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

Product-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.

Voice of the customer as a tool for service quality analysis in public transport

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the voice of the customer (VOC) of public transport (PT) users and non-users and to identify the role VOC plays in PT service quality analysis and improvement practices.Design/methodology/approachThis research is based on quantitative and qualitative data collection. Quantitative data were collected through two questionnaires; the first is based on ranking data: 192 responses and the second on the Kano model: 46 responses. The qualitative data was obtained through 10 semi-structured interviews with senior management from seven bus companies in the UK.FindingsFindings indicate that VOC differs between PT users and non-users and compared with the perspectives of PT Providers. The research also revealed that VOC plays a crucial role in PT service quality improvement (QI).Practical implicationsThe findings can be used by PT service providers to better understand the VOC of PT users and non-users, which will assist in strategic and QI decision-making. Furthermore, an in-depth study of VOC in PT is provided, which progresses the academic field on this topic and advances research in this area.Originality/valueThis research brings new insight into the most important quality attributes for PT users and non-users. Moreover, the paper fundamentally contributes to the literature, which until now had severely limited input pertaining to the role of VOC in PT and little knowledge of service QI tools and practices in this sector.

Systematic e-Service Innovation

Most service innovation attempts end in failure. Systematic e-Service Innovation is the result of a twenty-year program of research to reveal the ‘DNA’ of the successful attempts. The research shows: 1. Most service innovation attempts fail on their first day because they begin from a false understanding of what customers want. Organisations know they are supposed to listen to the ‘voice of the customer’, but, despite massive amounts of digital data capture, they still have little idea what to listen for. 2. The number of service challenges is very finite, and guaranteed that someone, somewhere has already solved your service problem. 3. The most powerful solutions are the ones that successfully eliminate the compromises and trade-offs conventionally viewed as inherent to service operations. 4. There are only a small number of possible strategies for overcoming such contradictions. 5. Service industry strategy, business and market evolution trends follow highly predictable paths.

A preference-based approach to incorporate the "voice of the customer" in mass-market software product design

With mobile and cloud computing, the software industry has witnessed a shift from customer-specific systems to a mass-market scenario. Integrating the "voice of the customer" is a critical success factor for mass-market products, but remains a challenge given the heterogeneity and distribution of their users. Classical requirements engineering methods rely on close interactions to gather user requirements and feedback regarding product features. However, they are hardly applicable in mass market scenarios, and new methods are required to assist product managers in designing their products while taking into consideration the opinion of the mass. In this paper, we argue for using market research techniques as preference-based approach in software product management. Following method engineering guidelines, we develop a method component 1 that refines conjoint analysis for the use in software product management. We present the meta-model and procedure and demonstrate it in a study on secure cloud storage services. We evaluate the feasibility, usefulness and ease of use of method component with experts in the RE domain. We contribute to mass-market software product management domain through a method component that builds on detailed understanding of user preferences for successful product design.

Redukcja kosztów cyklu życia lokomotyw przez szczupłe zarządzanie w procesie utrzymania

Zwiększenie roli kolei w równoważeniu transportu towarów jest obecnie dużym wyzwaniem na całym świecie. Statystyki wy-raźnie wskazują dużą dysproporcję wielkości kosztów transportu różnymi środkami transportu lądowego, w których działalność kolejowa nadal stanowi mniejszość. Ważne jest, aby wiedzieć, jak dzielone są koszty wpływające na ostateczną cenę transportu towarów koleją do ich redukcji. W artykule przedstawiono możliwość wykorzystania kosztów cyklu życia produktu w celu przeniesienia produktywności na kolejny poziom i zaoszczędzenia czasu, pieniędzy i zasobów. Celem artykułu jest określenie, jakie są koszty cyklu życia i czy w firmach transportowych można zastosować narzędzia zarządzania szczupłe-go. Głównym celem wieloletnich badań, prowadzonych w przedsiębiorstwie będącym jednym z największych przewoźników w Polsce, była analiza kosztów procesu utrzymania lokomotywy spalinowej w całym cyklu życia lokomotywy i zbadanie wpływu zastosowania narzędzi zarządzania szczupłego na te koszty. W projekcie uwzględniano następujące narzędzia zarządzania szczupłego: standardowy arkusz pracy, wykres spaghetti, zarządzanie wizualne, diagram przyczyn i skutków, PDCA, 5S, karty standaryzacyjne. W celu uwiarygodnienia analizy dodano narzędzia Voice of the Customer oraz Critical to Quality. Wyniki analizy przedstawione w artykule dowodzą, że zastosowanie szczupłego zarządzania ma duży wpływ na skrócenie czasu obsługi, poprawę jakości produktów, a także integrację ludzi, danych, procesów i systemów biznesowych. Stosowanie szczupłego zarządzania jest celowe, ponieważ może prowadzić do redukcji o 50% kosztów utrzymania poziomu P1 w lokomotywach spali-nowych przy znacznym skróceniu czasu pracy nawet o 60%. Wynik tej analizy powinien pomóc spółce w osiągnięciu znaczącej redukcji kosztów utrzymania lokomotyw, co przyczyni się do obniżenia kosztów kolejowego transportu towarów. Słowa kluczowe: zarządzanie szczupłe, koszty cyklu życia, proces utrzymania lokomotywy