Special Issue “Design of Product-Service Systems”

Special Issue “Design of Product-Service Systems”

Tobias Larsson and Marco Bertoni are editing the “Design of Product-Service Systems” Special Issue for “Designs”, an Open Access journal published by MDPI. Do not forget to submit your contribution, deadline is May 15th 2019!

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In search of more sustainable solutions and increased customer value combined with optimal resource utilization, manufacturing firms have in recent decades oriented their offerings towards the function instead of the product as the carrier of value. IKEA, as an example, offers ‘to create a home’ instead of selling furniture. Rolls Royce offers ‘Total Care’ and ‘power by the hour’ rather than selling jet engines and spare parts. The ever-increasing awareness of the impact of solutions on the environment and society also raises awareness of lifecycle solutions and circular thinking. The design and development of these Product–Service System (PSS) raises new issues since the combination of hardware components and service components (and also software) introduces further requirements than traditional field product engineering. In the past couple of years, digitalization has changed several industries dramatically and the idea of ‘smart connected products’ (SCP) has further supported the emergence of PSS since the function solution now may be monitored and also communicated with throughout the lifecycle. The SCP typically consists of three core elements: the physical components (like mechanical or electrical parts), ‘smart’ components (sensors, microprocessors, data storage, controls, software, embedded operating system and user interface) and the connectivity to the so-called product cloud (with the product data database, an application platform, rules/analytics engine and the smart product applications).

We now stand with the opportunity to create lifecycle-oriented PSS that are smart and connected. The question that remains is ‘how to do this?’

The primary objective of this Special Issue is to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners to exchange their latest achievements and to identify critical issues and challenges for the design and development of product–service systems. The papers to be published in the issue are expected to provide the latest results in methodological approaches, design processes, model- and simulation-driven approaches etc., to achieve PSS solutions that are a natural part of a future sustainable society.

Prof. Dr. Tobias Larsson
Dr. Marco Bertoni
Guest Editors

 

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