Abstract
The following dissertation is focused on the concept of servitization in manufacturing, an innovative and extant topic, strongly connected to Industry 4.0 phenomenon. The first reference to this subject dates back to 1980s, but only recently servitization in wider terms has been deeply explored. Given the latest economic crises, modern enterprises and the market in general felt the urge to innovate their current business models in order to differentiate from rivalry and improve the relationship they have with their customers. A way to pursue the tasks of differentiation from rivalry and customer loyalty is to scout a new value proposition, like the one interconnected with servitization. Exploring previous literature it is possible to infer a literature gap on three main points: focus only on the service industry rather than the manufacturing one; shortage of models to support service innovation implementation; lack of critical and in-depth evaluation of performance in practice. The aim of this work is therefore to conceptualize an explanatory business model, based upon previous literature. A proper model could in facts address manufacturing companies to define and adjust their strategy, business practices and organization in order to support servitization and remain competitive. Given the extent of the topic, the focus will be placed on household goods industry only. A practical case will be taken into consideration in order to create a proper business model that could possibly be replicated onto other industries' cases. In particular the model will be developed onto Whirlpool EMEA Corporation. The research approach adopted in this dissertation is based on three different elements: literature review, leverage on Engineering Ingegneria Informatica's experience on IoT and action research. The analysis will result in creating guidelines for best practice and elaborate a new business model. The comprehensive analysis consists of eight sections, each of which is aimed at considering a specific topic.