Product design for product/service systems: design experiences from Swedish industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to elucidate how Swedish industry has adapted theirproducts for product/service systems (PSS).Design/methodology/approach – Three case study companies that manufacture forklift trucks,soil compactors and household appliances are studied. Interviews with company staff are conducted aswell as product analyses in laboratorial environment. The theory is based mainly on previous PSS,design and remanufacturing research.Findings – A key factor when developing products for PSS is to design the product from a life-cycleperspective, considering all the product’s life-cycle phases, namely manufacturing, use, maintenanceand end-of-life treatment. Many of the design improvements deal with the accessibility of parts andcomponents during maintenance and remanufacturing operations, and several of them could reducethe need and cost for maintenance, repair and remanufacturing.Research limitations/implications – Uncovering any additional product requirements needed fora successful PSS not addressed in this paper. For example, it could be interesting to explore whichproduct data could be collected during use in order to improve the products’ different life stages.Practical implications – The findings in this paper illustrate and describe many industrialimplications for engineering designers to consider when developing PSS.Originality/value – The novelty of this paper is aimed for designers to study how they can adapttheir future products used in PSS in a more beneficial way than in traditional product design. Thepaper shows ideas and general guidelines to follow which have been scarcely published.

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