Citation:
Essam Shehab, Ashutosh Tiwari, Gokula Annamalai Vasantha, Howard Lightfoot, Rajkumar Roy. Decision Engineering Report Series : Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2): THINK TANK, 11 July 2011. Cranfield University
Abstract:
Cranfield University and Rolls-Royce plc designed and developed a one-day ‘Think-
Tank’ international workshop to establish the future research direction for Industrial
Product-Service Systems (IPS2). The workshop was held at Cranfield University, UK,
by invitation only to visionary academics across the globe, senior industrialists and
funding organisations.
The workshop aimed to trigger discussions on high impact challenges involved in
IPS2. The research directions from the workshop could inform IPS2 researchers and
research funding decisions in the future. The overall objectives were to:
Engage multi-disciplinary academics and practitioners in a deeper discussion
to identify major research directions for the future.
Identify the unique challenges faced in IPS2 and also any country specific
requirements.
Prioritise the research directions into mid-term and long-term categories.
Identify major industry and public procurement trends across different
countries.
The workshop design has gone through two main phases. Prior to commencing the
event, the participants submitted their thoughts on either “IPS2 Research Directions”
or “Industrial requirements for IPS2” and these were thoroughly analysed. During the
event, the analysed results were presented and followed by capturing strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) to IPS2 research across
different countries. One of the main strengths of the research area is that IPS2
research is maturing in international profile and creating wide awareness of its
importance among stakeholders. How the bigger picture of IPS2 was described and
the immaturity of models, tools and techniques developed for real industrial
applications were major weaknesses of IPS2 research. To develop an enhanced
understanding of IPS2 research results across countries, wider opportunities to
establish a common case studying pool is suggested. Finally, prolonged research
funding for analysing real impact on industry is a major threat widely discussed.
Every delegate had to express his/her views on potentially high-impact in their
countries. Combined grouping analysis of these answers gave ten common themes
within them. Examples of these common themes are cost, skills, design and
manufacturing, society, and case studies. These themes underwent a rigorous
prioritization process by the delegates to identify high impact challenges. From the
prioritization of grouped challenges, the themes - Design and Manufacturing, Case
studies, Business capability, Cost and Complexity, all emerged as the foremost
areas on which to concentrate.