The Focus-activity Framework for Evaluating PSS Cooperation Readiness of Manufacturing Firms

For manufacturing companies venturing the first steps on the Servitization roadmap, it may be difficult to imagine how an integrated approach of Product and Service elements could support the strategic goals efficiently. If Service tasks, roles, units and organizational structure are still developing and emerging from the Product business activities, the design of Product-Service cooperation as well is promising, as the way is unclear. For these companies, it seems to be important to understand their current status of Product-Service cooperation at first, before starting to design integration activities. Therefore, this paper presents a framework which is designed to help companies identify their current status – and strategic objectives later on – at two dimensions: a) the Structural Focus of Product and Service business within the company, and b) the Cooperation Activities which are undertaken by Product and Service representatives. By the means of a case study in the Italian luxury textile sector, a first validation of the model is conducted, assessing the static and dynamic characteristics of Product and Service business with involvement of an Italian textile company

The ECIBC (European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer) web hub concept and feasibility study

In December 2012, the Joint Research Centre (JRC) was assigned by the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers (now the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety - DG SANTE) with the task of coordinating the European Commission Initiative on Breast Cancer henceforth shortened to ECIBC. ECIBC main tasks as defined in the DG SANTE published document are: • To develop a new version of the European guidelines for breast cancer screening and diagnosis based on new knowledge and evidence. • To develop a voluntary European quality assurance (QA) scheme for breast cancer services covering all care processes based on the EU legislative framework on accreditation and underpinned by the evidence provided by the guidelines With regards to guidelines covering processes other than screening and diagnosis (treatment, rehabilitation and follow-up, and all relevant horizontal aspects), a platform for breast cancer guidelines is envisaged to host existing evidence-based, high-quality guidelines. The ECIBC project also includes the definition of a concept for training of professionals in breast cancer screening and the development of a dedicated web hub, to which this report refers. The ECIBC web hub will be the communication interface with stakeholders and the main tool presenting and making available project deliverables (and their updates) over the long-term. The present report is a summary of the process of developing the concept for the ECIBC web hub and of the feasibility study activities: • It provides a list of user requirements along with some sketched ECIBC web hub pages, crafted out of a series of meetings and analysing relevant cancer-related web portals. • It describes the technical platform evaluation process that led to the selection of Liferay Portal. • It presents a high-level initial plan to provide ECIBC web hub functionality needed by the upcoming ECIBC project steps, with a pilot in the second part of 2015 and a fully functional web hub at the end of 2017. In order to develop the ECIBC web hub, the JRC carried out a specific feasibility study with three main objectives: • Analyse user requirements. • Select a technical platform. • Make an initial time and effort estimation.JRC.I.2-Public Health Policy Suppor