Breaking Uncertainties for Product Offerings : "A Holistic Framework of Uncertainty Management for Planning, Designing and Developing PSS (Product/Service System) "

Abstract: In the last decade, PSS (Product/ Service System) emerged as a new effective business model in helping manufacturers increase significantly productivity and customer’s satisfaction, whist minimizing environmental impact. PSS contributes drastically to the development of an innovative transaction trend, in which rather than just providing physical products separately, industrial Companies are more focusing on integrated service offers and customer’s need fulfillment.    However, to implement successfully PSS, manufacturers have to overcome many challenges and uncertainties. The uncertainties in the PSS planning phase are related to market, environment or company analysis; reliability, product/service integration, supplier coordination etc in the design and development stages are considered as potential uncertainties. Uncertainty is defined as “State of deficiency of information related to a future event” (Sakao et al., 2009). In which, risks derived from negative side of uncertainties may reduce efficiency of the model or even make the implementation process fail to some extent. If the uncertainty is resolved in a favorable way, risks can be seen as potential business opportunities for the development of PSS Companies. While many Companies already have their own uncertainty management initiative; others just utilize their long time experience to treat uncertainties. Therefore, numerous Companies are seeking a comprehensive uncertainty management framework that could be applicable in most circumstances. In order to fulfill this urgent need, our thesis aimed to develop a holistic framework in order to manage risks occurred in PSS planning, design and development stages. Based on previous valuable PSS researches and useful empirical data collected, our dissertation first determined successfully critical uncertainty factors and potential business opportunities exploited from those. In addition, the research investigated elaborately PSS product quality thresholds and producers’ perception on reliability of their products before constructing a general uncertainty management framework. In which the whole management process based on Active Risk Management philosophy, included Risk Management Planning, Risk Identification, Risk Assessment and Prioritization, Risk Quantification, Risk Response Planning, Risk Tracking and Control were introduced as a helpful guideline to support PSS Companies to treat effectively uncertainties in PSS planning, design and development.