New service development in manufacturing companies - insights from the german manufacturing sector

Manufacturing companies increasingly offer services related to their products. Although delivering services to customers entails many benefits, service provision is also a great challenge for manufacturers. These companies are traditionally focused on products and often regard services only as an add-on. Although developing new services has proven to be more complex in manufacturing than in service companies, service development is often carried out unsystematically in both types of firms. Following on a comprehensive literature review of service innovations in manufacturing companies, large-scale survey data from German manufacturing is analyzed with a view to shedding light on service development in manufacturing firms.