NEW RESEARCH | Holistic approach needed for innovation in manufacturing

These are busy days for manufacturing companies that want to keep up with digital developments. Researchers have now developed tools to help companies navigate the transition.

– Traditionally, the manufacturing industry has focused on incremental improvements, i.e. fine-tuning to make a single process more efficient. But digital transformation requires radical changes where the entire business model must be restructured, says Eleonora Boffa, KTH.

In her doctoral thesis, she highlights the importance of seeing the business model as a whole, and of including multiple perspectives to succeed in long-term change. She has developed a framework that describes how different components of a business model – such as strategy, customer relationships and value creation, for example – are linked in the transformation. The framework serves as a tool for companies to identify what changes are needed in different parts of the business model.

– If you change one component, like introducing cloud services, the whole structure is affected. Understanding these relationships is crucial to making strategic decisions, says Eleonora Boffa.

From theory to practical solutions

The manufacturing industry faces several long-term challenges, such as sustainability, flexibility and agility. The thesis includes nine manufacturing companies in different industries in Sweden, such as metalworking, pharmaceuticals and mining.

– I was surprised that many companies – and even research itself – lack a holistic perspective on business model innovation. They often focus only on individual elements, such as technology or resources, rather than seeing the whole picture.

The framework can be used to good effect in practice, for example in workshops that bring together different functions within a company.

– We tested this with one of the companies in our study. By involving experts from different fields, we were able to identify challenges and possible solutions in a structured way, explains Eleonora Boffa.

Cooperation is the future

Digital transformation is a complex process that requires collaboration between different parts of the organization. It is not enough to focus on technology alone. Companies also need to include strategy, operational processes and customer perspectives to achieve success.

– It’s about building an organization that is flexible, sustainable and adaptable to future challenges. Without a holistic approach, companies risk failing in their transition, says Eleonora Boffa.

Contact eleonora1991boffa@gmail.com

More about the thesis
Eleonora Boffa recently defended her thesis Characterisation of the digital transformation in manufacturing: A holistic Business model framework at KTH Royal Institute of Technology .

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