Transition to total service solution: Managing challenges in service development to expand a product lifecycle

Total service solutions may reduce 30-40% of the total product lifecycle cost for a customer. The installed base of capital goods frequently exceeds the annual flow of new products by 10 to 100 times which indicates that total service solutions, also late in long lifecycles have a huge potential for providers, customers and society. The paper identifies 23 possible challenges when a provider of complex hardware with long operation time enters a transition process to develop total service solutions in order to expand the product’s lifecycle. Each challenge is connected to the major phases in a transition process towards total service solutions. The challenges are exemplified with detailed findings from a case regarding how they can be handled.