Product/Service Systems have recently grown in manufacturers’ interest. This paper presents an international survey of manufacturers from Sweden, Japan, Italy and Germany. The results show that customer connection and demands along with increased competition were main driving forces for product/service systems. Also, most product/service systems include physical products, maintenance and repairs. Staff working with product development, marketing and after sales were the major actors in product/service system development. As in traditional product sales, most product/service systems still have the ownership of physical products transferred to the customer/user. Physical products used in product/service systems are seldom adapted for product/service systems.
In recent years there has been a shift from a product focus into a growing focus on the early stages of product development as well as service and business development. The objective of this paper is to map out engineering implications and challenges based on five integrated empirical examples of product service offerings. The paper is mainly based on case studies at Swedish manufacturing companies of different sizes. In total, 120 case studies were conducted. The most-used data collection method in these studies has been qualitative research interviews. From the vast empirical data gathered, five of these cases are presented in this paper: (1) lighting-function, (2) core plugs, (3) material handling, (4) plate compacting, and (5) thrust. These examples show that the orientation towards IPSOs implies several important strategic implications for a supplier company. Based on the examples, a discussion is presented concerning existing and potential engineering issues related to engineering requirements, development process and risks and opportunities with IPSOs. Future research will be to further develop these engineering issues into design recommendations, and to further validate them.
Despite the many existing Eco-design methods and tools, their use is still limited. When they are used, these methods and tools are often not integrated in the product development process. The purp ...
Service is attracting more and more attention as manufacturing industries are shifting from a “product seller” toward a “service provider.” To design and develop services effectively and efficiently, a methodology of service design and a support by the computer system based on the methodology are needed. However, very few researchers have so far dealt with services from the viewpoint of engineering design. The authors are carrying out fundamental research in “service engineering,” which deals with services in an engineering manner. Based on this, this paper aims at proposing a “service CAD,” a computerized tool to support service design, which provides designers with a design environment equipped with knowledge about existing services.
PLUNC (palate, lung and nasal epithelial clone) is a newly discovered gene that is expressed in the upper respiratory tract and is suggested to be of importance in host defence against bacteria. We have identified two forms of the PLUNC protein in human nasal lavage fluid (NLF) using two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and MS. The apparent molecular masses and isoelectric points of these forms are 24.8 kDa/pI 5.4 and 25.1 kDa/pI 5.5. Notably, the 24.8 kDa/pI 5.4 form of PLUNC is an abundant protein in the 2-DE protein patterns of NLF from healthy subjects. Decreased levels of PLUNC were found in NLF from smokers and workers exposed to reactive epoxy chemicals, indicating that long-term exposure to airway irritants impairs the production of PLUNC in the upper respiratory tract. We have also investigated the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-binding proteins in NLF. Five proteins were found to adsorb to a LPS-coated surface; two of these proteins correspond to the two PLUNC forms, as judged by 2-DE pattern matching. For comparison, human saliva was found to contain a set of LPS-binding proteins with similar 2-DE spot positions (the same pIs but somewhat lower apparent molecular masses of ≈20 kDa). These results indicate that PLUNC may be a new marker of airway inflammation and may play a part in the innate immune response, and that human saliva contains yet other members of the family of LPS-binding proteins.
Researchers often regard remanufacturing as an environmentally beneficial end-of-life option. There have been, however, few environmental measurements performed in the area. The aim of this paper i ...
