Industrial Product-Service Systems-IPS2

In mechanical engineering and plant design, product-related services are usually considered as an add-on to the actual product. Industrial Product-Service Systems deal with dynamic interdependencies of products and services in production. Research areas cover new concepts and methods which enable the machine producers to design the potential services in an optimal way, already during the development of the machine. This paradigm shift from the separated consideration of products and services to a new product understanding consisting of integrated products and services creates innovation potential to increase the sustainable competitiveness of mechanical engineering and plant design. The latter allows business models which do not focus on the machine sales but on the use for the customer e.g. in form of continuously available machines. The business model determines the complexity of delivery processes. Characteristics of Industrial Product-Service Systems allow covering all market demands. (C) 2010 CIRP.