A review of product-service systems design methodologies

Product–service systems (PSS), motivated to fulfil customers’ needs, are seen as good strategies to face today's competitive business environment. The field of PSS research is however not fully mature and many different methodologies are proposed for the PSS design. This paper seeks to understand the directions taken in eight state-of-the-art methodologies so as to identify common needs in future research. The methodologies are studied across their authors’ views and definitions of services, PSS and their objectives and challenges, along with the tools that have been developed. A maturity model is built to access the current PSS design across 20 dimensions. The model highlights that only three dimensions are strongly treated: design processes for integrating products and services, definitions of new terminologies and considerations concerning planning and designing life-cycle phases. To enhance the industrial application, collaboration between researchers and practitioners can be spurred through two challenges: common ontology and models for representation of PSS. Particular attention must also be placed on sustainability as current models do not support the generation of sustainable PSS. As a whole, the review shows that the PSS design is still in initial stages of development and substantial research is required to develop a practical PSS design methodology.