Linked data flows in multi-player games for servitization

Victoria Uren & Christopher BrewsterSpring Servitization ConferenceMay 20-22 2013

Introduction

The Problem – Barriers to Servitization

• Adopting servitization is a major strategic decision• Profits may go down as well as up (Grönroos & Ojalsalo, 2004)

• Income from new sources• …but new expenditure too

• Manufacturers may need new skills• Service staff• Customer support tasks• New marketing approaches

• Increased complexity of communication• Downstream with customers• Within the company• Upstream suppliers

Serious Games

• Serious Games “entertain, educate & inform”• Allow experimentation in safe, simulated environments• “Traditional” military, medical & safety applications • Increasing use in business training

A Multi-player Game

Widget Producer GameB

ase Make

machine

Sell machine

Inte

rme

dia

te Service machine

Ad

van

ced Guarantee

widget production

Base Level

Customer

Sales

Negotiates price

Factory

Produces WP

Receives WP

Submits order

Images © 2004–2013 Florida Center for Instructional Technology

Base Level Data

• production costs• number of machines sold• price for each machine• production capacity of factory

Intermediate Level

Customer

Sales

Negotiates priceArranges service contract

Factory

Produces WPReceives WP

Submits order

Images © 2004–2013 Florida Center for Instructional Technology

Designer

Service

Fix WP

Report faults

Makes spares

Uses spares

Improves

calls out service teamInforms of contract

conditions

Intermediate Level Data

• production costs• number of machines

sold• price for each

machine• production capacity of

factory• number of units with

servicing contracts and their value

• unit average quality • cost of spare parts • cost of warehousing

spares• cost of service

personnel time • Buyer satisfaction

levels • cost of design time

Advanced Level

Images © 2004–2013 Florida Center for Instructional Technology

Strategic Planner

Monitors all data and sets targets for next round

Negotiates guarantee

Lend substitute machine

Advanced Level Data

• As for Intermediate, plus:• number of days for which a substitute machine must

be supplied and cost • number of substitute Widget Producer units held in

stock and cost • number of units with premium servicing contracts

and their value• number of substitute units requested• number of substitute units loaned on time

The Problem is Increased Complexity

• As the game progresses – as servitzation is implemented• More players are involved• More data is required• Trade offs become more complex• Players need to know more about each other’s role

• Should Sales offer the guarantee to a customer who is located far from the warehouse?

• Is it worth the designer replacing failing component X with a more expensive one to reduce service call outs?

• How should factory balance the production of new units vs spare parts to ensure service is maintained & orders fulfilled?

• How many spares and replacement machines need to be stocked?

Potential Data Formats

Existing Business Data Exchange Standards

• Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)• Data format for business transaction documents (e.g. invoices)• Developed initially by Motor industry• Significant start-up challenges• Can require complex mapping to incorporate new data

• GS1 bar code standard• incorporates detail of many features of products

Data Opportunities

• Open Data• data generated by the public

sector made available for public use, e.g. crime statistics, health service data

• Web 3.0 / Semantic web• innovative technologies for

machine understandable data on the web

• Open Linked Data• a powerful merge of both

Image Semantic Web Stack, source Wikipedia

Open Linked Data

• RDF/XML standard for sharable data• Published according to four simple rules (Berners-Lee 2006)

1. Use URIs as names for things 2. Use HTTP URIs so that people can look up those names 3. When someone looks up a URI, provide useful information,

using the standards (RDF, SPARQL) 4. Include links to other URIs, so that they can discover more

things

The Linked Data “Cloud”

Image: http://lod-cloud.net/

Linked Data State of the Art

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/internet/posts/Linked-Data-Connecting-together-the-BBCs-Online-Content

Linked Data in Games

• Supports incorporation of public datasets• OpenStreetMap – data about location of Buyers and service

depots• GB Road traffic counts – data about traffic flow per major road

junction per year• Supports reuse of the game architecture for different scenarios

• MusikBrainz – data about albums, performers etc., for changing business models in the music industry

Linked Data in Supply Chains

• Linked data technologies don’t have to be open web• Intranet & VPN use web technologies

• Different partners need different kinds of data:• raw materials, component production, assembly, fitting, repair

and maintenance • Agile supply chains need to connect new partners to information

networks quickly:• Mapping for Linked data executed simply using SameAs links• EDI can be rendered as XML

Conclusions

Summary

• Serious games open an opportunity to reduce barriers to servitization uptake by educating business people through simulated environments

• Servitization barriers include increased complexity of data and communication channels

• A game scenario was conceived which demonstrated data and communication complexity issues

• Linked data proposed as a flexible data format both within the game and in supply chains more widely

References

• Grönroos, C., & Ojalsalo, K. (2004). Service Productivity: towards a conceptualisation of the transformation of inputs into economic results in services. Journal of Business Research, 57(4), 414–423.

• Berners-Lee, T. (2006). Linked Data - Design Issues. Retrieved July 23, http://www.w3.org/ DesignIssues/LinkedData.html

Thanks for listening – questions?