A Platform to Support the Product Servitization

Abstract

Nowadays manufacturers are forced to shift from their traditional product-manufacturing paradigm to the goods-services continuum by providing integrated combination of products and services. The adoption of service-based strategies is the natural consequence of the higher pressure that these companies are facing in the global markets especially due to the presence of competitors which operate in low wage region. By betting on services, or more specifically, on servitization manufacturing companies are moving up the value chain in order to move the competition from costs to sophistication and innovation. The proliferation of new emerging technologies and paradigms together with a wider dissemination of information technology (IT) can significantly improve the capability of manufacturing companies to infuse services in their own products. The authors present a knowledge-based and data-driven platform that can support the design and development of Product Extended by Services (PESs) solutions.