I mitt nuvarande uppdrag som interim-produktchef för ”fysiska produkter” kan jag direkt se vilka möjligheter som tjänster kan bidra med för att differentiera produkterna. Det här är emellertid bara första insikten…

Kanske mer intressant dock, är synen på hur vi som leverantörer skapar värde. Det är kanske inte så att frågan ”Hur skapar mitt företag värde?” som är den viktigaste utan ”Hur skapar våra kunder värde?”. För detta tankesätt, tjänstelogiken, ger ett helt annat sätt att se på produkt/tjänsteutveckling. Dels hur produktutveckling kan göras och hur värde kan levereras till kunder.

Bo Femtvik från PROMARK och jag har gått kursen tillsammans och marknadsför numera också våra konsulttjänster inom tjänsteutveckling.

I believe in processes and that they are needed to create a common view of best practices. It also creates the base for improvements. There is a say “if you don’t know how it is done, how can you then improve?”

Below some thoughts of how I would like to implement a service development process:

• I have a firm belief that processes must be built bottom up. Informal leaders involved in the core business should be given the responsibility to describe the process and be a “keeper of good practices” and influence the practical work.
• By definition a process should describe frequent performed tasks and I can imagine that service development is more situation specific than product development because it is co-created with a customer. I would therefore pay attention to keep the process at a high level giving room for flexibility and customer adoptions.
• The development process should be co-created with an innovative and open minded customer. Inspired by Lars Witell and the video role of the customer in new service development this method could perhaps also bring innovative development processes during the development of the actual service offering.
• The leadership is important when introducing a new process. I would work with people mindset to remove the fear to become slaves under a process. People who do the actual job must be involved in the process work. To be invited, involved and be able to affect leads to engagement and responsibility. This is the fundamental drivers for continous improvements.

#MSSL141

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Servitization, or service infusion, is a way of differentiate products. It means delivering service as a component that adds value to the product.

From what I know, the equipment manufacturers in the Medtech industry have followed the traditional pattern of first introducing services for free (like installation, assessment of equipment needs and basic product training). Next step is that the customer would like help with e.g. long term technical service and education and these services can then be charged for.

In a multi-national goods dominated company charging for services probably starts as a local initiative and not pro-actively through a global organization. I think that it is at this point the challenges start to emerge. In the global organization as: “creating a service culture”, “development processes” and “goals but no strategies”. In the local organization there are other challenges such as “sales force resistance” and “launching new services that are more sophisticated”. From originally being a bottom-up approach I think this is the turning point to start working top-down to be able to scale the service business up. If this situation is recognized by management, the servitization forces the company to increase the global resources and to create a service business unit. If not, the local organizations will continue to develop the service offerings and revenues, but probably at a low pace. Then the global replication and scaling opportunity is lost. #mssl141

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In a previous post “Service Logic in my industry” I wrote that the medtech companies are struggling with decreasing product margins and tougher competition from low cost countries. To grow, either through acquisitions or organically, is important in order to stay in business and not be a victim for an acquisition. Organic growth through product innovation and development of medical equipment takes longer time than many other products because of the medical directive regulations, risk assessments and formal documentation requirements. A faster avenue for growth is to expand the offering beyond existing products. This has already started to change the medtech industry and it will probably continue to do so even more.

I believe the most common way to be innovative in this area is to combine products with services into solutions which also is called Recombinative innovation*. An example of this is combining a patient lifter with a smart software that can help the customer to monitor the usage of the equipment and encourage not frequently used lifters to be more utilized by the caregivers in that department (and thereby giving more value-in-use and operational benefits that improve cost-effectiveness of the investment)

Another common type of service innovation is Formalization*. This means to standardize and formalize the performance of a procedure. Examples of this are procedures carried out by hospitals (like e.g. laundry) that can be turned into a service and offered by a service provider.

A radical* service innovation today offered by bigger medtech equipment companies are the “Guaranteed solutions”. Some of these services focus on preventing adverse advents e.g. patient falls or caregiver back injuries and consists of a 2-3 years improvement programs with a guaranteed outcome that will lower the operational costs for the hospital. Such programs include both products, product training, process changes, monitoring and follow up of the outcome. Referring to the Diamond model** in, this service innovation is truly multi-dimensional and consists of process innovation, social innovation and business model innovation. #mssl141

Diamond model

* Gallouj, F. & Weinstein, O. (1997) Innovation in services. Research Policy, 26, 537– 556.
** Developed by CTF – Centrum för tjänsteforskning in Karlstad

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The products that I’m working with right now are lifters that help disabled persons e.g. out of bed and into a wheelchair or to the toilet. When talking about customer experience I need to separate between the caregiver and the consumer/patient.

An important caregiver experience of such products is to feel that that the patient is transferred safely, comfortably and not feeling anxious. For a caregiver the patient contact is also very important and thus the equipment is designed in a way to accomplish eye contact and that at least one hand is available for physical contact when operating the equipment. On-site caregiver training is of course important to “enable” these values to create the best caregiver experience through correct handling. Just to write and talk about these values is just not enough.

I therefore find Per Kristenssons presentation about predicted, experienced and remembered value very interesting. I think the situation together with the patient is so strong and needs to be experiences and that is why on-site demonstrations are so important to create a memorable experience.

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• During product development where the caregiver is a co-producer
• Product trainings which could really be a reciprocal value creation opportunity
• Through assessment of equipment at a hospital where needs are clarified and value propositions are presented to address the needs
• Through advanced service products that improves the caregivers work procedures and use of equipment. The company commits to a guaranteed outcome and the two parties join in the value creation.

The last item is a challenge but very rewarding for both the provider and the customer. The relationship is long term (years) it creates a strong bonds. #MSSL141

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