Ontology for the PSS Lifecycle Management

Abstract

Currently, customer expectations are moving more towards global solutions, incorporating both a physical product and a non-physical service. In order to support these new expectations, a new offer has emerged from both manufacturing and service industries to propose what is commonly named Product-Service Systems (PSS). The PSS lifecycle is defined by a composition of Product and Service design and delivery activities, which involve many stakeholders (actors inside the company but also outside like customers and suppliers). A variety of information is exchanged between these stakeholders during the different phases of the PSS lifecycle. Then, in order to manage the PSS, products and services need to be considered in a lifecycle perspective. To fulfill this requirement, an integrated information management associated with the physical product and non-physical related services provided throughout their lifecycle is essential. In this regard, it is necessary to know how to enhance Information System interoperability for PSS lifecycle management. To provide this functionality, ontology can be a good feature for defining a PSS semantic model. The aim of this paper is to use the advantages and features of ontologies in PSS models. In this regard, firstly a generic semantic model of PSS is proposed and then validated on a case study.