Abstract
As for conventional products, the profit generation and the market success of Product Service Systems (PSS) critically depend on the decisions taken during the initial lifecycle stages, when PSSs are conceptualized, designed, developed and engineered. Successful cases show the adoption of lean techniques in the early stages of products development, impelling the authors to assess the application of the same approaches also to PSS development. For this reasons the paper aims to report the state of the art of PSS Design research, relating this strategic process to the Lean Thinking approaches typically applied in traditional Product Development and Manufacturing. The literature about PSS is classified and Lean Thinking evolvement from product manufacturing to design phases is described. On this basis, the paper defines which are the aspects of Lean Thinking already applied in PSS Development also uncovering gaps and lacks of the methods proposed by the scientific literature so far. This opens the way to new opportunities and challenges through many further research and industrial projects.
Highlights
In 1968, Fuchs [1] defined the Service Economy as “one in which more than half of the total labor force is employed by the service sector”
As for conventional products, the profit generation and the market success of Product Service System (PSS) critically depend on the decisions taken during the initial lifecycle stages, when PSSs are conceptualized, designed, developed and engineered
PSS design and engineering, while par. 2.3 illustrates the main elements of the Lean Product Development, as a declination of the Lean Thinking approach in the design process; x par. 3 reports a specific state of the art on how lean approaches have been so far applied to PSSs context and it opens the discussion on how a Lean PSS development could be; x par. 4 concludes the paper and introduces the research steps
Summary
In 1968, Fuchs [1] defined the Service Economy as “one in which more than half of the total labor force is employed by the service sector”. Product Service System (PSS) is generally considered as a special case of servitization, in which a manufacturing company sets its market proposition on extending the traditional functionality of its products by incorporating additional services [4] for reaching new market competitive advantages [5]. These additional services are often enabled by interconnected and embedded technologies, which permit to trace, track, monitor and control remotely the physical artefact, creating “intelligent, smart and connected”. The paper is organized as follow: x Par. 2.1 and par. 2.2 present a brief state of the art on PSS and PSS design and engineering, while par. 2.3 illustrates the main elements of the Lean Product Development, as a declination of the Lean Thinking approach in the design process; x par. 3 reports a specific state of the art on how lean approaches have been so far applied to PSSs context and it opens the discussion on how a Lean PSS development could be; x par. 4 concludes the paper and introduces the research steps
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