INSIDE A PSS DESIGN PROCESS: INSIGHTS THROUGH PROTOCOL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Product/Service Systems (PSS) has been addressed as an interesting research target in the engineering design community. Yet, an understanding of PSS design processes is scarce. Motivated by this gap, this paper aims to analyze, through a descriptive study, the details of the entire process of a PSS design case, and thus contribute to a better understanding of PSS design processes. To do so, an example of PSS design was conducted by three people working as a group using a modelling scheme called PSS Layer Method. Then, this design episode was analysed through protocol analysis. The results of the analysis include two reasonable hypotheses. First, PSS design follows a general process of problem solving. Second, it begins with need and value for a customer, addresses mainly lifecycle activities for solutions, and ends back with value. In addition, lifecycle activities might be given a central role within PSS design. However, it should be emphasized that the analysis of PSS design needs to be carried out further with more cases in order to create more robust knowledge.