Abstract
Over the last decade, product/service systems (PSSs) have become a research issue in several disciplines, such as engineering design and marketing. The inherent interdisciplinary nature of this research issue has however remained unexploited. In order to bridge these silos and foster more interaction across relevant disciplines, this research examines PSSs from an interdisciplinary angle by analyzing how engineering design and marketing inform one another, as well as presents insights for PSS design. The research is carried out using a three-stage process for analyzing and evaluating interdisciplinary research: first, through a systematic literature review to identify relevant papers and their level of utilization across disciplines; second, by using a qualitative thematic analysis looking for different perspectives in order to find themes to bridge the gap between the disciplines; and third, by providing a research agenda to advance research by moving from silos to synergy. The results show a limited use of theories, frameworks, methods and tools across disciplines thus far, while the major contribution of this article lies in the implications derived for PSS design for academics and practitioners alike, which are categorized into seven specific themes: business orientation, collaboration, cost aspects, flexibility, performance indicators, requirements and services.
Highlights
Manufacturing companies are increasingly offering product/service systems (PSSs) to their customers (Tukker 2015)
The major benefit of how Stage I is conducted lies in its objective and quantitative manner, determining as accurately as feasible the current extent to which knowledge was used across the disciplines in the literature; for Stage II, that exists in its concise representation of issues for future research in this vast area based on in-depth discussion
Their insights in the marketing literature refer to their sustainable product and service development method to meet business and industry requirements from a lifelong perspective: Level 2 citations point out that sustainable or green design is usually driven by regulation (Baraldi, Gregori & Perna 2011; Chan, He & Wang 2012; Raja et al 2013), while Lacoste (2016) considers Maxwell & Van der Vorst’s (2003) work at Level 3 in order to depict the product lifecycle for business-to-business operations, and to show how suppliers can support the redesign or improvement of products through value co-creation with customers
Summary
Manufacturing companies are increasingly offering product/service systems (PSSs) to their customers (Tukker 2015). While many definitions of PSSs exist in the literature, two of the most highly cited (Beuren, Ferreira & Miguel 2013) are ‘a marketable set of products and services capable of jointly fulfilling a user’s needs’ 3), and ‘a system of products, services, supporting networks and infrastructure that is designed to be: competitive, satisfy customer needs and have a lower environmental impact than traditional business models’ Ricoh, a multinational imaging and electronics company, provides a package deal called Pay per Page Green which installs, maintains and collects printers and photocopiers at the end of their life, while the customer only pays An example of their offerings is the rental of forklift trucks, where the customer pays for their use while Toyota Industries look after maintenance, upgrade or remanufacturing, and eventual disposal (Kowalkowski & Ulaga 2017)
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