Modular Development of Product Service Systems

Abstract

Since the early 1990s, the driver in our economy has been changing from production of material goods to product-service offers based on knowledge and information. More and more researchers, institutes, and programs paid attention to product service systems (PSS) in the last decade because PSS integrates tangible artifact and intangible service to achieve sustainable, improve enterprise competitiveness, and meet customer needs better. In order to respond to the industrial trend towards PSS and guide enterprises to develop PSS, this article aims to propose a framework of modular development for PSS. After a brief review on PSS development, six dimensions of modular product-service were introduced which are the basis of modular development. The process of modular development was proposed which are divided into three parts by order: functional, product, and service modularizations. Functional modularization realizes the planning of product-service family and the design of interface dimension and collaboration dimension. Product modularization realizes the product dimension and production dimension. Service modularization realizes the service dimension and process dimension. Finally, a case study on PSS development was proposed according to the method of modular development.