Overcoming the product-service model adoption obstacles

Product-Service Systems (PSS) benefits are not limited to its providers and costumers, but the whole society might also take advantage from its sustainability impact. Nevertheless, many PSS projects still fail, and lots of customers stick to buying mere products or services in a transactional rather than a relational context. Shifting to the PSS paradigm requires a mind-set/organizational culture change both from the PSS’ provider and customer. On one hand, the manufacturing companies should change from production scale to use scale, therefore producing fewer products that will be more used, and the profit will be rather based on the services they provide. On the other hand, the customer must be flexible to give up product property in favor to product use when it pays off in the long term. Not surprisingly, this paradigm shift creates some obstacles that could deter companies from adapting the product-service concept, as a successful PSS will require different societal infrastructure, human structures and organizational layouts in order to function in a sustainable manner. This paper analyses the benefits and obstacles from/for PSS and proposes a self-assessment questionnaire that point to the needed business model changes in companies interested in adopting PSS

Development of Design Support Tool for New Lean Production Systems

Application of the Lean philosophy during the design of a new production system might result in a production system which is more Lean from the beginning and needs less improvement during its lifetime. In this paper a design support tool for new Lean production systems is presented. It combines the theory on Lean and production system design. The design support tool consists of three elements with a strong interaction. The first element of the tool prescribes the steps in the design of a production system in general. The second element illustrates the flow of different types of information during the design process. The third element consists of guidelines for Lean design. Following the workflow that combines the three elements should result in a new Lean based production syste

Service Chain Logistics Management for Increasing Equipment Uptime

Currently, as Industrial Product Service Systems (IPS2) concepts are becoming increasingly adopted by capital assets suppliers, further increase of equipment uptimes is increasingly gaining attention by academics and practitioners. Uptimes can be managed by both improving the maintenance decision making as well as considering appropriate service supply chain design decisions. Furthermore, the integration of Industry 4.0 tools can further boost the previous with its communication and connectivity ability. Knowledge on these aspects is available in academia as well as in practice, but, as this paper argues, not structured for making decisions that consider all of these aspects in an integrated way aiming at improving equipment uptime. Through literature review, we assess the existing literature on IPS2. In doing so this paper offers a two-fold contribution: On the one hand, it presents an exploratory literature review to identify knowledge gap and on the other hand, it proposes a suitable future research project

Design Framework for Vibration Monitoring Systems for Helicopter Rotor Blade Monitoring Using Wireless Sensor Networks

The pursue of methods for supporting Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) has been an important driver for the technological innovation in several engineering fields such as wireless communication, sensing and power harvesting. However, despite of the innovative and scientific value of these advances, the adoption of SHM and associated technologies by industry has not occurred at the expected pace. One of the possible reasons for this is the lack of a systematic design process for condition monitoring systems tailored to actual mechanical systems. This paper proposes a design framework for a vibration monitoring system that integrates the predictive maintenance needs with the technological developments on SHM methods and related technologies.\ud The framework involves three stages. The first stage corresponds to the identification of the characterization of the system function and its failure and the expected function of the monitoring system. The next stage aims at decomposing the vibration signal according to the dynamic behavior of the system and associated failure. The last stage corresponds to the technological implementation of the vibration monitoring system. To illustrate the applicability of this framework a case study on the development of a vibration monitoring system for helicopter rotor blades by using an autonomous sensor network is presented

Cycles of action and reflection as the basis of transformative innovation

Purpose: This paper aims at explaining the design process of a learning model targeting potential entrepreneurs with no technical or business expertise aiming to develop sustainable business models in deprived areas. The case that the paper explores focuses on experiential learning and learning in adulthood to design a learning model that considers context and socio-demographic characteristics, makes clear the interconnections between sustainability principles, entrepreneurship rationale and design methodologies and includes actions and processes of reflection and contextual interaction. Design/methodology/approach: Following a recursive argument, the paper applies design research methodology (DRM) to systematically design the “transformative innovation model” that Product Co Creation Centers (PC3) from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) has developed. Findings: Building on Kolb’s cycle of experiential learning, the result of applying DRM is a learning cycle of confrontation, observation, practice and application. The proposed learning model is applied to a specific setting in Colombia, allowing to verify and validate whether the learning model leads to the expected outcomes. It is argued that an interdisciplinary approach, a focus on feedback loops and the consideration of the context are important elements for addressing and transforming complex problems related to sustainable development from the bottom-up. Originality/value: This paper contributes to academic research in management emphasizing a solution-finding approach based on a prescription-driven research process, informed by design science research