Industrial Service Strategy : Development, Implementation and Execution

Increasingly, as markets become more competitive and globalized, industrial service providers are dependent on effective and efficient service strategies to achieve a certain level of customer satisfaction and to create a win-win situation for the involved parties. This research investigates the development, implementation, and execution of industrial service strategies. Based on four case studies performed in the Norwegian oil and gas industry and Swedish manufacturing and service industry, two frameworks for industrial service strategies are suggested, verified and validated. The first framework considers the development and negotiation of industrial service contracts. The framework highlights key factors that need to be considered when negotiating industrial service agreements to avoid conflicts and to develop healthy relationships. Planned services can be considered based on product failure predictability. However, successful service providers also need to set up contingency plans for resolving problems caused by unpredictable failure events in an effective and efficient manner. The second framework considers the development, implementation and execution of industrial service strategies. The research demonstrates that to develop an effective and efficient service strategy one should consider major influencing factors, their attributes and performance factors. Engineering factors/parameters such as reliability and maintainability need to be considered, in addition to non-engineering factors such as the geographical location, operational requirements, operating environments, external factors, etc. In the development, implementation and execution processes, performance factors such as cost drivers, performance killers and critical success factors need to be defined to assess the performance of the service delivery process, the service content, and the service strategy as a whole.