Servitisation in Swedish sawmills : the case of computed tomography

Sammanfattning

The Swedish sawmill industry faces rising competition due to increasing costs, efficiency pressures, and stricter traceability and sustainability standards. Sawmill organisations are adopting new technologies, such as Computed Tomography (CT), which scans logs to reveal internal structures, enabling better process optimisation, higher yields, and enhanced traceability. Despite these benefits, adoption is limited, primarily due to high initial costs, uncertain economic returns, and integration challenges. This study examines how sawmill organisations evaluate CT technology when offered as a service, rather than through traditional ownership. The goal is to identify factors that influence decision-makers in sawmills to invest in CT technology via service-based models. A qualitative approach was used, involving semi-structured interviews with decision-makers from Swedish and Norwegian sawmills, including organisations with and without prior experience with CT technology. The interview data were analysed through thematic analysis. The findings found that evaluations of service-based access are influenced more by how these arrangements fit with existing investment strategies, operational needs, and risk management practices than by the technological capabilities of the solution itself. Respondents highlighted key factors such as maintaining production continuity, controlling critical infrastructure, ensuring data governance, and cost predictability as central to their judgments. Prior experience with the technology affected confidence in its practicality, whereas lack of experience increased perceptions of uncertainty and risk. Overall, service-based access was regarded as conditionally viable, mainly serving as a supplement to ownership rather than a complete replacement. Overall, the study concludes that adopting service-based business models to access advanced production technologies is limited by technological, organisational, and structural factors inherent in capital-intensive industries. Servitisation is not a simple linear transition toward fully outcome-based service models; instead, it is applied selectively within specific boundary conditions determined by asset embeddedness and operational criticality. This research clarifies how these conditions restrict and influence the scope of servitisation when applied to critical production technologies in industrial environments.