This article investigates the vital and often underemphasized front end of innovation. It aims to explore how firms utilize organizational capabilities to manage multiple sources of fuzziness (uncertainty, equivocality, and complexity). In so doing, we use the capability- and knowledge-based view to examine the use of firms’ capabilities to navigate the front end process from vague ideas towards corroborated product definition. In our qualitative case of seven manufacturing firms, we explore practices, methods, and routines for managing the front end. We explain that new product ideas can be classified according to different degrees of fuzziness, which implies that not all product ideas can or should be treated in the same way. In fact, certain capabilities are more important for managing the development of ideas at low (i.e. process management and idea refinement) and high (problem formulation and problem solution) levels of fuzziness. Ultimately, we suggest a theoretical framework that elucidates how firms use two distinct paths (i.e. tolerance-based or reduction-based) to transform early new product ideas into corroborated product definitions. In doing so, our results guide project members in matching the magnitude of knowledge problems with organizational capabilities and thereby increase front-end performance.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to inform researchers and practitioners about the fuzzy front-end (FFE) of the innovation process in process firms.

Design/methodology/approach – A multiple case study of four process firms was conducted, with a total of 64 semi-structured interviews.

Findings – The paper gives new insights into the FFE in non-assembled product and process development in process firms. The FFE of non-assembled product and process development is first conceptualized and key activities are identified. Further, how the strong relationship between product and process development can be managed in the FFE is discussed.

Research limitations/implications – All four firms are from the mineral and metals industry, prompting caution when generalizing the results to other contexts. This research offers insights about the FFE in process firms. Theoretical implications are added to the existing literature on the FFE and general process development literature, and the paper increases our understanding of innovation management in general.

Practical implications – From a practical point of view, the paper gives advice on how managers in process firms can increase speed and clarity in the FFE. The conceptualizations and the identified front-end key activities are suggested as checklists for improving the FFE stage.

Originality/value – This study compares how the FFE within two different types of innovations is conceptualized and managed. Thus, the FFE in non-assembled product and process development is explored. The FFE of process development is an unexplored context.

This is an updated version of the ProcessIT. EU roadmap for industrial process automation, which was initially released in 2013 to provide guidance and input for process industry companies, providers of process industrial IT- and automation solutions, researchers as well as policy makers and bodies/initiatives that craft calls for RDI-projects. The main objective is for European process industry to stay competitive, profitable and sustainable. Thus, to support European process industry in its industrial process automation endeavours, the ProcessIT. EU roadmap outlines three top-level needs: sustainable production, competence management and trust, security, safety and privacy. These three top-level needs intersect the following ten R&D areas:

• Productivity, efficiency, scalability and flexibility

• Sustainability through circular economy - circular economy through industrial internet

• Distributed production/modular factories and services

• Artificial Intelligence and Big Data

• Autonomous plants and remote operations

• Platform economy

• Cybersecurity

• Safety - human, machine and environment

• Competences and quality of work

• Human-Machine Interfaces and Machine- to-Machine communications,

which in turn are used as building blocks in the nine gamechangers . The gamechangers aim to influence the process industries’ competitiveness, profitability and sustainability . The gamechangers are listed below:

• Modular factory for distributed and automated production

• Live virtual twins of raw-materials, process and products

• Increased information transparency between field and ERP

• Real-time data analytics

• Dynamic control and optimisation of output tolerances

• Process industry as an integrated and agile part of the energy system

• Management of critical knowledge

• Semi-autonomous automation engineering

• Integrated operational and cybersecurity management

Finally, the ProcessIT. EU roadmap provides an insight into what may need to be considered on strategic and tactical levels, in terms of: objec-tives, R&D areas, game changers and business modelling, to keep and develop the competitive edge and initiative.

Themanufacturing industry is moving from linear and material-intensive businessmodels toward a more circular economy that effectively uses available resourcesto enhance both profits and sustainability. This new circular economyemphasizes offering advanced services rather than pure goods. Transitioningfrom product to service sales provides multiple possibilities to introduce circular business models, where new forms of value can be created for providers, their customers, and other actors in the ecosystem by utilizing resources more efficiently.Companies need to develop the business models from a ecosystem perspective that involves effectively distributing responsibilities and closely integrating activitiesthroughout the ecosystem. In contrast, current business model practices are often too firm-centric and consider a single firm as a relevant unit, despite the fact that a network of ecosystem actors, such as providers, customers, service partners, and digital actors, are necessary to realize a total offer and for sustainability effects to materialize. Therefore,important questions about the distribution of activities, roles, cost- and revenue sharing, value creation and capture, and procurement are currently left unanswered. In sum, due to these problems, current methods for ecosystem business model development often fail to live up to the full sustainabilit ypotential of advanced services. Thus, we argue for need to develop and test method sfor circular or advanced service business models that is valid from an ecosystem perspective

The development and installation of new process equipment in production plants typically requires strong collaboration among a process firm and various equipment suppliers. While incentives to collaborate often are strong, close collaboration also poses significant problems, throughout the lifecycle of process equipment. The purpose of this article is to explore the problems and opportunities faced by process firms and their equipment suppliers throughout the lifecycle stages of collaborative development projects. This paper combines literature on open innovation, collaborative development and buyer-supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a large number of interviews in a dual case study of two process firms. Our results show that strong collaboration is neither positive nor negative in general. Rather, opportunities, problems, and collaboration intensity are strongly contingent on the specific stage in the lifecycle of process equipment. Our findings underscore the managerial and theoretical importance of a lifecycle perspective on the development of process equipment, since significant overlaps and interconnections exist across different stages.

I en tid av digitalisering utmanas företagen att nyttja digitala möjligheter sprungna ur exempelvis det industriella internet of things, big data och artificiell intelligens. Den transformativa kraften i digital teknik möjliggör affärsmodells-innovation och nya sätt att skapa värden för industriföretag där tjänster och ökat kundfokus är centralt. Digitalisering exponerar emellertid företagen för betydande risk och finansiell belastning p.g.a. bristande förståelse för lämpliga affärsmodeller och organisatoriska utmaningar. I den här policysammanfattningen summeras insikter från studier av mer än 40 ledande företag (såväl leverantörer som småföretag och kunder) som engagerat sig i digital affärsmodellsinnovation. De övergripande slutsatserna presenteras i form av tre fällor och sex lärdomar för att dra nytta av digitalisering. Att lyckas med digitalisering är långt mycket mer komplext än att utveckla ny teknik. En lyckad implementering kräver samspel och förändring mellan teknik, organisatoriska processer och människor samt affärsmodeller både inom företaget och externt i ekosystemet.

DEBATT. Ta små utvecklingssteg i digitaliseringen, lär av andra företag och undvik att lägga allt krut på ett stort komplext system som snabbt kan vara utdaterat, skriver David R Sjödin, forskare vid Luleå tekniska universitet.

Swedish manufacturing firms are increasingly adopting pioneering digital technologies and analytics to support advanced service provision in an attempt to achieve sustainable competitive advantages. This article explains how a platform approach to digitalization can help manufacturers achieve both customization and operational efficiency in advanced service provision across global markets.

Thedevelopment of novel digital technologies connected to the Internet of Things, alongwith advancements in artificial intelligence and automation, is enabling a newwave of manufacturing innovation. “Smart factories” will leverage industrialequipment that communicates with users and with other machines, automatedprocesses, and mechanisms to facilitate real-time communication between thefactory and the market to support dynamic adaptation and maximize efficiency. Smartfactories can yield a range of benefits, such as increased process efficiency,product quality, sustainability, and safety and decreased costs. However, companiesface immense challenges implementing smart factories, given the large-scalesystemic transformation the move requires. We use data gathered from in-depth studiesof five factories in two leading automotive manufacturers to analyze these challengesand identify the key steps needed to implement the smart factory concept. Basedon our analysis, we offer a preliminary maturity model for smart factory implementationbuilt around three overarching principles: cultivating digital people, introducingagile processes, and configuring modular technologies.