Exploring factory digital production support system through the lens of Service Dominant logic

This paper attempts to understand innovation in the production environment of three different digital systems that support the manufacturing processes of industrial firms. Three cases were characterized through the lens of Service Dominant logic to assess the “smartness” of the services that the system provides. It achieves this using the dimensions ‘service ecosystem’, ‘service platform’ and ‘value cocreation’. The assumption used is that production or assembly may be viewed as a set of processes and hence in effect, a service. Furthermore, the digital system provided institutional arrangements to support value cocreation. It was found that the digital systems provide services to the shop floor and management over different time frames. What was also identified from the analysis was that by using the three dimensions, it was possible to understand the system’s limitations in terms of supporting the value cocreation processes.