Using digital platforms for value chain sustainability – Cases from the Digitala Stambanan project

Paper in proceeding, 2023

Transforming firms towards sustainability is an imperative posed by urgent environmental concerns and governmental regulations, requiring the redesign of traditionally linear and non-transparent value chains. Digital platforms can support the twin transition to digitalization and sustainability, converting the abstract into the tangible (i.e., data flows, information, and knowledge), and providing an industrial testbed to collaborate and challenge the willingness to share data, co-create and deliver value through sustainability-oriented digital services.

This study presents a research collaboration with industrial actors in the context of Swedish manufacturing, aiming to showcase the potential of platforms in Swedish value chains. Awareness of the digital maturity as-is status from the individual actors within a value chain, and purposeful development strategies can lead to improved digital performance, an increased sense of collaboration and sustainable behaviour.

Through a case study approach, this article illustrates the potential of digital platforms by presenting three manufacturing value chains where prioritised industrial challenges are addressed through the capabilities of such platforms: (1) a CO2 visualisation platform that allows transparency, communication and data-sharing between the stakeholders of the value chain and aims to connect different industrial partners and aims to reduce sustainability impact through collaborative efforts; (2) a collaborative root-cause analysis digital platform that allows virtual commissioning of sustainability experts, and technical support; (3) the re-development of a productivity-centred digital service into a sustainability-informing solution that provides relevant production data for SMEs, who are customers of the machine tool sector.

The preliminary findings include: (1) digital maturity of individual firms in a value chain impacts the feasibility of platform development, (2) increased digital maturity allows companies to shift their focus towards sustainability priorities; most companies are often too concerned with productivity, visibility, and flexibility challenges, leaving the sustainability imperative as a nice-to-have, (3) the lack of focus on sustainability can be caused by unclear understanding of how consumer-perceived value can be captured.