Service engineering to intensify service contents in product life cycles

Abstract

This paper discusses how to establish service engineering that is intended to intensify service contents of product life cycles. Intensification of service and knowledge contents within product life cycles is considered crucial for dematerialization, in particular, to design optimal product-service systems from the viewpoint of environmentally conscious design and manufacturing in advanced post industrial societies. The paper tries to define service as an activity that changes the state of a service receiver. Service contents of the service is provided by a service provider and delivered through a service channel. Artifacts are either the service contents or the service channel. Service engineering looks at development, design, and production of services and aims at improving the efficiency and quality of the service as well as its delivery. To establish service engineering, the paper then proposes a modeling technique of service.