University of Sussex

Digitally Enhanced advanced services for domestic AppLiances (DEAL)

Project aims

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The DEAL project explored the state-of-practice of digitally enhanced services for domestic appliances in the UK. This allowed gaining understanding of current practice and potential benefits and barriers for implementation for practitioners. The knowledge on current practice was then contrasted with the state-of-art from academic literature to identify key implementation gaps. This has uncovered the emerging digital innovations that can enable outcome-based propositions for domestic appliances, including data analysis needed to enhance the decision-making processes that support innovative business models.

Traditionally, service research in the domestic appliances market have focused on after sales services and their operations, rather than on the provision of advanced services, i.e. delivering a capability instead of the product to the customers. There seems to be an application gap regarding the digital servitisation transformation for this particular sector in terms of applying new and more advanced services (that can potentially bring more value). This project brought together perspectives from service innovation, operations management and digital manufacturing. Leveraging on researchers’ expertise we selected relevant DEAS research questions for the DEAL project. First, DEAS research question 3 builds on the rationale of digital technologies enhancing value flows in the service networks delivering digitally-enhanced advances services. We addressed this from a multi-stakeholder perspective and aimed at involving a wide range of network actors in the research activities. Second, DEAS research question 4 looks at the specific ways in which data collected through digital technologies can improve decision making in the service networks through better data collection, management and analysis.