Abstract
At the present, companies are struggling to make a profit and still compete with other companies that are selling the same products at lower prices because of cheaper labor in other countries. It is therefore becoming difficult for many manufacturers to increase their profits by only selling products Because of this predicament, Product-Service Systems (PSSs) have begun to attract attention as options for income generation. Many researchers have developed design methods and evaluation tools for PSSs and have validated their effectiveness. However, guidelines for using these methods and tools in the design process are rare. It is therefore difficult for manufacturing companies to transition from selling products to offering PSSs. As a first step for developing guidelines for PSS design, this paper reviews existing design methods and evaluation tools as outlined in the Proceedings of the CIRP International Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems, 2009-2013.
