Understanding the Barriers That Slow Firms Shifting from Products to Services

This chapter provides an introduction to “servitization” and, in particular, why manufacturing firms are moving into services and how the transition has been slowed. The first section provides an overview of how this book works. It then moves on to introduce product-service systems and the rationale for servitization from the perspective of a manufacturing firm. This is then examined from different perspectives and uses the product lifecycle as an anchor. It moves on to describe the journey into services and then a complex system that often exists within industrial product-service systems. Finally, the seven barriers are explored before providing additional reading.