For decades, industrial powerhouses have relied on a familiar playbook: world-class devices, machinery, and strong engineering expertise. That alone is no longer enough. Growth is determined by how effectively a company utilises data generated throughout a product’s digital lifecycle.
Operating models built on strong technological expertise has brought industrial players success for decades. According to recent estimates, the industrial players like India and China are 10-fold faster in their product development cycles compared to their European rivalries. And as customers expect more, artificial intelligence is transforming business, and international competitors are accelerating, European companies cannot afford to fall behind any longer.
Products, devices, and machines are expected to offer autonomy, electrification and intelligent services. Harri Laukkanen, who developed Gofore’s digital lifecycle model, illustrates the shift with a car analogy:
- In the past, driving a Ford Taunus from the city of Tampere to Helsinki was enough. Now the destination is Berlin. You can still get there in an old car, but slowly and with a few dents along the way. When autonomy, electrification and services enter the picture, you are suddenly supposed to be heading for the moon. Trying to get to the moon with a car becomes pointless: you need an entirely new vehicle to complete the task.
The complexity is directly visible in numbers: Twenty years ago, an industrial device might have had ten possible configurations. Today, the number can exceed six thousand trillion.
Although technologies are changing, one thing remains: the physical product must be of excellent quality, match the customer needs, and new features must reach the market fast. This is where data utilization becomes a critical success factor.
In tomorrow’s product, data is part of the product DNA
A digital lifecycle model means that a product is first created as a virtual prototype and remains a digital counterpart throughout its entire lifecycle. The digital twin is enriched during design, manufacturing, use and maintenance.
Product’s digital lifecycle model connects the physical and digital worlds. It is a Finnish innovation that creates better business and enables products to continuously improve in quality.
In tomorrow’s product, data is part of the product’s DNA. When a device is put into use, real-time data on usage, performance and energy consumption travels with it. Every software update and maintenance action enriches the whole.
What matters most in the digital lifecycle model is that critical decisions can be made as early as possible, even before anything physical has been produced. According to Laukkanen, it all comes back to one thing.
– Everything starts with data. When the data is in good shape and digital twins are built on top of it, the entire lifecycle becomes one coherent, learning whole, Laukkanen says.
AI needs a unified data foundation
The digital lifecycle model is not just theory. It is already being used by significant Finnish industrial companies.
Thanks to data, product development teams can understand how products truly perform in customers’ everyday operations, and draw conclusions based on real facts rather than assumptions.
A shared data foundation is also a prerequisite for using AI. When information is high-quality and continuously generated, AI can help optimise production, anticipate maintenance needs and identify anomalies. Without intact lifecycle data, AI remains at the level of isolated experiments.
– When data streams and digital twins are brought together, new services can be built in a fraction of the time they take today, Laukkanen notes.
Turning maintenance business into a strategic source of growth
For many industrial companies, the greatest potential is no longer found in selling a new device, but in what happens during the product lifecycle.
When product performance is seen in real time, creating predictive maintenance business and new service models around areas such as availability and energy efficiency becomes reality as well.
Usage-based billing and predictive maintenance are examples of new business models. They all require a unified flow of lifecycle data.
If the data flow has been built correctly from the start and digital twins are connected as part of the whole, different stages of the lifecycle can deliver time and cost savings of up to 90 per cent, for example when building new services and applications.
– This is where the greatest value of the change lies. It is not primarily about cutting costs, but about data creating new kinds of business, deepening customer relationships and generating value long after delivery, Laukkanen summarises.
Success requires ownership from senior leadership
Many people think industrial competitiveness depends on a single technology.
Digital lifecycle thinking is not, however, an IT project. It is a change in the entire operating model, one that also reshapes roles and responsibilities. That is why a product’s digital lifecycle model needs a clear owner at senior leadership level.
The change does not need to happen all at once, Laukkanen reassures.
– The most sensible approach is to start with a clearly defined area, demonstrate the value of the operating model in practice and then expand from there. A small, cautious pilot is not enough, however, he emphasises, then continues:
– The benefits only emerge when the entire product is designed virtually from start to finish and data is made available comprehensively.
It is time to update the playbook
Finnish industry has reinvented itself before. The companies that make the next leap will be those that build a digital lifecycle for their products. They will be able to develop new services and gain a competitive advantage that is difficult to copy.
The change will happen. The only question is who will be first to benefit from it. There is no time to waste, Laukkanen says.
“Asian manufacturers have been able to build their product development from a clean slate and have, in some areas, already overtaken Finnish companies. Renewal must therefore start now.”
