Title: Defining lean product service systems features and research trends through a systematic literature review

Authors: Claudio Sassanelli; Monica Rossi; Giuditta Pezzotta; Diego Augusto De Jesus Pacheco; Sergio Terzi

Addresses: Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy ' Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy ' Department of Management, Information and Production Engineering, University of Bergamo, Viale Marconi, 5, Dalmine (BG), 24044, Italy ' Centro Universitário Ritter dos Reis – UniRitter, Orfanotrófio 555, code 90840-440, Porto Alegre, Brazil; Engineering School, Department of Production Engineering, The Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Oswaldo Aranha 99, code 90.035-190, Porto Alegre, Brazil ' Department of Economics, Management and Industrial Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milano, Italy

Abstract: Through the digitalisation of manufacturing, product-service systems (PSS) and smart connected products are, from the companies' side, driving a market transition from a sale of products towards a sale of use of solutions, and, from the customers' side, reshaping the concept of value. The systematic integration of intangibles services with physical products requires companies' alignment also in terms of practices and tools adopted to develop and design these complex solutions adequately. The extant literature proposes several approaches to develop PSSs: it has been stated that the majority of them embedded in their structure some characteristics that are typical of concurrent engineering and lean product development theories. In the meanwhile, a research stream, named lean PSS, has progressively arisen up in the last few years. However, how so far the extant literature has already contributed to the forthcoming lean PSS domain is not clear. In order to better clarify and address this issue, this article, based on a systematic literature review approach, defines lean PSS, also exploring its main features and application areas and defining the related possible research opportunities.

Keywords: product service system; PSS; lean; lean PSS; design guideline; systematic literature review; research trends; circular economy; knowledge management; product lifecycle management.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPLM.2019.104371

International Journal of Product Lifecycle Management, 2019 Vol.12 No.1, pp.37 - 61

Received: 13 Feb 2019
Accepted: 04 Jul 2019
Published online: 06 Jan 2020 *

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