Road to digital manufacturing – a longitudinal case-based analysis

The authors’ main objective is to examine the resource alteration underlying the digital manufacturing transformation. The authors rely on the adaptation aspect of dynamic capabilities (DC) theory and their analysis shows how and why a factory adapts its resources and capabilities during digital transformation.

To grasp the change, the authors apply the longitudinal case study method within a revelatory case setting. The digital transformation is detailed from the perspective of a subsidiary that has played a key role in the division's digital transformation.

Analysing the revealed four stages of the transformation through the lenses of the DC components of adaptation (sensing capability, absorptive capacity, integrative capability, relational capability), this study suggests a sequence with unbalanced characteristics. Each stage starts with sensing capability, each component appears during each stage and each stage is dominated by a different component. Relying on the path dependency concept, the authors also present that the interplay between lean as an old resource stock and digital manufacturing as a new resource stock is rather a necessity, especially at the beginning of the transformation (at a corporation that pursues lean for years).

Digital strategy development is rather an intermediate element of the transformation, since committed personnel (or maybe their network) start bottom-up and coordinate initiatives as they sense the opportunities in the environment. Top managers should rely on their accumulated knowledge and involve them into the transfer coalition in the top-down phase of digitalization. The authors’ case also underlines that starting to experiment with novel technologies requires a solid (and usually expensive) technological and human basis. Finally, process improvement focussed developments at a high-performing factory might be just enough to deal with ever-demanding customer expectations.

This study is among the firsts in operations management that relies on the DC theory to follow up the digital transformation of a factory. A further valuable contribution is that the adaptation process is examined in a longitudinal case study.