Johann Riedel

The PSO triangle: designing product, service and organisation to create value

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance the understanding of product‐service systems (PSS). It uses a multiple method approach to analyse literature and cases and synthesise a framework for the understanding and investigation of PSS. It demonstrates the need to consider the “organisation” or network, of firms involved in defining, designing and delivering value through the PSS. This is conceptualised as a product‐service‐organisation (PSO).Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses three complementary methodologies: a road‐mapping analysis, investigating industrial challenges for collaborating enterprises, a multidisciplinary literature review of PSS concepts and analysis of two cases.Findings – The paper finds that value can be most effectively delivered by networks of collaborating firms, integrating the products and services they offer to create the value which customers seek. In short, creating value requires the simultaneous design of product, service and organisation – the PSO triangle.R...

Time to Market

Over the last two decades, Japanese products have challenged Western ones, not only in terms of cost but also on quality, reliability and delivery. This has meant that meeting customer needs on time has now entered the competitive equation. Hence, in the 1990s, time to market (TTM) has become a focal point in achieving competitive advantage in the marketplace. Presents an overview of TTM and of how to do it. Considers the costs and benefits of TTM, and uses two case studies to compare and contrast the effect of adopting TTM and ignoring it. Looks at the key factors of: tools and techniques; technology; team management and logistics, with practical examples of the main points in achieving TTM successfully.

Readiness assessment of collaborative networked organisations for integrated product and service delivery

More and more firms are entering into alliances and coalitions to deliver competitive customer solutions, and there is a need to establish a common and recognised methodology in order to evaluate and qualify the impact of such company partnering on collaborative networks. These measures are necessary for informing decisions to admit/omit partners, for the delivery of integrated products and services, i.e. a product-service system, and for enhancing operational efficiency and competitiveness in the rapidly changing and dynamic global environment. In this article, a conceptual model is proposed for assessing the readiness of collaborative networked organisations for product-service system delivery. The model consists of a structural assessment of collaborative network topologies and densities, and a behavioural assessment of partner delivery competences and performance. Based on these concepts, an assessment process model was developed and used in case studies across industrials, consumer goods, health care, and utilities industries. The resulting implications of the assessment for researchers and practitioners are then highlighted and discussed.

Evaluation of Simulation Games for Teaching Engineering and Manufacturing

Abstract This paper reports on the evaluation methods and findings from serious games for teaching engineering and manufacturing. Two serious games are considered: Cosiga, a new product development simulation game and Beware, a risk management simulation game. These two games cover the front and middle parts of the engineering process – from design to manufacture to sale. For the Cosiga simulation evaluations of the communication and cognitive change were performed. For the Beware game evaluation of communication, risk awareness and improvement of risk management skills were performed The findings from the evaluations showed that serious games deliver learning outcomes. However, there are drawbacks to their use that need to be taken into account. Principally the high cost of development and the need for expert facilitators for running game sessions.

Serious games adoption in corporate training

Corporate managers are constantly looking for more effective and efficient ways to deliver training to their employees. Traditional classroom methods have been used for a long time. However, in the last decade electronic learning technology has gained in significance. Serious Games are games that educate, train and inform using entertainment principles, creativity, and technology. Serious Games are proven as a learning method for conveying skills on complex tasks by incorporating sound learning and pedagogical principles into their design and structure. Therefore, it is believed that Serious Games have got the potential to be used to meet government or corporate training objectives. However, the awareness and adoption level of serious games by industry is not known. In this research we designed and conducted a pilot survey among UK-based companies. We used the survey in order to assess the level of awareness and adoption of Serious Games in companies for corporate training. We aim to understand what kinds of skills development Serious Games-based trainings are desired by companies and to know what they perceive the benefits and barriers of using Serious Games are in companies. This paper describes the stages of the design of the survey questionnaire, presents and analyses the results and ends with conclusions and a discussion about the future research work.

Design in the experience economy:using emotional design for service innovation

This chapter explores the relationship between emotional design and customer experience. It begins with an introduction to the concept of emotional design, comprising behavioral, visceral, and reflective elements. Next, the nature of service experiences is examined, leading to a framework that classifies services according to their functional and experiential positions. Understanding customer goals allows this framework to be used to design customer experiences, in terms of the journey that customers take when consuming a service. The chapter then discusses the cognitive traits associated with designers and argues that they are well suited to understanding the customer journey and designing the prerequisites for the desired experience. Two different approaches to understanding and acting on customer requirements are explored – user centered and design driven.

Achieving integration through managing concurrent engineering

Abstract This paper reports upon the latest research carried out by the authors into the management of product design and specifically the integration of design and production functions within firms. The paper addresses the issue of how management can achieve integration between design and production functions through the use of concurrent engineering. It shows the organisational and management issues which need to be taken up by companies in successfully achieving integration. It concludes that careful selection of methods and approaches appropriate for the individual context is essential for attaining competitive edge.

Serious Games Integration in Companies: A Research and Application Framework

Serious Games are games that educate, train and inform using entertainment principles. Serious Games have the potential for application in companies. However, less investigation has been focused on how to integrate Serious Games in to companies. The authors have developed a classification framework to help understand the different ways serious games can be used in companies. In order to achieve this aim, cases of serious games were identified from experts, conferences, events, developer companies and the Gala Network. These cases were reviewed to identify serious games relevant to business and management. From these, cases were collected of serious games application/use in companies. These were then classified according to the types of use in the classification framework. The identified ways serious games can be used in companies were: in corporate training, for change management, through viral diffusion and Gamification. A case study of each type of use is presented in the paper. Finally, future work towards the refinement of the framework that can add to theory building for research in the use and integration of serious games in companies is discussed.

A Conceptualisation of Design Context to Explain Design Trade-Offs in the Automotive Industry

The paper explores decision-making rationale when making trade-offs in design. A case study of a mass-market car manufacturer was conducted using interviews, qualitative questionnaires and observation. It revealed that decision-making practices in trade-off situations depend on the way that decision makers perceive the relative importance of design targets and trade-off criteria. These practices are unformalised and embedded in the larger processes of car development and often contradict the technical guidelines for making trade-offs that exist in the company. The paper presents a conceptual framework to explain the rationale of trade-offs in different design contexts. How to apply this framework to understand design trade-offs is described with an illustration of its use in two real life examples.

The Use of Serious Games in the Education of Engineers

Serious games have been used in the education of engineering students and professionals for decades, but still they have not reached their maximum diffusion. Learning by gaming is often seen as not serious enough within higher education and vocational training. Consequently, gaming as a teaching method is still often excluded from many curricula. Hence, students lack the experience of active knowledge acquisition during lessons and encounter a barrier for successful participation in serious games later. Although a variety of games have been developed and proved successful for the mediation of skills in complex systems (Windhoff, 2001), this paper discusses why we think that serious games should be considered as a suitable learning method for the mediation of skills needed in the education of engineers and secondly to give some examples of current games and experience of their use.