Advancing Development of Product-service Systems Using Ideas from Functional Product Development

In existing literature concerning integrated product-service (IPS) offers within manufacturing industry there are various closely related business concepts covering the shift from offering only physical artifacts (e.g. material goods, hardware) towards provision of integrated products and services, as well as further advanced offers. It has been observed that manufacturing companies offering, for instance, Product-Service Systems (PSS) face certain challenges during the development process. Further, research regarding Functional Products (FP) has developed ideas and methods that are also applicable to the PSS development process. FP and PSS are, depending on the level of complexity, often developed and later operated by regional or global provider consortiums. This paper, based on a literature review, highlights unsolved challenges in the development of PSS offerings and further proposes how ideas and methods from FP development (FPD) may resolve some of those challenges. Thus, ideas from FPD may advance the development of PSS, as well as other IPS offerings, towards being additionally robust and innovative, though also more complex.