Abstract:
Product Service System (PSS) promotes the idea of selling value in use via
an integrated combination of products and services. It has been
regarded by many economic policy makers and researchers as a
potential competitive strategy for the manufacturing industry in the
developed country to gain competitiveness. Although currently there
are a few PSS methodologies developed for the design and
implementation of PSS, their approach is mainly biased towards using PSS
as a tool to gain sustainability and to reduce environmental impact from
selling more services instead of selling the physical product for example.
In view of this, this research sets out to present a PSS Evaluation (PSSE)
methodology, aiming at assisting manufacturer in assessing whether the
adoption of a PSS is a good strategy from the point of competitiveness.
The research programme begins with the identification of the
requirements set of the PSSE methodology by gaining relevant
knowledge from the literature and the Singapore‟s Manufacturing
Industry. Existing potential methodologies were then selected against the
requirements set to form the conceptual base of the new PSSE
methodology. The developed new PSSE methodology was tested using
two case studies during the primary evaluation and another four case
studies during the secondary evaluation.
The main contribution of this research is the development of a feasible,
usable and useful methodology that can assist the manufacturer in
assessing whether the adoption of a new PSS is a competitive strategy.
The new seven-stage PSSE methodology provides well-constructed
stages which are specially designed to be delivered via a facilitated
workshop. This research has therefore made a significant contribution to
the knowledge of the concept of PSS, and its application in the
manufacturing industry in the area of methodology development.
