Manufacturing Magazine April 2018 | Page 13

and how to adopt that , that ’ s when they ’ ve been successful as well .
“ So , it is that top-down approach , with buy-in from the board , from the CEO , through the company , straight down into the people where it ’ s gonna impact the most .”
Perhaps the need for communication and understanding is one of the reasons we ’ ve seen such a move towards servitisation , with companies often keener to develop the capabilities they need to provide services and solutions that supplement their traditional product offerings in-house . In fact , in the same IFS survey referenced earlier , 68 % of respondents say servitisation is either “ well-established and is already paying dividends ”, or that it is “ in progress and is receiving appropriate executive attention and support ” within their company . As well as that , nearly four-fifths ( 79 %) claim that servitisation “ provides a competitive advantage ” or “ keeps their company abreast of competitors ”.
The combination of these factors leads Bourne to conclude that it should be “ of little surprise ” then , that manufacturers are bracing themselves for digital transformation . One of the early examples of servitisation was launched by Rolls Royce back in the 1990s with its TotalCare programme , which bundled aircraft engines with optimisation and maintenance services in a pay-per-use type of offering where customers essentially paid by the hour for what they used .
Now , more and more companies are trying to adopt a similar approach within their own operational parameters , but how can that be properly defined ?
“ It comes back to not offering products ,” says Bourne . “ Why is it important now ? You don ’ t want to be offering products for the market , you want to be offering capabilities for the market . What problems are you trying to solve for your customers ?
“ I put it into three different levels . On a base level most organisations sell spare parts and consumables . Tick that box .
“ Then , from an intermediate level , is when you start saying ‘ okay , we can now offer you scheduled maintenance , we can do repair , or we can do condition monitoring , or we can give you a help desk for the
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