA model with the knowledge model. The GA model searches the feasible space of optimization problem based on the “neighborhood search” mechanism. The knowledge model discovers some knowledge from the previous optimization process, and applies the obtained knowledge to guide the subsequent optimization process.

The experimental results suggest that the proposed KGA is feasible and available. The effective integration of GA model and knowledge model has greatly improved the optimization performance of KGA.

The technological innovation of complex products is one of effective approaches to establish the core competitiveness in future. For this reason, the KGA is proposed to the technological processes optimization of complex products.

In this paper, we seek to understand how changes in product architecture affect the innovation performance of firms in a complex product ecosystem. The canonical view in the literature is that changes in the technological dependencies between components, which define a product’s architecture, undermine the innovation efforts of incumbent firms because their product development efforts are built around existing architectures. We extend this prevailing view in arguing that component dependencies and changes in them affect firm innovation efforts via two principal mechanisms. First, component dependencies expand or constrain the choice set of firm component innovation efforts. From the perspective of any one component in a complex product (which we label the focal component), an increase in the flow of design information to the focal component from other (non-focal) components simultaneously increases the constraint on focal component firms in their choice of profitable R&D projects while decreasing the constraint on non-focal component firms. Second, asymmetries in component dependencies can confer disproportionate influence on some component firms in setting and dictating the trajectory of progress in the overall system. Increases in such asymmetric influence allow component firms to expand their innovation output. Using historical patenting data in the personal computer ecosystem, we develop fine-grained measures of interdependence between component technologies and changes in them over time. We find strong support for the empirical implications of our theory.

The purpose of this article is to illustrate how the characteristics of complex product systems pose specific managerial challenges onto the transfer of new technology from technology development to product development.

The research relies on comparative case studies involving three cases of internal technology transfer processes in the development of electrical equipment and telecommunication systems.

The research findings suggest that managerial decisions on internal technology transfer should be guided by a contingency framework rather than general procedures and tools.

Since the research is restricted to a limited number of case studies, additional studies are required to validate the findings.

The study results indicate that in cases of complex product development, there is a need for a more integrated view on technology and product development, than what is commonly described in the literature.

This article complements previous studies of the management of internal technology transfer processes, which primarily have addressed mass producing industries.

For decades now, industrial manufacturers’ complex product development (CPD) activities have seen various improvement approaches as well as product development (PD) support processes all in the quest to achieve shorter PD lead-times and higher return on investments. CPD process improvements, in terms of complex engineering design and delivery, still lack a lot more variance to be addressed on the “better, faster and cheaper” paradigm for efficient communication and information exchange flow processes. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

This paper presents employing social network theory analysis and statistical Pearson (r) correlation analysis in a triangulation approach to a proposed optimum conceptual information technology systems’ architecture and a “best practice” information flow process toward enhancing an industrial sustainable competitive advantage. Closed-end questionnaires were used to collect data for the scale or level of communication network from a sample size of eight Ship Power supply chain network complex engineering design and delivery systems-design teams with at least five members from each team.

Two extremely interesting findings and observations were identified from the analysis carried out (isolates and close-harmonic analysis) as well as the findings from the hypotheses’ testing. These essential analyses of the engineering systems-design teams were conducted by using the triangulation or mixed-method described in the abstract methodology identified above.

Effective and efficient real-time communication is seen as the vehicle for effective organization management. Although there may be some studies on effective technical communication in organizational and enterprise supply chain management settings, this research identifies a new robust and extensive analysis and feasible solutions to most of the communication bottlenecks and inefficient socio-industrial information flow processes, which need enhancement for industrial competitive advantage. Furthermore, the contribution of this paper further enhances the level 4 implementation aspect of the supply chain operation reference model in a replicable industry-specific perspective.

Strategic trends towards service operations have been widely reported in the recent literature, but organisational capabilities to support such service-centred strategies are less well understood. The purpose of this paper is to identify key organisational issues in managing complex engineering service operations throughout the lifecycle.

Using instruments developed from the product lifecycle management technologies and the network configuration concept, key organisational issues for engineering service operations were identified through case studies focusing on complex engineering products and services systems across a variety of industrial sectors.

The case studies demonstrated different organisational features and strategic priorities of engineering service operations along the whole lifecycle. A generic trend has been observed for engineering systems to move from being design, development and manufacturing focused to embracing support and end-of-life recycling matters.

This paper provides an overall framework for integrating key organisational issues in engineering service operations. It contributes to the service literature by highlighting the need of developing appropriate organisational capabilities to support service-centred strategies with engineering cases. It also provides guidance for companies to manage their engineering network operations throughout the whole lifecycle of complex products and services systems.

The purpose of the paper is to outline a business model for product system solutions that is based on functional modularity.

The paper employs an illustrative case study design. The cases constitute two action research projects in two organisations delivering complex product systems.

The paper illustrates the viability of a movement towards a solution business model based on the use of modular networks and integrated sub-supplies for complex product systems. It develops the idea of suppliers assuming responsibility for larger functional wholes in the delivery of large capital goods.

Future research should strive to further validate and falsify the proposed model, and for other product systems too, with a particular focus on their operational phases.

The paper outlines a business model based on modularity for both main suppliers and sub-suppliers that wish to extend their scope of delivery and to share responsibility with their networks.

The proposed model is in considerable contrast to conventional models in which the main supplier typically assumes most of the responsibility itself.

Complex system modeling requires not only understanding of modeling framework but also domain knowledge of the system. The purpose of this paper is to present an approach which separates the domain knowledge from the modeling framework with different views.

By establishing the mechanism of association and fusion among the views, the description and characterization of system from different aspect and point of view can form a complete system model. Based on the approach, a modeling and simulation (M&S) platform named SimFaster is developed. Modeling environment and simulation engine are the most important parts of the platform. The modeling environment provides multi‐views and multi‐layers to help the developers to modeling the structure, layers, composition, behavior, and interactions of an application system. The simulation engine provides mechanism of integration and interaction for components and objects, and provides runtime support for the concepts and terms from modeling environment. The simulation engine organizes the objects in the memory of distributed system as reflective object database system, so it is repository centered architecturally.

Based on the approach of multi‐views modeling, the platform is a flexible framework and supports top‐down design, model reuse and interoperation, dynamic refinement of models, corporative design among different users in different stages, and the rebuilt of application rapidly.

This paper deals with high‐level models of the complex systems.

This platform helps to design, modeling, and simulation complex system (especially for weapon combat system). It can participate into all the stages of the development of complex product/system, and can support the validation, refinement, optimization of models, and systems.

This paper presents a multi‐views modeling approach for the modeling of complex system.

The purpose of this paper is to identify issues that are critical to developing complex, business‐to‐business products and discuss implications for vendor firms.

This paper employs the critical review approach to current complex product literature and draws from relevant literature streams in engineering, management, and marketing to propose a conceptual framework.

The critical review of the complex products research reveals the following as critical issues for research and practice in the development of complex products: definition, internal and external complexity, product and process complexity, standardized to customized complex products continuum, component and process modularity, and operant resources.

This paper identifies six specific operant resources that are critical to the development of complex products and proposes a conceptual framework. Clearly, more needs to be done in terms of theoretical and empirical research with reference to the development of complex, business‐to‐business products. For example, researchers could empirically test the proposed framework; identify other relevant operant resources; and critique the proposed framework and develop a new, more comprehensive framework.

Firms that develop complex products could focus on developing the six operant resources that can help them become competent in developing complex products; and developing organizational structures and policies and providing an organizational environment that is conducive to developing robust internal and external social capital.

The proposed conceptual framework provides a theoretical foundation for practitioners and researchers to build on.