Structured requirements elicitation for product-service system

For modern manufacturing companies the concept of product-service (PS) is representing a novel way to create new business opportunities, improve sustainability, support continuous innovation, and increase the product value. In this context, high-quality requirements elicitation is crucial for successful PS ideation and the following design. However, traditional product-centred approaches are not able to fully support manufacturing companies moving from product to services. This paper proposes a new methodology to support ideation and preliminary design of sustainable product-service systems (PSSs) within industrial chains. The method is based on quality functional deployment (QFD) approach and allows defining a set of robust requirements for creating new PSSs in respect with the specific customer needs and the sustainability principles of the industrial network. The research demonstrates the method validity on three case studies involving different industrial chains distributed all over Europe (i.e., white goods, machine tools, and textile industry). The case studies demonstrate how the method allows an easy definition of three distinctive PSS concepts starting for the specific market needs, and the robust requirements elicitation concerning both functional and ecosystem aspects.