Uncertainties in the servitization era : managing risk in contract for availability

Nowadays we are living in world surrounded by uncertainties. Business needs to develop practices to manage risks that rise from a rapidly changing context. To minimize the impact of unexpected events, management approaches need to change and be constantly adapted to the context in which they are used. Unfortunately, methods and practices are not developed as quickly as the business environment is changing. An example is the current lack of a proper methodology that concretely helps companies, especially OEMs, in handling issues brought by servitization and longer relationships. The purpose of this thesis is to have a fully understanding of current changes of business environment under the servitization era, to then structure a new approach to guide companies in handling what they are currently not used to consider. The starting point was a detailed literature review about servitization, contracts for availability, risks and uncertainties to understand what companies are currently facing and how they handle the issues. Afterwards, a new methodology was structured to propose something new that could concretely help and support companies when dealing with CfA. This thesis represents therefore a breakthrough compared to past approaches and methods. For the first time this specific context has been studied with the purpose of having a wider perspective to develop something to help companies in their risk management processes. A conceptual methodology was developed to help OEMs in facing new uncertainties brought by the servitization together with a framework to select the most suitable mitigation strategy. The thesis fills the current gap and contributes with useful additions to the standard way of considering this topic. It has the attempt to redesign and reorient business thinking from being passive to proactively react, anticipating risks, uncertainties and their consequences. It suggests a risk management approach whose features enable users in considering risks and uncertainties due to longer relationships and to changes in role and responsibilities. Then, the tool defines an approach with new features to measure, monitor and then mitigate risks.