Purpose – Nowadays manufacturers companies are increasingly compelled to navigate towards servitization. Different methods and approaches were proposed in literature to support them to switch from traditional product-based business model to product service systems (PSSs). However, new knowledge, capabilities and skills were needed to consistently develop PSSs, since they need a joint focus on both customer’s perspective and company’s internal performance and at the same time a proper support for the integration of product and service design. The purpose of this paper is to propose the Product Service System Lean Design Methodology (PSSLDM), a structured methodology to develop PSSs along their entire lifecycle. Design/methodology/approach – Retrieving concepts from interpretative, interactive and system development research traditions, and strongly reminding the design research methodology framework, the adopted research methodology is composed of three main phases (observation and conceptualization, theory building and tool development, validation) and involved three heterogeneous companies. Findings – This paper provides an overview of the PSSLDM, explaining how the different methods supporting its conduction should contribute to properly design an integrated PSS. Moreover, companies highlighted several benefits in the different stages along the PSS lifecycle deriving by the adoption of the PSSLDM. Research limitations/implications – The development of a platform based on the PSSLDM methodology raises a discussion on the possible changes needed by current Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) models and systems when they have to do with PSSs. Originality/value – The PSSLDM enriches the already proposed SErvice Engineering Methodology, introducing new several components linked by lean rules in each of its phases (starting from customer analysis, going through solution concept and detailed design, until the offering analysis) and better supprting the deatil design of both prodcut and service components.

Introduction

The growing importance of the services in the last decades has pushed manufacturing companies to change their traditional product-oriented business model towards a new one, based on a bundle of products and services, namely Product Service Systems (PSSs) (Beuren et al., 2013; Brax, 2005; Burton et al., 2017; Vandermerwe and Rada, 1988). Nowadays offering products or services alone is not enough: organisations must provide their customers with a satisfactory experience, orchestrating all the clues that people collect and provide (Berry et al., 2002) along the entire solution lifecycle, including use and service delivery phases. Moreover the advent of the so-called 4th industrial revolution, bringing new and advanced technologies (Porter and Heppelmann, 2014), different expectations of customers for always new and more functionalities (Norman, 2010) and the necessity of new solutions enhancing the value of customer’s interaction with the artefact along its lifecycle (Tan et al., 2010), placed new demands and challenges. In this evolving scenario, manufacturers are compelled to navigate the so-called servitization phenomenon: during this transition they face different type of challenges (Martinez et al., 2010) and need to be able to systematically build PSS innovation capabilities (Wallin et al., 2015) in order to maintain revenue streams and improve profitability (Baines et al., 2007, 2009). As a result, pushed by the final aim of reaching new market competitive advantages (Porter and Heppelmann, 2014), they risk obtaining less profit than expected (Gebauer et al., 2005). Indeed, they attempt to increase their actual capabilities: to proactively manage lifecycle data (Gandhi et al., 2014), to provide customers with solutions better meeting their needs (Tan et al., 2010) and also to obtain back customer feedback and usage data to effectively (re)design and deliver new solutions on the market (Ponsignon et al., 2015). In this new context, the necessity to integrate and manage multiple sources of knowledge along the PSS design process in a systematic and structured way to allow an innovative design of PSS has been emphasised in the literature (Brissaud and Tichkiewftch, 2003) (Trevisan and Brissaud, 2016). The lack of methodologies enabling the collaborative design of product and service features in an integrated way (Doultsinou et al., 2009; Vasantha et al., 2012) along its entire lifecycle is acknowledged (Trevisan and Brissaud, 2016) (Rondini et al., 2017). In this perspective, the Product Service System Lean Design Methodology (PSSLDM) has been developed. In this paper, the new PSSLDM is proposed and described. To develop the methodology, an interactive approach (Ellström, 2007), based on the analysis of both available literature and companies’ needs has been performed.