At the origins of Product Service Systems: Supporting the concept assessment with the Engineering Value Assessment method

Abstract

Manufacturing companies are increasingly moving toward delivering combinations of products and services to provide higher value to their customers. The development of such Product Service Systems (PSS) escalates in complexity when several products developed by different suppliers need to be integrated into a unique system. For first tier suppliers, it is a great challenge to model and simulate the impact of changing design variables at the micro-level on both hardware properties and governing behaviors of services over the entire life-cycle of the PSS. The paper describes a model-based approach developed to estimate the life cycle cost of a PSS hardware already at a concept design stage. The proposed approach computes the relative cost efficiency of a set of design variants using as input the data generated by the simulations run in the Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) environment. The approach allows the exploration of the design space of a PSS given by the variation of the geometry of a Computer Aided Design (CAD) model, building on the computation of customized cost modules selected by a generic list of PSS cost dimensions. For each evaluated design case, the model produces as output a unique monetary figure of the cost expected to incur by owning or using the asset throughout the lifetime. The work has been conducted in collaboration with a tier-one aerospace component manufacturer, and the application of the model is exemplified through a case study related to the development of a turbine rear structure (TRS) for commercial jet engines. The approach is most suitable for the development of complex systems in which new products and components are integrated into a shared product platform. The results are discussed in relation to the current literature on PSS cost engineering, highlighting challenges to be addressed to increase cost estimation accuracy and increase uncertainty identification and awareness.

Sustainable Product-Service Systems Customization: A Case Study Research in the Medical Equipment Sector

“…Accordingly, the lack of studies addressing the assessment and prioritization of the expected PSS characteristics emerges from these studies. This supports the research gap recently outlined by Rondini et al [25], according to which a major concern in literature is represented by the scarcity of studies proposing methodologies aimed at systematically assessing early-stage PSS concepts. Similarly, Mourtzis et al [26] pointed out that the literature on the customization of PSS is very limited, especially when considering the PSS evaluation throughout the entire PSS lifecycle, fostering the development of a methodical support for the strategic-level decisions.…”

Research on product-service systems: topic landscape and future trends

“…To face this issue, several authors proposed practical approaches and methodologies for evaluating the performance of a PSS. Some of these are adaptations of pre-existing approaches (Geng and Chu, 2012), while others have been explicitly developed for PSS (Rondini et al, 2020). Table 10 shows the most influential papers on this topic.…”

“…"Multilevel Design Model (MDM)", practical approach that combines the design of physical artefacts, the design of product-service systems and the identification of complex social change which may occur Chierici and Copani (2018) Structured definition and configuration of innovative remanufacturing-with-upgrade business models as a mean for developing sustainable PSS Song and Sakao (2017) Framework for the customization of sustainable PSS in early design phases Article Contribution Barquet et al (2013) Link between competitiveness and PSS implementation strategies Parida et al (2014) Taxonomy of PSS business models composed of four categories; (i) add-on customer services; (ii) maintenance and product support services; (iii) R&D-oriented services and (iv) functional and operational services Yang et al (2017) Framework of using value uncaptured for sustainable business model innovation Adrodegari et al (2017a, b) Two-level hierarchical BM framework that can be used to describe PSS business models and guide their development by capital goods companies Sholihah et al (2019) PSS business alignment that enables the manufacturer to identify the strategic objective of its service transition strategy and align it with PSS business model Yang and Evans (2019) Relationship between PSS business models and sustainability performance Evans et al (2007) Case study: Product-oriented PSS for food delivery services Azarenko et al (2009) Case study: Result-oriented PSS for machine tool industry Ng et al (2009) Case study: Result-oriented PSS for defense industry Kuo (2011) Case study: Use-oriented PSS for office copy machine Besch (2005) Case study: Use-oriented PSS for office furniture developed for the analysis of products and services are not capable of capturing the complexity of PSS (Rondini et al, 2020). To face this issue, several authors proposed practical approaches and methodologies for evaluating the performance of a PSS.…”

“…Article Contribution Sakao and Lindahl (2012) Method for evaluating and selecting PSS Offerings (PSSOs). The method is divided into four steps (collecting information; determining objective function; deriving optimized PSSOs; feedback to idea creation) and is focused on the customer viewpoint Geng and Chu (2012) Revision of the Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) to identify PSS improvement strategies in order to evaluate customer satisfaction Kim et al (2013) Set of evaluation criteria designed to consider provider and customer perspectives and all the 3P (profitability, planet and people) dimensions Pan and Nguyen (2015) Combination of the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) and Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) to identify the key performance evaluation criteria for achieving customer satisfaction in PSS delivery Rondini et al (2017) Adoption of Business Process Simulation (BPS) approach to support the assessment of the service provision process in PSS strategies Mourtzis et al (2018) Methodology to support companies in the identification of the degree of customization of their PSS Ziaee Bigdeli et al (2018) Framework to assess the transformation journey and to evaluate the outcomes of a manufacturer becoming a provider of advanced services Matschewsky et al (2020) "Provider Value Analysis (PVA)", empirically-based approach to facilitate a structured assessment of the value capture during the provision of PSSs Rondini et al (2020) "Engineering Value Assessment (EVA)", two-step procedure composed of multi-criteria decision-making methods for a comprehensive value assessment of PSS, considering the perspectives of both customers and providers Barravecchia et al (2020a, b), Mastrogiacomo et al (2021) Methodology for leveraging and analyzing user-generated content for PSS quality measurement and management Meier et al (2010), "an industrial product-service system (IPSS) is characterized by the integrated and mutually determined planning, development, provision and use of product and service shares including its immanent software components in business-tobusiness applications and represents a knowledge-intensive socio-technical system".…”

Model-Driven Product Service Systems Design: The Model-Driven Development and Decision Support (Md3s) Approach

“…The lack of trustworthiness in deterministic models, induced by uncertainty and lack of data, is claimed to hinder communication among the decision-makers (Collopy, 2012, Monceaux et al 2014, thus calling for the implementation of VDD models based on Multi-Attribute Decision Making to support early-stage system design. The EVOKE model (Bertoni et al, 2018) and the EVA model (Rondini et al, 2018) are two examples of such models developed in the field of PSS design decision making. Additionally, current VDD research shows that in situations where the 'system' to be engineered is becoming increasingly large and complex, value models are the main enablers to support a value orientation in requirement management.…”