Challenges in transforming manufacturing organisations into product-serviceproviders

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present challenges experienced by UKmanufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becoming product-service providers.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an exploratory single-case studyapproach based on semi-structured interviews, and archival data. A total of 22senior managers were interviewed from the product-service provider and its twosuppliers, resulting in more than 400 pages of interview data. Data wereanalysed through an inductive research analysis by an emergent identification ofpatterns.Findings – This research identifies critical and frequent challenges experiencedby UK manufacturing companies undergoing a servitization journey to becomingproduct-service system (PSS) providers. They are condensed into five pillars,which constitute the architecture of challenges in servitization. Thearchitecture of challenges in servitization provides a full description of thestrategy and operations of PSSs.Research limitations/implications – This is qualitative research based on asingle case study. Given the nature of research design, the identified patternscannot be used as a predictive tool.Practical implications – This research provides a framework to understand,analyse and plan the strategic transformations to more highly servitizedorganisational forms.Originality/value – This paper contributes to knowledge with a new model called“the architecture of challenges in servitization”. This is the only model thatexplains the importance of the strategic, operational and social tests thatorganisations confront when adopting servitization strategies. If companiesunderstand these challenges, they have the potential to create unique sets ofvalues for a variety of s