Understanding service complexity in manufacturing companies: Insights and implications from a mixed methods study on drivers and levers of complexity
- Expanding industrial service offerings is an essential growth and diversification strategy for manufacturing companies. However, the unstructured development of service portfolios introduces complexity drivers into organizations and presents new challenges in providing services efficiently and flexibly. This paper explores service complexity in manufacturing companies and evaluates levers for complexity management approaches. Applying an exploratory sequential mixed methods design, complexity drivers are qualitatively identified and clustered into complexity categories. The effect of these complexity categories on the efficiency and flexibility of the service provision is then quantitatively explored via an online survey. Correlation analysis reveals substantial interrelations among task complexity (0.61), service program complexity (0.49), and the complexity of service, support, and customer processes (0.48), highlighting these as most critical to efficiency in successful service provision. This study enables companies to assess and mitigate service complexity by identifying the key pain points for implementing complexity management measures.
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| Author: | Lukas Schild, Jonas Jensch, Stefan KokorskiORCiDGND |
|---|---|
| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1007/s12525-025-00769-9 |
| Parent Title (English): | Electronic Markets |
| Publisher: | Springer |
| Editor: | Francesco Polese |
| Document Type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Date of Publication (online): | 2025/04/09 |
| Date of first Publication: | 2025/04/09 |
| Release Date: | 2025/04/16 |
| Tag: | 03; Complexity drivers; Complexity management; Mixed methods study; Service complexity |
| Volume: | 35 |
| Issue: | 30 |
| First Page: | 1 |
| Last Page: | 23 |
| Note: | The aim of the KomiD research project is to develop a practical model for the complexity management of industrial service systems. The IGF project 22297 N of the research association FIR e. V. at RWTH Aachen University was funded by the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) via the AiF within the framework of the program for the promotion of joint industrial research (IGF) on the basis of a resolution of the German Bundestag. Project Title: KomiD –Complexitymanagement for industrial Service Funding/Promoters: German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action; German Federation of Industrial Research Associations Funding no.: 22297 N Research Partner: 3win® Maschinenbau GmbH Endress+Hauser – Messtechnik GmbH+Co. KG GfPS – Gesellschaft für Produktionshygiene und Sterilitätssicherung mbH GreenGate AG Kundendienst-Verband Deutschland e. V. (KVD) SERCOO Group GmbH |
| Note: | The authors would like to acknowledge the AiF Arbeitsgemeinschaft industrieller Forschungsvereinigungen “Otto von Guericke” e.V., which supports and enables the research project “KomiD – Komplexitätsmanagement industrieller Dienstleistungssys- teme.” The paper was elaborated on within this research project. |
| Institute / Department: | FIR e. V. an der RWTH Aachen |
| Dienstleistungsmanagement | |
| Dewey Decimal Classification: | 6 Technik, Medizin, angewandte Wissenschaften / 62 Ingenieurwissenschaften |
| Licence (German): |  Creative Commons - CC BY - Namensnennung 4.0 International |
