Emergence of Product-Service Systems

Abstract

Product-Service Systems (PSSs) are a new emergent way to innovate traditional products and to extend the company portfolio, by reducing time and cost while offering high quality and meeting the expectations of both customers and stakeholders, which have to be considered during the design and development process (Complex systems concurrent engineering. Springer, London, pp. 321–328, 2007 [1]). A further challenge is to close loops between Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Service Lifecycle Management (SLM) by providing feedback from service delivery to the beginning-of-life phase of products, or defining a structured procedure to coordinate product and service development activities. The objective of this chapter is to provide a common understanding about PSSs, to deepen the Servitization process and its main features, and to understand how PLM and SLM can be integrated to define future organization of PSS-oriented companies. The final aim is to present PSS as a new business model, which companies can adopt to innovate their products and to enlarge their offer to the market, according to a consumer-oriented approach.