Line Maria Neugebauer

Deciding on PSS: A Framework for PSS Strategies

Product/Service-Systems (PSS) are a strategic approach wherein the value proposition covers the performance of a system throughout the whole life cycle. Many industrial companies are challenged on many levels in the transition process towards a PSS oriented approach. Much of the literature has until now focused on PSS from a design object perspective, and less focus has been on how the business model of the company must be designed simultaneously with the offering, covering topics as organisational restructuring, value chain collaboration plus a change management focus. This paper presents a PSS strategy topic matrix, as a boundary object for the company, aimed at creating a shared understanding of important factors in the organisation while evaluating, developing, implementing and operating a PSS strategy. This is done through an empirical foundation of twelve companies representing a whole branch industry, together with three cases of industrial best-practice.

Collaborative Product/Service-Systems – On Conceptualisation of PSS Offerings and Business Nets

Collaborative PSS development and operation, where multiple stakeholders are involved, is an emerging research area. This articles looks at the intra and inter-organisational company considerations in the industry case of company collaboration in the maritime branch. Initial steps are taken towards a framework that aligns service strategies and their unique value proposition with a set of business nets that seeks lights on the value-logic and management mechanisms to design and control each network.

Step-by-step towards PSS - Evaluating, Deciding and Executing

Successful implementation of product-service system (PSS) as business strategy has proven lucrative through many industry examples. However, companies should tread carefully before committing to a costly restructuring towards PSS business creation. This paper claims that before a company moves from being a product to a product-service provider they should carefully consider internal and external aspects with regard to their organization, their market and their network. The paper proposes a three step process labelled the Evaluate-Decide-Execute approach; an approach that should enable the company to first evaluate the foundation for PSS, and then decide whether to commit to this course, and finally execute the transformation.