Use cases for traceability systems : An explanatory case study about the application areas for QR codes

Abstract: The customer concept becomes more intertwined with the provider of products as serviceoriented business models is offered to the customer. This shift is referred as servitization in which innovation occurs in the company processes by shifting focus from providing products to providing product service systems (PSS). However, the servitization of the manufacturing industry has been slow compared to other sectors and there are many barriers to overcome for the transformation. Use phase data could be used as an enabler to resolve barriers to PSS. The collection of use phase data could be done through the usage of automatic identification technologies like QR codes. Despite the promising opportunities with collection of use phase data there are many challenges. Among them are the identification of use cases for the data. This study therefore aimed to identify both use cases and needed use phase data when collecting data using QR codes.  The manufacturing company Bosch Rexroth AB and their service department were chosen as a case study company, to establish their view on the use cases for QR codes. Additionally, a literature review identified the use phase data need for each use cases derived from the theory. The collected data was analyzed through an explanation building analysis in which plausible and rival explanations to the result was brought up. This resulted in five identified use cases for QR codes and from the use cases one identified need for use phase data. The identified use cases mainly providing value to the provider were derivation of new products or services and improvement of current products or services. The identified use cases mainly providing value to the external customer were the offering of predictive maintenance, the assistance in operations and the creation of a digital passport or image. The identified use phase data need was service data but also additional product related data that does not concern use phase of the products was also needed for the use cases.