Managing Integration of Design Paradigms in the Development of Smart Product and Service Systems

Abstract

Firms developing smart and connected products and service systems face challenges related to coordination and integration of multiple design, technical and organizational arrangements. Specifically, the co-existence of and coordination between several different design paradigms become salient when embedded software, sensors, and connectivity are employed to connect the firm’s products, services and operations with databases, application platforms and the firm’s product cloud. This study aims to explore and theorize integration and coordination of design, development, and production paradigms in response to organizational tensions arising in this context. We do so through a case study of a large global incumbent firm developing complex mechanical products engaged in creating integrated product and service systems enabled by digital innovation processes. Specifically, we identify the change of work practices relating to IT and digital services resulting in the emergence of new forms of organizational and technical arrangements that diverge from established firm-wide organizational structures and technical design principles. This divergence is counteracted by bridging the gap between bounded product arrangements and new emerging unbounded digital services in the pursuit to form new organizing logics of smart and connected products and service systems.