Product-Service-Systems : What and why Developers can learn from Mass Customization

Abstract

Despite their very similar objectives, delimitations or associations between the two business types of mass customization and providers of product-service-systems (PSS) cannot be found in literature. In the following article, both business types are compared with each other and mapped into a common businesstypological framework, the product-process-baseline-change matrix. Following that, the development of PSS is characterized especially with regard to the (re-)configurability of PSS over the life-cycle. Since product configuration is one of the key tools in the development and the customer co-design process in mass customization, its application to PSS is evaluated and present PSS-configuration approaches are discussed.