Servitization to promote a circular economy The case of the Swedish process industry
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Quality and operations management (MPQOM), MSc
Publicerad
2021
Författare
Hagberg, Hugo
Magnusson, Joel
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
The urgency to change due to the climate crisis, has increased the awareness of the need
to break the linear economy and strive for circular economy. To do so, companies has
started to change, creating new value with less resources. One way of doing so, is to
sell the function of a product rather than the product itself. How does circular economy
and selling the function interlink and, how does the customers perceive these offerings?
This thesis explores the development of circular economy and servitization within a large
manufacturing company, with its customers in the Swedish process industry. Found in
the literature is that servitization enables features in circular economy which were further
acknowledged by the qualitative interviews conducted at the chosen case company and
with their customers. Further, a quantitative survey has been used to provide more detailed
insights of how different companies perceives circular economy and the connection
to servitization. As part of the survey, a Discrete Choice Model has been used to quantify
possible trade-offs between attributes of services or products. The results indicates that
customers within the Swedish process industry are highly aware of circular economy and
perceives it as very important. Regarding service attributes, they highly values saved
CO2 & increased uptime, which they also are willing to pay more for. Several gaps were
also identified, both within the company studied, but also between the company and their
customers. This could imply different strategies to reach a circular economy and, as there
are gaps, two companies could work in different directions even though they have the same
goal - a circular economy.
Key findings
Different definitions of a circular economy may lead to challenges.
Servitization is one way to enable the features of circular economy.
The awareness of circular economy is regarded as high.
Customers values saved CO2-emissions and increased uptime the most.
There is a gap between customer needs and provided offerings.
There is a risk that circular economy stays at strategic level.
A 50/50 combination of traditional affairs and service offerings is most likely in the
future based on the customers opinion.
Key propositions
Incorporate the voice of the customer to a greater extent when developing offerings.
Implement the right KPI’s together with key stakeholders.
Develop the traditional affair as well as services.
Dare to continuously improve to reach circular economy.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
servitization , circular economy , customer needs , discrete choice model , Swedish process industry