scholarly journals Research on product-service systems: topic landscape and future trends

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 208-238
Author(s):  
Federico Barravecchia ◽  
Fiorenzo Franceschini ◽  
Luca Mastrogiacomo ◽  
Mohamed Zaki
Keyword(s):  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Learning Algorithm ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Future Trends ◽  
Research Topics ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Product Service Systems

PurposeThe paper attempts to address the following research questions (RQs): RQ1: What are the main research topics within PSS research? RQ2: What are future trends for PSS research?Design/methodology/approachTwenty years of research (1999–2018) on product-service systems (PSS) produced a significant amount of scientific literature on the topic. As the PSS field is relatively new and fragmented across different disciplines, a review of the prior and relevant literature is important in order to provide the necessary framework for understanding current developments and future perspectives. This paper aims to review and organize research contributions regarding PSS. A machine-learning algorithm, namely Latent Dirichlet Allocation, has been applied to the whole literature corpus on PSS in order to understand its structure.FindingsThe adopted approach resulted in the definition of eight distinct and representative topics able to deal adequately with the multidisciplinarity of the PSS. Furthermore, a systematic review of the literature is proposed to summarize the state-of-the-art and limitations in the identified PSS research topics. Based on this critical analysis, major gaps and future research challenges are presented and discussed.Originality/valueOn the basis of the results of the topic landscape, the paper presents some potential research opportunities on PSSs. In particular, challenges, transversal to the eight research topics and related to recent technology trends and digital transformation, have been discussed.

scholarly journals THE RESEARCH DOMAIN OF PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEMS AND VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER: A SYSTEMATIC MAPPING

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 3101-3110
Author(s):  
Carl Nils Konrad Toller ◽  
Marco Bertoni
Keyword(s):  
Research Area ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Systematic Mapping ◽  
Progressive Development ◽  
Development Cycle ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Product Service Systems ◽  
Research Domain ◽  
Voice Of The Customer

AbstractProduct-Service Systems (PSS) have emerged as a key concept to meet the societal and market trends of increasing customer needs through the entire life-cycle. Unfortunately, several companies are struggling with getting revenues from service investments and translating 'real needs' to design improvements. The demand of the designer to go beyond the Voice of the Customer (VoC) is evident. This paper aims to map the interventions proposed by research in the area of PSS and VoC. Using a systematic mapping approach, the research domain was analyzed with regards to context and interventions. The results show a progressive development in the research area with a focus on the specification and realization of needs. A gap exists in connecting the engineers with 'real needs' and integrating the customer as a natural part of the entire development cycle of a PSS. By performing a systematic mapping, future research can be more focused and hopefully increasing its impact.

scholarly journals Exploring product–service systems in the digital era: a socio-technical systems perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 897-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ai Qiang Li ◽  
Nicholas Rich ◽  
Pauline Found ◽  
Maneesh Kumar ◽  
Steve Brown
Keyword(s):  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Digital Era ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Human Skills ◽  
Technical Systems ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Product Service Systems

PurposeIn the age of Industry 4.0, digital advancement is reshaping manufacturing models towards product–service systems (PSS). The drivers, readiness and challenges to move to a PSS model are not well understood, and the exploitation of the digital era presents the gap of this research.Design/methodology/approachThe research was conducted using semi-structured interviews in six manufacturers. Two forum debates were also conducted to supplement and validate the findings.FindingsSocial and economic motivations rather than environmental considerations were driving the change to PSS. Digital technologies could be an important driver if manufacturers reached a certain PSS maturity level. A high level of technical readiness was offset by a low level of social investments and the strategic development of human resources. Value co-creation was a main challenge though manufacturers had the advantage of digital connectivity, which indicated new human requirements; the greater the enabling power of digital technologies, the greater the need for advanced human skills.Practical implicationsHuman resource management has underpinned lean models; yet, the role of employees within PSS is underdeveloped despite the impact of staff in exploiting digitalisation and value co-creation. A “learning organisation” and socio-technical fit are required for the “diffusion of innovation” of PSS.Originality/valueThis research attempted to explore drivers, readiness and challenges for PSS from a socio-technical systems (STS) perspective. Three levels of PSS maturity with STS features were derived from the research, providing guidance for manufacturers.

Structuring servitization-related research

2018 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 350-371 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodrigo Rabetino ◽  
Willem Harmsen ◽  
Marko Kohtamäki ◽  
Jukka Sihvonen
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Research ◽  
Narrow Range ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Product Service Systems

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to organize and connect past research from different servitization-related scholarly communities. Design/methodology/approach This study reviews more than 1,000 articles by combining author co-citation and qualitative content analyses. Findings The structure and boundaries of the field are mapped, and the characteristics of the three identified servitization-related communities are assessed qualitatively. These three communities are product-service systems, solution business, and service science. The findings demonstrate that a narrow range of theories and qualitative methods dominate in existing research. Originality/value Through the lens of the sociology of science, this review critically evaluates servitization-related research and offers a list of themes that are considered important to the future development of the field. Regarding future research, the main recommendations are as follows: increasing the use of well-established theories from adjacent mature fields, borrowing ideas from different research communities to stimulate knowledge accumulation within and across communities, and reducing the level of description while increasing the number of confirmatory, quantitative, and longitudinal research designs. Finally, the development of formal structures for socialization (e.g. conferences and special issues) could allow the field to achieve a greater degree of scientific maturity and would influence the direction and pace of the development of servitization-related research.

Personalized configuration rules extraction in product service systems by using Local Cluster Neural Network

2015 ◽  
Vol 115 (8) ◽  
pp. 1529-1546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Shen ◽  
Bin Wu ◽  
Li Yu
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Functional Requirements ◽  
Efficient Design ◽  
Local Cluster ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Rule Knowledge ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Product Service Systems

Purpose – Configuration systems are used as a means for efficient design of customer tailored product service systems (PSS). In PSS configuration, mapping customer needs with optimal configuration of PSS components have become much more challenging, because more knowledge with personalization aspects has to be considered. However, the extant techniques are hard to be applied to acquire personalized configuration rules. The purpose of this paper is to extract the configuration rule knowledge in symbolism formulation from historical data. Design/methodology/approach – Customer characteristics (CCs) are defined and introduced into the construction of configuration rules. Personalized PSS configuration rules (PCRs) are thereby proposed to collect and represent more knowledge. An approach combining Local Cluster Neural Network and Rulex algorithm is proposed to extract rule knowledge from historical data. Findings – The personalized configuration rules with CCs are able to alleviate the burden of customers in expressing functional requirements. Furthermore, in the long-term relationship with a customer in PSS realization, PSS offerings can be reconfigured according to the changing CCs with the guide of PCRs. Originality/value – The contribution of this paper lies in introducing the attribute of CCs into the antecedents of PCRs and proposing the neural networks-based approach to extracting the rule knowledge from historical data.

scholarly journals Revisiting the Research Field of Product-Service Systems Development

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Åsa Ericson ◽  
Tobias C. Larsson ◽  
Ola Isaksson ◽  
Andreas Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Holistic Approach ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Manufacturing Industries ◽  
Future Research ◽  
White Spots ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Early Design Stages ◽  
Service Perspective ◽  
Product Service Systems

The research within the Product-Service Systems (PSS) field aims to support manufacturing industries’ ability to provide value in terms of a service offer to its customers, simultaneously taking a more holistic approach to eco-sustainability. The industrial idea of providing customer benefits in parallel with robust products is not new, yet equipping engineers to conduct innovation and applying a service perspective in the early design stages is noticed as fairly radical. The purpose in this paper is two-fold. First, to describe research efforts within the PSS field seen through our engineering design lenses, second, to explore and discuss plausible directions and by that identify “white spots” on the map, which may be seen as relevant directions for future research.

Prioritizing customer requirements in a product-service system (PSS) context

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-273 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas Haber ◽  
Mario Fargnoli
Keyword(s):  
Quality Function Deployment ◽  
Functional Results ◽  
Practical Method ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Healthcare Sector ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Management Tools ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Service ◽  
Product Service Systems

PurposeProduct-service systems (PSSs)’s popularity has expanded significantly throughout recent years. The purpose of this paper is to integrate products and services to achieve functional results that augment the offering’s value. Nevertheless, the intangibility of services hinders the diffusion of PSSs: services are characterized by imprecisions and ambiguities that render the assessment and prioritization of customer requirements problematic. An inadequate evaluation of the latter leads to an inconsistent PSS design that results in the customer dissatisfaction.Design/methodology/approachTo address these concerns, the paper proposes an approach integrating the quality function deployment for product-service systems (QFDforPSS) method with Thurstone’s Law of Comparative Judgments. This approach was tested at a manufacturer in the medical sector seeking to improve his market stance through a PSS model.FindingsAlthough the case study is based on a limited sample, the results achieved highlight the importance of the flow of information between the PSS provider and the customers (i.e. the PSS receivers) in the healthcare sector. The proposed approach can facilitate the company in collecting information even in the case of incomplete answers to surveys and questionnaires providing a practical method to handle the uncertainty due to incomplete data.Originality/valueThe study represents one of the first applications of the PSS approach in the healthcare sector, introducing a novel integration of easy-to-use management tools to augment the understanding of customer needs and expectations.

Reinventing product-service systems: the case of Singapore

foresight ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 332-361 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Lai-Yin Cheah ◽  
Yinping Yang ◽  
Ozcan Saritas
Keyword(s):  
Service System ◽  
Service Systems ◽  
Strategic Decision ◽  
Product Service System ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Product Service ◽  
The Future ◽  
Customer Intelligence ◽  
Product Service Systems ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThis paper aims to discuss a foresight study conducted in Singapore’s national R&D agency to help science and technology decision makers identify key capability areas of R&D investment to support the manufacturing industry’s growth in the country and the region.Design/methodology/approachUsing horizon scanning, scenario analysis and expert opinion, nine capabilities are identified as core areas to be developed to support the country’s future growth of product-service systems.FindingsThe results of a Delphi survey involving 30 industry and academic thought leaders recommend priorities of these capabilities. This paper concludes with a discussion of the study implications for theory, research and practice in the domain of servitisation and product-service systems.Research limitations/implicationsThe foresight study presented here on the future of servitisation in Singapore demonstrates one of the first fully fledged applications of foresight in constructing a coherent vision of future product-service system markets. In this study, the authors applied systemic foresight methodology (SFM) comprising the first six phases: initiation (scoping), intelligence (scanning), imagination (scenarios), integration (priorities), interpretation (strategies) and implementation (action).For future research, an ideal step would be to proceed with the final phase of the SFM, impact, to develop indicators for servitisation and to monitor and evaluate the transition process.Practical implicationsManufacturing and services are no longer distinct concepts with a clear divide. Manufacturing firms not only become more service dependent but also produce and provide services for their consumers. This transformation towards servitisation implies fundamental re-organisation of the production and management practices. Furthermore, through new business models, new and loyal customers will be gained, which will in turn bring additional income, while making the companies less prone to economic and business fluctuations.Social implicationsThe results of this study have practical implications for policymakers of public and private sectors that are interested in playing a key role in future product-service system innovation. These have implications for developing the human and intellectual capital that are required for supporting the future innovation. Institutes of higher learning and vocational institutes should also consider incorporating new curricula and modules to build the capabilities for knowledge creation and transfer.Originality/valueThe findings of the present study on strategic growth areas and relevant critical capabilities provide new directions for research in the field of servitisation. Among the nine capabilities identified, the top three were advanced customer intelligence capability, socio-physical service quality, traceability and maintainability and integrated strategic decision-making. From the results, it is apparent that advanced customer intelligence capability is both an area of importance to Singapore and the world.

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