Author(s) :

Lai-Ming Chou, Hsiang-Tsai Chiang.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Industrial filtration equipment is essential to manufacturing and heavy-industrial operations, yet its capital-intensive nature poses significant barriers for many organizations. High upfront costs, specialized maintenance requirements, and uneven capacity utilization present persistent challenges for firms seeking to balance operational reliability with cost efficiency. This exploratory case study examines how platform-based rental models address these challenges in the context of industrial equipment. Drawing on 18 months of operational data (January 2023-June 2024), including 127 rental contracts, 2,847 service events, and semi-structured interviews with 15 platform personnel, we investigate how platform logic operates in systems characterized by standardized assets, continuous maintenance demands, and multi-actor coordination. Our findings demonstrate that platform-based rentals enhance asset utilization, reduce users' capital expenditures, and provide more predictable operating costs through integrated equipment and service management. However, platforms encounter substantial operational challenges. Service capacity planning must accommodate seasonal demand fluctuations of up to 23% between peak and off-peak periods. Equipment standardization tensions emerge as 17% of customer requests require non-standard configurations, increasing deployment costs by approximately 40%. Performance monitoring faces data quality limitations, with 32% of variance in reliability metrics remaining unexplained by measurable equipment characteristics. Service technician capability variations significantly affect effectiveness: top-quartile technicians resolve 89% of issues in a single visit, compared with 62% for bottom-quartile technicians. By documenting these operational mechanisms and contextual conditions that distinguish capital-intensive equipment platforms from their consumer-oriented or digital counterparts, this research establishes empirical foundations for the theoretical development of platform-based business models in traditional industrial sectors.

Keywords :

Platform business models, Industrial equipment rental, Filtration systems, Product-service systems, Case study research

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