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With the development towards Industry 5.0, manufacturing companies are developing towards Smart Production, i.e., using data as a resource to interconnect the elements in the production system to learn and adapt accordingly for a more resource-efficient and sustainable production. This requires selecting and integrating digital technologies for the entire data lifecycle, also referred to as the data value chain. However, manufacturing companies are facing many challenges related to building data value chains to achieve the desired benefits of Smart Production. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify and analyze the critical factors of selecting and integrating digital technologies for efficiently benefiting data value chains for Smart Production. This paper employed a qualitative-based multiple case study design involving manufacturing companies within different industries and of different sizes. The paper also analyses two Smart Production cases in detail by mapping the data flow using a technology selection and integration framework to propose solutions to the existing challenges. By analyzing the two in-depth studies and additionally two reference cases, 13 themes of critical factors for selecting and integrating digital technologies were identified.

To stay competitive, manufacturing companies are developing towards Smart Production which requires the use of digital technologies. However, there is a lack of guidance supporting manufacturing companies in selecting and integrating a combination of suitable digital technologies, which is required for Smart Production. To address this gap, the purpose of this paper is twofold: (i) to identify the main challenges of selecting and integrating digital technologies for Smart Production, and (ii) to propose a holistic concept to support manufacturing companies in mitigating identified challenges in order to select and integrate a combination of digital technologies for Smart Production. This is accomplished by using a qualitative-based multiple case study design. This paper identifies current challenges related to selection and integration of digital technologies. To overcome these challenges and achieve Smart production, the concept of data value chain was proposed, i.e., a holistic approach to systematically map and improve data flows within the production system. © 2022, IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.

Cloud computing is a game-changer model that opens new directions for modern manufacturing. It enables services and solutions that help improve the productivity and efficiency of smart production plants. The main objective of the paper is to provide a summary of the various cloud-based manufacturing services currently being offered to manufacturers or that could be offered in the future. Additionally, the paper aims to discuss the various enabling technologies used to support the integration of cloud manufacturing in the manufacturing industry. Furthermore, the paper categorizes the different services based on their functionalities and maps them to four levels of production such as plant level, production line level, machine level, and process level. The categorization of services and mapping them to appropriate levels in production can enhance efficiency and productivity in the manufacturing industry. The study advances the discussion on cloud-based manufacturing from the types of services and enabling technologies perspective.

In this paper we report on an attempt to let students, companies, and organisations themselves discover the kinds of technologies that could be useful when co-producing knowledge in a Master’s-level course in innovation and design. Traditionally, and for various good reasons such as security and stability, universities have had certain online tools and systems for collaboration, while companies and municipalities have had others. These systems support internal communication within organisations but do not necessarily enhance communication with external contacts. This use of different systems creates barriers to the iterative, recurring, convenient, non-hierarchical, and open online collaboration needed in an innovative design process involving multiple stakeholders. During a ten-week Master’s-level course in innovation and design in 2016 and 2017 the 38 students divided into five project groups established contact with five companies and organisations and could choose their own online tools in dialogue with them. This paper presents the students’ and organisations’ emerging practices during the process based on observations and reflective evaluations conducted during and after the course. The results are discussed in light of how socio-material assemblages formed in this special setting and how the results might be used to improve the teaching of online literacy in design collaboration. The result indicates that for co-production of knowledge in innovation and design projects, three new social media literacies would be useful: meta communication, peak performance, and design awareness.

In product development, innovation means bringing together people with different expertise to develop breakthrough product and service offers. In spite of their potential, cross-functional efforts are not yet adequately supported from a knowledge perspective, asking for a more open and bottom-up approach for knowledge management. The paper aims to investigate how social technologies can enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing in complex, cross-functional and cross-organizational product development projects, highlighting the role of weak ties as enablers for more innovative design processes. Emerging from data collected in two case studies within the European aeronautical industry, it applies the Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) framework to highlight how wikis, blogs, forum or microblogs can shorten lead-time and increase the quality of early design decisions. Furthermore, it elaborates on how the design team can enhance its perception of the needs to be addressed and leverage its capability to develop solutions for the task at hand.

The aim of the paper is to discuss the rising potential of social software to increase the knowledge management capabilities of virtual product development teams. It presents six fundamental transitions, elaborated from the empirical findings, which justify the rise of a more bottom-up, social creation and sharing of engineering knowledge in the virtual organisation. The study suggests that traditional engineering knowledge management approaches alone are not sufficient to support development activities in the virtual organisation, and that such teams display an increasing demand for social, comparatively lightweight and remixable platforms for bottom-up, social creation and sharing of knowledge.

The paper explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies to support product development efforts in a global, virtual and cross-functional setting. It analyses the dichotomy between the prevailing hierarchical structure of CAD/PLM/PDM systems and the principles of the Social Web under the light of the emerging product development trends. Further it introduces the concept of Engineering 2.0, intended as a more bottom up and lightweight knowledge sharing approach to support early stage design decisions within virtual and cross- functional product development teams. The lessons learned collected from a cross-company study highlight how to further developblogs, wikis, forums and tags for the benefit of new product development teams, highlighting opportunities, challenges and no-go areas.

In recent years, product development is becoming increasingly complex. The ability to continuously learn from experience and improve existing business processes has become an important competitive strategy for many manufacturing companies. Many companies have established lessons learned practices as one of the key knowledge management efforts for the collection and dissemination of experiences in the form of lessons learned. However, according to the literature, many companies are still struggling not only to collect meaningful lessons learned, but also to reuse them in new situations. To address these challenges, a research study has conducted in the aerospace industry in collaboration with two manufacturing companies. The purpose of the study is to identify the potential barriers in the lessons learned practices in the context of a complex product development. The study identified several challenges in the lessons learned practice, which were mainly grouped into ten barriers. Finally, based on barriers, this paper outlined relevant recommendations for improving lessons learned practices in complex product development environments.

Digitalization and industry 4.0 technologies promise to provide many novel opportunities and benefits to industrial firms, such as increased product quality, process reliability, and improved flexibility and productivity. Although digitalization shows great potential from a technological perspective, many process industry firms still face challenges in utilizing it for process innovations. Hence, this study aims to understand how process industry firms develop and implement new process innovations today and identify improvement opportunities through the better adoption and implementation of digitalization. The study adopted a multiple case study design in two steel manufacturing firms and developed a framework for building digitally-enabled process innovation using dynamic capabilities. The framework consists of 19 dynamic capabilities in total: 8 related to traditional process innovation and 11 related to digitally enabled process innovation. The study found four key challenges in process innovation (i.e., poor data strategy and readiness, lack of standardisation practices for change, competence and culture gaps, and ad-hoc problem solving) and four key enablers for digitally-enabled process innovation (i.e., infrastructure and methodological definition, preparation for predictive and analytical readiness, proactive management practices, and plan for a digital matureness for each function and department). The study's detailed empirical insights provide new understandings regarding required dynamic capabilities for the smoother transformation of a firm from the traditional process innovation to the digitally enabled process innovation. The dynamic capabilities are limitedly explored in the research of the process industries in the context of process innovation and digitalization. Thus, this study makes essential contributions to the theory of process innovation in process industries and strategic management by providing rich empirical insights from the steel sector.

In today’s market conditions, manufacturing companies are under pressure to constantly launch new products or product variants to the market in short intervals. The introduction of new products poses managerial implications on the existing production systems and their processes. Hence, the production organisations are increasingly involving in the new product development since the beginning of the project as they are responsible for the product introduction. The project management of new product introduction therefore play a significant role in the success of new product development. The existing literature covers a wide range of issues and disturbances in the product introduction process in different industries. However, little research exists on the management of new product introduction projects from a project management perspective especially from the viewpoint of production. Based on a case study at a manufacturing company, this paper examines the challenges in managing new product introduction projects in the production organisation. The study identified nine key challenges in the management of new product introduction projects which are associated to the resources, time-readiness and schedule, gated administration, ways of working, communication and time-sharing, learning, business case, co-ordination and alignment, and competences.

Prior research has identified the reuse of past experiences as a remarkable driver for achieving high levels of maturity for both product and production systems. Many companies put effort into capitalizing their own experiences through nurturing feedback loops and learning mechanisms at different phases in the new product introduction process. Although literature highlights the impact of feedback loops on the performance of new product development, there is limited research about how firms utilize the concept of feedback loops in the new product introduction process. The purpose of this study is therefore to explore the current available practices of feedback loops at different phases in the new product introduction process. This study was performed in close collaboration with a global manufacturing company that is responsible for the introduction of new products. The paper presents the identified feedback loops and 

Lessons learned practice is a well-known method embraced by many companies to enhance continuous learning in their organizational routines and day-to-day work. The extant literature presents a mix of several lessons learned approaches from different disciplines. However, the approaches fail to address the distinct, complex settings that arise in production and operation phases. Thus, there is a need for rethinking of lessons learned practice in a complex production environments. Based on case studies in the aerospace industry, this chapter presents a new method for lessons learned practice, which includes a standard, seven-step representation format, together with guidelines, using videos as an enabling media. The seven-steps are: lesson learned statement, working context, task description, what went wrong or what went well, lesson learned, lesson learned measures, and applicability and delimitations. The method intends to capture a single learning point with specific recommendations, promoting process-based rather than a project-based learning. The chapter presents results from the validation of this new method in industrial setting. The validation shows that the method is beneficial in capturing lessons from skill-oriented activities in narrative form by visually showing and telling defects, problems, or improvements in complex products and associated actions in production or product support phases. The method supports exploration processes at the individual level with the creation of new knowledge with a richer context and so support exploitation processes and activities at the organizational level.

In the emerging service economy, many traditional product manufacturing companies are seeking innovative ways to do business, focusing on product-service combinations. Development of these offerings requires the integration of a wider span of expertise from several companies, which poses new challenges in the way knowledge is captured and managed. On the basis of a case study from an aerospace supply chain, this paper first identifies the limitations of current knowledge-management systems in such a setting and then discusses the role of Web 2.0 technologies in managing knowl-edge across the knowledge life cycle. Web 2.0 technologies have potential to lower barriers to leveraging informal and unstructured knowledge, contextualized information, networks of connections, and collective creation and maintenance of knowledge assets, which could complement current knowledge-management systems in multicompany product development efforts.

In today’s market conditions, manufacturing companies are under pressure to constantly launch new products or product variants to the market in short intervals. Introduction of new products poses managerial implications on the existing production systems and their processes. Hence, the production and operations organisations are increasingly involved in the early phases of new product development since they are responsible for the product introduction and delivery. The project management of product introduction therefore play a significant role in the success of new product development. The existing literature covers a wide range of issues and disturbances in the product introduction process in different industries. However, little research exists on the management of product introduction from a project management perspective especially from the viewpoint of operations. Based on a case study at a manufacturing company in heavy-duty vehicle industry, this paper examines key challenges in managing product introduction projects in the production and operations organisation. The study identified seven types of projects in relation to the product introduction. Further, nine key challenges are identified in the management of product introduction projects which are associated to the resources, time-readiness and schedule, gated administration, ways of working, communication and time-sharing, learning, business cases, co-ordination and alignment, and competences. The study contributes new insights into project management in operations by deepening the understanding on the issues associated to the product introduction projects.

Organisations are becoming increasingly aware that learning from experience can be a source of competitive advantage. Many manufacturing companies are not immune to this realisation and have established lessons learned practices as one of the key knowledge management efforts for the collection and dissemination of experiences in the form of lessons learned. However, identifying relevant lessons learned from past product development projects and reusing them in new situations is still an enormous task for many companies. The paper uses qualitative data collected in three case studies in the aerospace industry to investigate the potential barriers in the current lessons learned practice in a complex product development setting, and to identify the end-user’s requirements for improving this practice. A new methodology for capturing lessons learned in complex product development is then presented and discussed. The methodology represents a lesson learned in a standardized format together with guidelines, using videos as enabling media. The format comprises a seven-step representation of lesson learned, consisting of: (1) lesson learned statement, (2) working context, (3) task description, (4) what went wrong or what went well, (5) lessons learned, (6) lessons learned measures, and (7) applicability and delimitations.

Learning from experience has turn out to be the basis of every manufacturing company in creating and sustaining competitive differentiation. Many companies put effort in capitalizing these experiences through continuous improvement initiatives such as lessons learned practices. However, these practices are failed to address the distinct, complex settings available in manufacturing, serial production, use, and maintenance phases, where much of the learning is still tacit nature and difficult to articulate. In this context, based on three case studies in the aerospace industry, the author previously proposed a lesson learned methodology using videos as an enabling media. This paper presents some preliminary results based on the validation activities performed in the aero-engine component manufacturing company.

The integration of production automation drives innovation in manufacturing by enhancing efficiency, quality, and cost reduction. However, the capital requirements of conventional automation solutions hinder many manufacturing companies. Production Automation as a Service (PAaaS) emerges as a cost-effective alternative, offering improved flexibility and efficiency. Yet, adopting PAaaS faces challenges: a lack of expertise, awareness, and cultural resistance. This study explores PAaaS implementation in manufacturing, identifying its specific needs and challenges. Qualitative research across ten diverse manufacturing companies reveals two key drivers: technological advancement and evolving business models. It highlights four primary benefits—cost-effectiveness, flexibility, efficiency, and product quality. Simultaneously, it addresses five significant challenges—legacy system integration, cybersecurity, internet dependency, expertise gaps, and downtime risks. To aid early decision-making, the study proposes a framework covering drivers, benefits, challenges, and suitable strategies. This study contributes to the ongoing discussion on smart production and automation development by focusing on business model innovation and the pay-as-a-service approach.

This study explores the perceptions and implications of a large manufacturing company as it shifts toward a circular economy. It devises a guiding framework to facilitate this transition by delving into key focus areas, informed by a systematic literature review. From this review emerges a multi-level readiness framework tailored to facilitate the transition to a circular economy. This framework is validated through a case study conducted in the heavy-duty vehicle industry. The proposed readiness framework encapsulates four key focus areas: 1) the ecosystem of external partners, 2) the customer and the business model, 3) the company's culture and internal capabilities, and 4) design and product development. Moreover, the framework delineates five levels of readiness progression within each focus area. Strategies and indispensable activities essential for transitioning to a circular economy are outlined. The suggested hands-on readiness framework advocates holistic and cross-functional management approaches to navigate the transition toward a circular economy. The readiness status for the transition ranges from initial developmental stages to full circularity, with each level outlining actionable pathways incorporating specific actions and strategies.

The reuse of experiences gained in maintenance activities is important issue in maintenance management. Efficient experience reuse would improve next interventions, reduce the mistakes and potentially contribute to time and cost savings. However, few studies focus on how maintenance workforce reuses past experiences in the problem- solving phases of the maintenance work. The purpose of this study is therefore to examine the experience reuse process in production maintenance in order to identify reuse practices and its challenges. Based on a case study, this paper presents the observed work practices and its challenges for collecting and reusing experiences in production maintenance. Further, potential improvement suggestions are proposed to overcome these challenges.

The move towards offering Product-Service Systems (PSS) requires the involvement of stakeholders from different companies, possessing knowledge about the different product lifecycle phases. This setting poses unique challenges for traditional product manufacturers, which need to rearrange transaction-based relationships into long-term relationships of co-development. Knowledge sharing across organizational boundaries is, therefore, considered as a key enabler for the development of profitable PSS. The paper is based on a social network tie perspective, and its purpose is to describe and exemplify knowledge-sharing network for PSS development—in order to describe the impact of the shift toward PSS development on companies’ relationships and responsibilities. Based on the findings from two research projects involving various partners from the aerospace industry, the paper concludes that the development of profitable PSS relies on the development of strong and weak ties across the supply network. Finally, a five stages model of the evolution of tie strength is proposed for classifying relationships within the PSS knowledge-sharing network.

The paper proposes a framework for analysing the performances of product-service systems (PSSs) development processes using a balanced scorecard (BSC) as an instrument to guide the implementation and the evaluation of new methods and tools. Emerging from a case study in the aerospace industry, the paper discusses the main challenges in PSS development and proposes a performance measurement framework for PSS development based on multi-criteria indicators. Finally, the benefits of a framework for PSS development performance measurement are discussed.

The paper explores the application of Web 2.0 technologies in the engineering product development domain. Growing on data collected from a number of industrial development projects, related to several different products in various industry segments, the paper analyses the dichotomy between the prevailing hierarchical structure of CAD/PLM/PDM systems and the emerging principles of the Social Web, e.g. the self-organization of its users. It introduces the concept of Engineering 2.0, intended as a more bottom up and lightweight knowledge sharing approach supporting early stage design decisions within cross-functional product development teams. A set of scenarios related, for instance, to the application of blogs, wikis, forums and tags in the engineering domain are eventually presented, highlighting opportunities, challenges and no-go areas.

Many companies have been using lessons learned practices as one of their key knowledge management initiatives to capitalize on past experiences. For product development companies, learning from product lifecycle phases gives a true competitive advantage to improve the next generation of products. However, companies are still struggling in capturing and sharing lessons learned and applying them in new situations. Based on this consideration, the paper proposes a video-based approach–using social media technologies–as a way to leverage continuous capturing and sharing lessons learned from product lifecycle phases to design practices. The paper presents the findings of a case study within the aerospace industry, which investigates the current industrial practices with regard to experience feedback, and illustrates the implementation of a video-based approach. Further, the conceptual mock-up of video-based lessons learned sharing portal and its social platform that are aimed to support the design practices are illustrated.

Moving away from offering just physical artifacts to becoming providers of functional products, or Product-Service Systems (PSS), implies inevitable changes in the way engineering knowledge is identified and shared in a cross company environment. Capturing downstream knowledge assets and making them available to cross-functional teams becomes crucial to approach ill-defined problems in PSS design. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how Web 2.0-based knowledge sharing technologies may be used to support the design of functional products. The article, drawing on data from several industrial development projects in various segments, introduces the concept of “lightweight technologies” as a means to lower the threshold related to the sharing of downstream engineering knowledge assets. The paper points out potential benefits and challenges related to the adoption of a lightweight approach and provides examples of how tools like wikis, blogs or social bookmarking may be used to support functional product engineers.

The transition towards sustainable electrification, particularly in the context of electric vehicles (EVs), necessitates a comprehensive understanding and effective management of battery circularity. With a plethora of EV models and battery variants, navigating the complexities of circularity becomes increasingly challenging. Furthermore, efficient fleet management emphasizes the necessity for robust data collection and analysis across diverse EVs to optimize battery value throughout its lifecycle. Advanced digital technologies play a crucial role in bridging informational gaps and enabling real-time connectivity, intelligence, and analytical capabilities for batteries. However, despite the potential benefits, the integration of circularity and digital technologies in the battery sector remains largely unexplored. Both circularity and digital technologies in the battery domain are still emerging, lacking conceptualization on their integration. To tackle these challenges, this paper advocates for the concept of smart battery circularity, which amalgamates advanced digital technologies with circular economy principles. The purpose of this paper is to enhance the conceptualization of smart battery circularity and elucidate the key knowledge areas necessary to facilitate it. The study identifies three critical knowledge areas essential for enabling smart battery circularity: digitally enabled circular business models, digital twin platforms for circular battery services, and smart battery performance monitoring. The sub-areas within each key knowledge area are also outlined. By delineating these knowledge areas, the study proposes an integrative framework, showcasing how these areas contribute to smart battery circularity both individually and collectively. The study offers insights to accelerate the development of initiatives aimed at establishing a sustainable and circular battery ecosystem, thereby advancing global efforts towards climate-neutral electrification. 

The electrification of vehicles has become a critical means to achieve climate-neutral transportation. As more electric vehicles (EV) are adopted, an increasing number of lithiumion batteries will be utilized, inevitably experiencing capacity degradation over time. Retaining the value of these retired batteries through remanufacturing, reusing, and repurposing to create a second life holds significant environmental and economic benefits. However, many companies within the battery ecosystem struggle to capitalize on this opportunity due to a lack of business insight and suitable business models tailored to their operational contexts.

The ReCreate (Second Life Management of Electric Vehicle Batteries) research project was initiated to address these industrial needs through close collaboration with selected companies in the battery ecosystem. The project aims to define appropriate circular business models, methods, and processes to guide battery ecosystem actors in developing and implementing electric vehicle battery second life solutions, thereby advancing circularity around batteries and climate-neutral objectives. 

This handbook represents the culmination of three years of research within the ReCreate project. Its purpose is to present a simplified and practical overview of project outcomes across a series of key chapters. Comprising six chapters, the handbook will begin by discussing barriers and enablers, followed by circular business models and battery ecosystem management. It will then delve into design principles and performance monitoring guidelines, concluding with an integrated framework for second life and circular solutions for EV batteries. 

Each chapter briefly presents the main findings of the theme and concludes with discussion questions. The discussion questions include suggestions for relevant templates for workshops, and all templates are conveniently provided in the appendix for practical application. These templates serve as boundary objects, offering a starting point for internal and external cross-functional and cross-organizational dialogues within the electric vehicle battery ecosystem. They facilitate discussions and collaborations among various stakeholders, fostering alignment and synergy in developing circular business models for the second life of EV batteries.  

By facilitating reflection on current business strategies, needs, and pain points, the handbook aims to aid in the definition of future second life business strategies. We anticipate that this handbook will serve as a valuable resource for actors within the EV battery ecosystem, supporting their journey towards climate-neutral transportation. 

The electrification of vehicles has become a critical means to achieve climate-neutral transportation. As more electric vehicles (EV) are adopted, an increasing number of lithium-ion batteries will be utilized, inevitably experiencing capacity degradation over time. Retaining the value of these retired batteries through remanufacturing, reusing, and repurposing to create a second life holds significant environmental and economic benefits. However, many companies within the battery ecosystem struggle to capitalize on this opportunity due to a lack of business insight and suitable business models tailored to their operational contexts. The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated framework for designing and implementing second life for the EV batteries that could guide and navigate ecosystem actors towards circularity. This study employed an explorative qualitative inquiry approach, utilizing interviews and workshop methods, involving 15 companies in the EV battery ecosystem. Data collection involved 24 semi-structured interviews and 22 workshops. The framework includes four building blocks, including 1) barriers and enablers, 2) circular business models archetypes and design principles, 3) ecosystem management, and 4) battery performance monitoring. Further, the paper explains criteria influencing the selection of design and implementation of strategies for battery second life. This research contributes to the theory of circular business models and ecosystem management in general, with specific relevance to battery second life and circularity. 

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the challenges in the servitization journey of product-centric firms from an ecosystem perspective, considering both intra-firm and inter-firm levels. Prior research addresses the challenges of servitization in many sectors from different perspectives. However, the majority of studies primarily focus on the provider of an offering. There is a lack of in-depth studies on analysing servitization challenges from the broader set of network actors including customers, suppliers, and sub-suppliers at the intra-firm and inter-firm levels. A multiple case study method was used to analyse five product-centric firms from different industries that were engaged in servitization. At intra-firm level, our analysis shows that 'coordination' is a major challenge for the provider, supplier, and sub-suppliers, and that 'uncertainty' and 'risk' is a major challenge for the provider, customer, and supplier. At inter-firm level, 'partnership management' found to be a most significant challenge for provider, customer, supplier, and sub-suppliers. The study contributes to the discussion of the relational view approach for servitization research.

This paper describes the use of blended learning approaches in designing two courses in the two-years international master's program in innovation and design education. The paper discusses the benefits and challenges encountered during the implementation of the courses in a blended way. The guiding research questions for this study are: How can blended learning approaches be applied in innovation and design education? what are key benefits and challenges in designing and implementing blended courses in this education field? The paper is based on our three years' experiences in designing and implementing blended courses between 2016-2018. The Blackboard and Yammer micro-blog were used as the main course tools. Data was collected throughout the course periods between 2016-2018 from 55 students. The study observed following benefits with designing and implementing courses in a "blended" way: useful for learning different insights and perspectives, enables reflection and provide a good summary of face-to-face lectures, and fosters engagement and collaboration even outside the classroom. The identified challenges during the implementation of blended courses are students' limited engagement, errors due to technical, connectivity, and interfaces, new to the course management systems and blended courses, and difficulties to keep track and to follow-up over time. Moreover, the paper discussed six lessons learned in designing and implementing the blended courses in innovation and design education. The paper contributes to the blended learning research in soft-applied fields like innovation and design, where the blended studies are limited. In addition, the paper contributes to the discussion of using micro-blogs for designing blended courses in innovation and design education.

This study investigates the influence of different forms of media instructions on the process and outcomes of completing a specific procedural task. The experiment was conducted with four student groups having an education in the area of Information Design. In the experiment four media instructions – text only, text plus drawings, a series of pictures and video with narration – were considered. The findings show that the type of media has an influence on the ability to solve a procedural task and on group interaction and the way groups solve a task. Compared with the other instructions, video instruction triggered a different interaction and behavioural pattern during assembly. Participants considered both video and picture instructions as more usable in terms of facilitating the ability to understand, select and apply possible solutions to a given task. However, the video medium showed little influence on dialogue in the group during assembly. The instructions, such as text plus drawings, pictures and video had a similar influence on task performance times, whereas text instructions took three times longer to implement than other instructions.

The purpose of this study is to explore the current available practices of feedback loops at different phases in the industrialization process. Although literature highlights the impact of feedback loops for both product and production systems development, there is limited research about how firms utilize the concept of feedback loops in the industrialization process. Based on a case study at a railway component manufacturing company, the paper presents the identified feedback loops and mechanisms that are working well and not working well within the industrialization process. Further, it explains a practical method to improve the current or establish new feedback loops. The paper contributes to the discussion on the application of lean and agile approaches to the industrialization process where feedback loops act as enablers.

In light of emerging product development trends, such as Product-Service Systems, manufacturing organizations are obliged to collaborate across functional and organizational borders. Hence, companies are increasingly investigating how to leverage knowledge management practices to enhance their dynamic learning capabilities to achieve continuous process improvements. Many researchers assert that lessons learned practices are possible ways for organizational learning, which allows for continuous capturing and sharing of experiential knowledge across boundaries in order to learn both from mistakes and successes. However, many organizations fall short in capturing and sharing lessons from projects and applying them in new situations. The purpose of this paper is to propose a video-based approach and related guidelines for capturing and sharing lessons learned in a dynamic manner across functional and organizational boundaries. Based on laboratory experiments as well as validation activities conducted in collaboration with an aerospace manufacturer, this paper compares the video-based approach with a more traditional text-based approach of documenting lessons learned from projects. The paper describes the results of testing activities conducted with a video-based lessons learned prototype and the authors reflect on its implications for design practice management in the aerospace industry.

The transition towards a circular economy compels manufacturing companies in the transportation industry to reassess how they create, deliver, and capture value for their customers. Autonomous electric vehicles, with their advanced connectivity, autonomy, and efficiency, offer innovative business opportunities and services. However, there is limited knowledge concerning the sharing of autonomous electric vehicles in the business-to-business (B2B) market, particularly for industrial manufacturing companies. This study aims to identify the prerequisite criteria and potential innovative business models for sharing autonomous electric vehicles within a B2B context. To investigate this phenomenon, the study employs a case study approach within the heavy-duty vehicle industry, which involves a vehicle manufacturer and customers from a specific industry sector. The findings reveal that economic gain, service quality, and accessibility serve as prerequisite criteria for sharing autonomous electric vehicles in a B2B context. Furthermore, by leveraging a morphological framework, the study outlines five business model scenarios to explore the potential of sharing autonomous electric vehicles in enhancing B2B mobility. This research contributes to the field of business model innovation in a B2B context by introducing a model that delineates both the prerequisite criteria and potential business model concepts for the B2B sharing of autonomous electric vehicles. 

Achieving battery circularity is crucial for meeting the targets of net-zero emission vehicles by 2030 and enabling climate-neutral transportation by 2050. To facilitate this transition, firms operating in the electric vehicle (EV) battery ecosystem must reassess their value creation, capture, and delivery methods. Although EV battery second life presents a promising solution for circularity, many vehicle manufacturers and stakeholders in the battery ecosystem struggle to adapt their organizations internally and externally due to a lack of insights into suitable circular business models. The purpose of this study is to identify viable archetypes of circular business models for EV battery second life and examine their implications on company collaborations within the EV battery ecosystem. Three main archetypes of circular business models are identified (i.e., extending, sharing, and looping business models) and further divided into eight sub-archetypes. These models are elucidated in terms of key business model dimensions, including value proposition, value co-creation, value delivery, and value capture. The paper provides visual representations of the necessary interactions and collaborations among companies in the EV battery ecosystem to effectively implement the proposed business model archetypes. This research contributes to the theory of circular business models in general, with specific relevance to EV battery circularity.

As the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) accelerates, the efficient management of end-of-life lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries becomes a pressing concern. This case study investigates sustainable second life approaches for Li-ion batteries within a leading manufacturing company in the heavy-duty vehicle industry. Employing an exploratory methodology, the study evaluates three distinct circularity approaches for second life applications: remanufacturing, repurposing, and reusing. Based on a financial model and sustainability metrics, remanufacturing emerged as the most economically viable and environmentally sustainable strategy for the company. The study also explores supplementary approaches, such as repurposing used batteries for smaller power applications and reusing them in large-scale Energy Storage Systems (ESS). Regulatory inconsistencies in battery second life are identified as a significant barrier to widespread implementation. The study concludes by advocating for a multi-stakeholder ecosystem approach and calls for the establishment of universal circularity regulations to streamline the second life of Li-ion batteries.

In recent years there has been a growing interest among product development organizations to capitalize on engineering knowledge as their core competitive advantage for innovation. Capturing, storing, retrieval, sharing and reusing of engineering knowledge from a wide range of enterprise memory systems have become crucial activities of knowledge management practice in competitive organizations. In light of a changing and dynamic enterprise definition, including a move towards Product-Service System (PSS) development, this paper discusses some of the limitations of current enterprise systems in reusing engineering knowledge across functional and corporate boundaries. Further, the paper illustrates how Web 2.0-based collaborative technologies can leverage cross-functional knowledge for new PSS development projects through an open, bottom-up, and collective sense-making approach to knowledge management.

Many manufacturing companies are adopting servitization as a competitive business strategy to offer product-service combinations. The ongoing shift to digitalization and Industry 4.0 provides novel opportunities and benefits to industrial firms in this regard, and researchers termed the adoption of digital technologies to servitization as “digital servitization”. In order to successfully transition towards digital servitization, fundamental reconfiguration of resources, organizational structures, work practices, infrastructure, culture, etc. are required. Hence, this paper performs a systematic literature review on prior studies covering dynamic capabilities for servitization and digital servitization. The purpose is to identify and compare the dynamic capabilities needed to facilitate a transition from “traditional” servitization to digital servitization. In doing so, this paper presents an integrated framework of dynamic capabilities to enable digital servitization, providing 22 micro-foundations for servitization and digital servitization, as well as the key challenges and enablers related to the transition from one to the other.

Research shows that effective marketing and R&D interface is pivotal in a company's new product development performance and future competitiveness. The increased popularity of social media promised to enhance interaction, collaboration, and networking between the two functions. However, there is limited knowledge regarding the key activities, infrastructure requirements, and potential benefits of social media in the marketing and R&D interface. This study aims to advance the current understanding of social media engagement strategies, which facilitates improved marketing and R&D interfaces and ultimately NPD performance for manufacturing companies. Based on a multiple-case study in two manufacturing companies, this study first presents the role of social media in facilitating improved marketing and R&D interface within a B2B context. Second, it presents the adoption process of the social media engagement strategy for an evolving marketing and R&D interface. The adoption process is divided into three phases, namely coordination, cooperation, and coproduction, to provide detailed insights regarding full-scale social media engagement. Taken together, the study provides novel insights into industrial marketing management literature by exemplifying the role of social media and proposing a systematic social engagement strategy for improved marketing and R&D interface in the manufacturing industry.

Many firms constantly strive for reusing existing knowledge to be better at learning from their mistakes and successes. Despite its importance, firms are yet to see the benefits from such initiatives, especially at the individual level. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to investigate and discuss the individual knowledge reuse process in a large manufacturing company. Based on a case study in a production maintenance organization, the paper describes different steps of knowledge reuse process. Further, several issues related to different stages of knowledge reuse process are discussed. Finally, the paper summarizes the contributions and concludes with the future research directions.

Electric vehicle (EV) batteries provide new business opportunities through circularity, but identifying these opportunities requires multi-stakeholder collaboration considering the interests of stakeholders, the environment, and society. However, circular business model frameworks to support and guide firms in identifying and mapping multidirectional value in the early phases of designing new circular business models are lacking. Thus, this research proposes a framework that could support stakeholders in the EV battery value chain in identifying and mapping circular business opportunities and multidirectional value among stakeholders in order to generate a win–win–win situation in the value-creation process. The proposed framework for multi-stakeholder circular business model innovation consists of four phases—namely, initiation, ideation, testing, and implementation—subdivided into eight steps to address key challenges facing firms and encourage discussions on shared values and visions among all stakeholders in the early phases of designing the circular business model.

Firms need multi-stakeholder ecosystems to create successful second-life business models for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, there is a lack of guiding instrumentsto support the process of strategizing and managing the EV battery ecosystem for secondlife operations. The purpose of this study is to propose a guiding framework that could support firms in the EV battery ecosystem to establish and manage various configurations for second-life operations. The study developed a framework with four configuration phases—namely, firm-level initiation, ecosystem construction, firm-level optimization, and ecosystem orchestration. Based on these phases, the paper describes three configuration pathways to establish and manage second-life operations

In this paper, balancing electricity production using renewable energy such as wind power, PV cells, hydropower, and CHP (combined heat and power) with biomass is carried out in relation to electricity consumption in primarily one major region in Sweden, SE-3, which contains 75% of the country's population. The time perspective is hours and days. Statistics with respect to power production and consumption are analyzed and used as input for power-balance calculations. How long periods are with low or high production, as well as the energy for charge and discharge that is needed to maintain a generally constant power production, is analyzed. One conclusion is that if the difference in production were to be completely covered with battery capacity it would be expensive, but if a large part of the difference were met by a shifting load it would be possible to cover the rest with battery storage in an economical way. To enhance the economy with battery storage, second-life batteries are proposed to reduce the capital cost in particular. Batteries are compared to hydrogen as an energy carrier. The efficiency of a battery system is higher than that of hydrogen plus fuel cells, but in general much fewer precious materials are needed with an H-2/fuel-cell system than with batteries. The paper discusses how to make the energy system more robust and resilient.

Needs for new competences and knowledge arise as industry 4.0 evolves in increasingly digitalized production. This development entails that job transformations and future skills need attention from the perspective of industry 5.0, where human and machine find ways of working together to improve production performance. Facing this perspective, one challenge is a growing need for novel lifelong learning initiatives, to meet emerging and altering occupations for the fulfilment of future skill requirements. This challenge is addressed here by portraying a case where three Swedish universities have formed a distinctive collaboration to develop a flexible (i.e. blended) course for professionals, in the subject of Digitally-enabled production. The purpose is to develop a sustainable collaboration between the universities and create a course format on master level addressing lifelong learning for the increasingly digitalized production. The ambition is to increase the impact of the universities respective efforts by sharing resources and utilizing individual specialized expertise to develop a practical and relevant course that can reach a larger target group. The course encompasses industry 4.0 readiness on three levels of production systems; plant-, production cell-, and component level; to adopt a holistic view of digitalization in production. We followed an action research approach for continuously collecting and documenting our experiences during the course development, implementation, and dissemination of the course. Within the frame of action research, an explorative case study describes and analyzes the initiative. The results highlight challenges and opportunities for succeeding with this form of co-produced course. The joint course gives professionals possibilities to work on cases from their own companies with expert supervision from three manufacturing levels to address complex challenges in industry 4.0 implementation. To conclude, the importance of lifelong learning in relation to the human-centric approach of industry 5.0 is emphasized as a future direction.

From a theoretical perspective, this paper problematizes the future role of teachers in higher education, especially in the Swedish context, placing opportunities and raised challenges by blended learning in a historical context of distance education. Distance education was introduced in the late 19th century and has been offered by two main actors in Sweden: the correspondence school Hermods and universities. It has been viewed as a part of life-long learning, a concept introduced in the 1960s. The correspondence schools offered elementary education courses, and in-service training for various professions, while universities largely focused on higher education but also provided education or training commissioned by other organizations. Recently, the teaching requirements and role of the teacher in distance education have changed dramatically, from formulating exercises and commenting on students' work to giving videotaped lectures in English for an open audience. However, there is still a lack of appropriate guidance for teachers on effective pedagogical practice in the new settings. Specifically, there is an increasing need to support teachers in designing and creating effective videotaped lectures that are accessible for a dispersed audience. The TED talks seem to provide a role model for performance as a lecturer, but the average teacher hardly has time to both prepare regular face-to-face lectures and distance lectures, e.g. extensively rehearse before recording. The paper discusses how the challenges of future roles of teachers can be met when lecturing in front of a camera.

The study examines the remote integration process of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) into the production system and identifies key challenges and mitigating actions for a smoother introduction and integration process.

Design/methodology/approach: The study adopts a case study approach to a cyber-physical production system at an industrial technology center using a mobile robot as an AMT.

Findings: By applying the plug-and-produce concept, the study exemplifies an AMT's remote integration process into a cyber-physical production system in nine steps. Eleven key challenges and twelve mitigation actions for remote integration are described based on technology–organization–environment theory. Finally, a remote integration framework is proposed to facilitate AMT integration into production systems.

Practical implications: The study presents results purely from a practical perspective, which could reduce dilemmas in early decision-making related to smart production. The proposed framework can improve flexibility and decrease the time needed to configure new AMTs in existing production systems.

Originality/value: The area of remote integration for AMT has not been addressed in depth before. The consequences of lacking in-depth studies for remote integration imply that current implementation processes do not match the needs and the existing situation in the industry and often underestimate the complexity of considering both technological and organizational issues. The new integrated framework can already be deployed by industry professionals in their efforts to integrate new technologies with shorter time to volume and increased quality but also as a means for training employees in critical competencies required for remote integration.