Strategic Adaptability of Industrial Product-service-systems – Dynamic Effective IPS2

Abstract

High-tech products from mechanical and plant engineering play a leading role in world trade. Because of their high sales potential, they represent an attractive business opportunity and are, therefore, in competition with similar products from different countries. In this context, the concept of Industrial Product-Service System (IPS2) provides a possibility for competitive differentiation by offering a holistic problem solution including an integrative combination of a physical core product and related services. The article at hand focuses on the strategic planning of IPS2. The strategic planning has to ensure the long-term effectiveness of an IPS2. Effectiveness implies that an IPS2 is target-oriented. Thus, an effective IPS2 generates the required technical and economic customer benefit in accordance with profitability conditions. In order to maintain effectiveness over time, the IPS2 has to be adapted if the requirements change. Hence, ensuring long-term effectiveness involves the consideration of uncertainty regarding the future state of the environment and subsequent requirements. Changes over time require dynamic analyses. As a consequence, ensuring the IPS2 effectiveness over a long period of time means ensuring the dynamic effectiveness of an IPS2. In order to be able to react to future changes and be dynamically effective, the IPS2 provider has to integrate adaptability into the strategic planning of IPS2. In this regard, the paper at hand presents a multilevel approach for identifying the amount and kind of adaptability needed. This approach helps planning adaptability measures ensuring the dynamic effectiveness if changes are expected. In order to consider the need of adaptability explicitly, an adaptation model is integrated into this approach.For the purpose of making the functionality of the presented approach more specific, a hypothetical case study will be presented. By the system dynamics approach, the effects of two exemplary personnel capacity measures will be simulated.