HOW TO DEVELOP PRODUCT-SERVICE SYSTEMS IN THE FUZZY FRONTEND OF INNOVATION

摘要

The growing demand for sustainable technology and products requires new offers fromrnmanufacturing companies. One strategic approach to counter this development is the integration ofrnproducts and services into so called product-service systems (PSS). Their goal is the joint fulfillmentrnof customers’ demands and the establishment of intensive provider-customer relationships that resultrnin long term competitive advantages. Nevertheless the heterogeneous characteristics of PPS’rnconstituent parts cause a bundle of challenges for PSS’ management. These challenges can be seenrnfor example in the stage of PSS development. The developments of services that are directly linkedrnto a product are often not managed strategically and tend to be developed ad hoc. Nevertheless, PSS’rnservices and products have to be coordinated and determined to be as efficient and sustainable asrnpossible. To ensure a coordinated development process of products and services the Fuzzy FrontrnEnd (FFE) of innovation is the optimal starting point. In this very special phase the success of thernwhole project is determined and therefore the focus on a combined development of products andrnservices plays an important role.rnIn this paper the FFE approach is analyzed in terms of PSS development. Our contribution is basedrnon a structured, systematic literature review, providing an extensive insight into the current status ofrnPSS development in the product development process, with special focus on the FFE. The relevantrnmethodologies and tools, named in the selected papers, are analyzed, discussed and classified intornthe different phases of the product development process, what provides a detailed evaluation of thernFFE. Finally, necessary future work is defined.