بهبود مستمر سیستم های محصول-خدمات صنعتی

To systematically exploit the potentials of technical services for both manufacturers and their industrial customers, products and services need to be integrated. The resulting industrial product–service systems (PSS) are realized by the members of a value creation network in close cooperation with the customers. Thus, the organizational and operational structure of the value creation network has to be designed in order to guarantee the PSS-provider a continuous product, customer and market feedback. This feedback information provides the basis for a continuous PSS-improvement process, comprising customer specific and customer spanning improvement measures. This paper analyzes the demands on a continuous improvement process (CIP) of PSS and provides a framework concept for a PSS specific CIP. A real-world case study of an industrial PSS-CIP concludes the paper.

While in the past, capital goods manufacturers have largely focused on design, realization and distribution of high quality products, their industrial customers are increasingly expecting to be provided with services such as maintenance, upgrading, user trainings or process improvement. These services do not only contribute to keeping up existing product functionalities [1] but also provide additional ones along the whole life cycle [2]. In light of this, a gradual change of traditional manufacturing companies to producing service providers [3] that focus on customer solutions becomes necessary. To support this change and to provide the basis for realizing customer solutions in terms of customer life cycle-oriented product-service systems (PSS), processes for product and service planning, design and realization need to be integrated [4]. With respect to the phase of PSS-realization, PSS-providers focus both on providing the customers with a desired benefit through a specific configuration of products and services as well as on the establishment of measures for continuous customer specific and customer spanning PSS-improvement. In order to enable them to operate the processes connected therewith, both organizational and operational structures of the value creation network have to be designed according to resulting requirements. This article analyzes the demands on a systematic performance measurement of PSS as well as the processes of information exchange connected therewith. Based on these two points, an approach for a continuous improvement process considering the specific requirements of PSS is provided.

Processes that aim at continuously improving PSS need to match the requirements resulting from PSS characteristics, e.g. the realization of PSS in a worldwide value creation network. Based on organizational and operational network structures as well as appropriate performance measurement mechanisms, an approach to customer individual and customer spanning PSS-improvement has been presented in this article. Thereby, it became apparent that the design of information exchange processes represents a crucial point.