PROSSALIC · Product-Service System across Life Cycle

Nowadays, customers’ purchase habits have changed: they do not buy more goods or services in the traditional sense, perceiving them as two separated entities. They rather look for a solution, whose value encompasses many intertwined components, some of them being services and some being goods. In this context, the Product-Service System (PSS) concept finds its root. The servitization process of a product manufacturer into a provider of a PSS still constitutes a major managerial challenge. This challenge is based on a new kind of solution, which considers the continuum between services and products, where services represent a key element for gaining competitiveness. Theoretical and practical experiences show that servitization pushes organisations to change their strategies, operations and value chain, technologies, people expertise and system integration capabilities. As a consequence, different competences are requested to be analysed to have a complete vision of the PSS phenomenon. An international interdisciplinary working group is important to fulfil the need to provide a complete vision of the PSS. Due to the vastness of the area, it is relevant to bring together, in the context of a collaborative scheme of research exchanges, the reciprocal knowledge of the partners. The project proposal links 10 members: 4 EU, 2 AC, and 4 third country partners, which have agreed for a common exchange program on the analysis of the “Product-Service System across Life Cycle”. The exchange program aims to facilitate the deployment of a collaborative scheme focused on the exchange of the knowledge required to develop new models/methods/ICT tools to support the PSS across all its Life Cycle phases. Each member provides complementary knowledge on the field.The project will concern the exchange of a set of various activities of PhD students, researchers and professors. The planned exchange scheme will enable the reciprocal transfer of knowledge between the members.