Product/Service-Systems – en litteratur undersökning för att definiera och differentiera forskningsområdet

Sammanfattning: The purpose is to find the characteristics of PSS to investigate if PSS and EcoDesign have any connections. A literature survey was made, the literature was collected, compared and analysed. Product/Service-System (PSS) is a marketable system of products and services combined to fulfil the need and create a higher value for the customer. The base in PSS is that the customer wants the result or the function provided by the product, not the product. PSS can be divided into four categories based on what the customer is receiving: Add on, Time, Functional Unit and Result. PSS has a large potential to fulfil the need of the customer in a more environmentally sound way than a traditional business model. The environmental benefits are not automatically given; every PSS needs to be evaluated on a case-to-case base. The potential of environmental benefits links PSS to EcoDesign. The design of a product, service or system with the aim to minimise the overall impact on the environment is called EcoDesign. EcoDesign can also be divided into categories based on the level of abstracts: Product improvement, Concept improvement, Process improvement and Need improvement The analyse of the case studies, collected from the literature, showed that Add on is most common with 44.9 % of the cases; followed by Time 43.2 %, Functional Unit 7.6 % and Result 4.2 %. In the different categories different products were found. In Add on, all products can be found, in Time all products except consumption products are found. In Functional Unit the product needs to have a clear functional unit. In the last category Result the product needs to provide a clear measurable result, often involving help and operand products. There are some product characteristics that are to be preferred, e.g. use-frequency or high purchase prise, when designing a PSS, but it is no guarantee for a successful PSS. Comparing two cases with the same product where one was successful and the other had been closed down, showed that other issues have a significant influence, issues like target group, location and habits. PSS and EcoDesign have different main focus. PSS focus on the customer’s need and EcoDesign on lowering the environmental impact. PSS focus more on the system around the product, while EcoDesign focus more on the product. Although the main focus is different, similarities can be found in the use-phase and in the End-of-Life-phase of a product. Instead of seeing PSS and EcoDesign as two overlapping field, it might be beneficial to look at them as two complementing fields.