Servitization for Teaching and Research Laboratories: Guidelines for a New Business Model Driven by Practical Use Cases

Davide Reverberi; Giovanni Esposito; Giovanni Romagnoli

doi:10.3991/ijoe.v18i14.35085

Authors

Davide Reverberi University of Parma, Parma, Italy https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6768-3932
Giovanni Esposito University of Parma, Parma, italy https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5150-0855
Giovanni Romagnoli University of Parma http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9891-0314

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3991/ijoe.v18i14.35085

Keywords:

Digital and online labs, Non-traditional labs, Pitch deck, Servitization, Laboratory-as-a-Service, LaaS

Abstract

In this paper, we present a pattern for assessing the feasibility of laboratories and lab networks to operate in a service-oriented form of business. Our focus is on the field of engineering, and on a network of academic labs, and we aim to provide a practical tool for disclosing the opportunity of servitization, or to use Laboratories-as-a-Service (LaaS), for interested companies. By using a traditional pitch deck approach, we define the available digital online offer of the specific labs, and we structure a questionnaire to investigate the market demand. Afterwards, we sketch the main servitization characteristics required to digital online labs from a business perspective.

The pattern we propose has been used as a guideline for interviews to selected stakeholders of two specific labs, namely a remotely available RFID lab for internal logistics in the retail sector, and a serious game for operations and supply chain management. The answers we collected suggested the feasibility of the labs servitization, by defining both strengths and weaknesses.

Author Biographies

Davide Reverberi, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Davide Reverberi was born in 1992 in Parma (Italy). He completed his Master's degree in Management Engineering with a focus on production methodologies at the University of Parma. He is now a research fellow at the University of Parma at the Department of Engineering and Architecture. Since May 2019, he has been involved in the Open Digital Laboratory For You (DigiLab4U) project with a focus on remote labs and lab-based learning. During this period, he has attended several workshops, both in Italy and abroad, on technical and didactic topics for laboratories. He is currently co-author of eight international scientific publications, two of which have been accepted in international journals. He has served as local administrative manager for the project DigiLab4U.

Giovanni Esposito, University of Parma, Parma, italy

Giovanni Esposito obtained a PhD in Industrial Engineering at the University of Parma (Italy) in 2021. His research interests comprehend RFID application for supply chain management and supply chain modelling towards Industry 4.0. He also visited the Stuttgart University of Applied Sciences (Germany). He acted as a local manager for the University of Parma on the DigiLab4U project (http://digilab4u.com/).