Currently, manufacturing organisations worldwide are shifting their business models towards Product-Service Systems (PSS), which implies the development of new support agreements such as availability-based contracts. This transition is shifting the responsibilities for managing and resolving obsolescence issues from the customer to the prime contractor and industry work share partners. This new scenario has triggered a new need to estimate the Non-Recurring Engineering (NRE) cost of resolving obsolescence issues at the bidding stage, so it can be included in the support contract. Hence, the aim of this research is to develop an understanding about all types of obsolescence and develop methodologies for the estimation of NRE costs of hardware (electronic, electrical and electromechanical (EEE) components and materials) obsolescence that can be used at the bidding stage for support contracts in the defence and aerospace sectors. For the accomplishment of this aim, an extensive literature review of the related themes to the research area was carried out. It was found that there is a lack of methodologies for the cost estimation of obsolescence, and also a lack of understanding on the different types of obsolescence such as materials and software obsolescence. A systematic industrial investigation corroborated these findings and revealed the current practice in the UK defence sector for cost estimation at the bidding stage, obsolescence management and obsolescence cost estimation. It facilitated the development of an understanding about obsolescence in hardware and software. Further collaboration with experts from more than 14 organisations enabled the iterative development of the EEEFORCE and M-FORCE frameworks, which can be used at the bidding stage of support contracts to estimate the NRE costs incurred during the contracted period in resolving obsolescence issues in EEE components and materials, respectively. These frameworks were implemented within a prototype software platform that was applied to 13 case studies for expert validation.

This paper explores the business implications of Integrated Product and Service Offerings (IPSOs). The objective is to show examples of the business implications of IPSOs from a supplier’s perspective, and to suggest specifications for supporting methods needed for such an industrial company. The paper is largely based on empirical case studies of 120 Swedish manufacturing companies of all sizes. Results from the case studies show that both small and large companies that conduct the transition towards IPSOs face several important strategic challenges, some of them associated with high risk.

This research aims to explore and propose a more effective management of rail and road infrastructure and the possibility of a more resource-efficient road and rail infrastructure by applying business models based on performance and a life-cycle perspective. There is a lack of efficiency in the Swedish rail and road infrastructure industries - at the same time as the availability of the rail tracks and roads is essential. Rail and road infrastructure have long lifetimes, around 40-60 years, and during these decades regular maintenance and reconstruction are needed to ensure proper function. Large amounts of resources are required to construct the infrastructure, and the overall environmental pressure depends substantially on this. This research is largely based on interviews conducted with the buyer, contractors and design consultants for rail and road infrastructure in Sweden. Literature reviews have been conducted to develop the framework needed to analyze the empirical findings. This research contributes by building on theory in areas such as Integrated Product Service Offerings (IPSOs) and eco-design, and this abstract presents a brief summary of the overall conclusions. Several challenges for rail and road infrastructure in Sweden have been identified, such as the lack of information and knowledge transfer between different projects and actors. This is due to e.g. the use of traditional short-term contracts and conservative cooperate cultures, creating sub-optimizations in management. Increased collaboration, through e.g. partnering, seems to be a promising way to increase the information and knowledge transfer between actors by increasing trust and interaction. In this way, management would be more effective, and by involving contractors in the design phase, more efficient technical solutions could be developed and used. Additionally, increased involvement by the design consultants and an iterative information loop between design, construction and maintenance could also be beneficial. The research indicates that increased cooperation increases trust. In this way, there is a possibility to remove the detailed requirements that prevent new ways of working. Rail and road infrastructure have characteristics, such as the resources used and the importance of availability, that are well-suited for IPSOs. This performance-based business model with a life-cycle perspective provides incentives to optimize the use of resources and provide a holistic view for management that is lacking today for rail and road infrastructure. However, a long-term contract such as an IPSO creates uncertainties. The actors are risk-averse, which is an obstacle in the development of new business models and contract forms. Most of the risks and uncertainties identified are due to lack of experience. This implies that an implementation of IPSOs will have a steep learning curve. Additionally, risk allocation between the actors is important for effective management: too much risk for the suppliers will make them reluctant in developing new solutions, and they will use a risk premium to cover up for the risk.

The aim of this research project is to develop an innovative framework to implement lean principles in Product-Service System (PSS) with the capability of assessing the leanness level of the services offering process. The framework comprises three implementation phases namely: assessment of the current state, developing a future state, and stabilising the new way of operations. Additionally, the framework covers the enablers, factors, and appropriate lean tools required for the successful implementation of lean practices in Product-Service System (PSS), as well as, the challenges that may obstacle the implementation process. The proposed framework has integrated an assessment model that provides a quantifiable measure of the leanness level of Product-Service System (PSS). Five main enablers and thirty three factors emerging from these main enablers deemed to be critical for the successful implementation of lean practices in Product-Service System (PSS). Moreover, a series of eight inhibitors appeared to block the implementation process. The Product-Service System leanness assessment model was developed upon three main levels, namely: enablers, criteria, and attributes. The first level contains five enablers. These enablers are supplier relationship, management leanness, workforce leanness, process excellence, and customer relationship. In the second level there are twenty one criteria such as: supplier delivery, culture of management and process optimisation. Finally, the third level consists of seventy three attributes. By using multi-grade fuzzy approach the PSS leanness index was computed and areas for further improvement were identified. A combination of research methodology approaches has been employed in this research. Firstly, an extensive literature review related to lean and PSS was conducted. Secondly, the qualitative approach and the case study were selected as an appropriate methodology for this research, using semi-structured and structured interview techniques to gather the required data from experts who are involved in lean projects in their companies. Finally, validation of the results was carried out using real life industrial case studies and experts judgment. Case studies demonstrate that the framework provides guidelines for manufacturing companies that aim to implement lean principles in Product-Service System (PSS). The framework enables manufacturing companies to better satisfy their customers’ needs through responding quickly to their changing demands; to improve the service offering process through reducing the creation of wastes and non-value added activities; and to improve competitiveness through increasing customers’ value. Additionally, the PSS leanness index is useful for improving the service offering process. The index provides manufacturing companies with a real insight into the leanness level of their service offering, as well as, it provides managers with a quantifiable measure of how lean their PSS is. The index identifies the gap between the current state and the future state and this helps in determining areas for further improvement.

There is an emerging trend of manufacturing companies offering combined products and services to customers as integrated solutions. Availability contracts are an apt instance of such offerings, where product use is guaranteed to customer and is enforced by incentive-penalty schemes. Uncertainties in such an industry setting, where all stakeholders are striving to achieve their respective performance goals and at the same time collaborating intensively, is increased. Understanding through-life uncertainties and their impact on cost is critical to ensure sustainability and profitability of the industries offering such solutions. In an effort to address this challenge, the aim of this research study is to provide an approach for the analysis of uncertainties in Product Service System (PSS) delivered in business-to-business application by specifying a procedure to identify, characterise and model uncertainties with an emphasis to provide decision support and prioritisation of key uncertainties affecting the performance outcomes. The thesis presents a literature review in research areas which are at the interface of topics such as uncertainty, PSS and availability contracts. From this seven requirements that are vital to enhance the understanding and quantification of uncertainties in Product Service System are drawn. These requirements are synthesised into a conceptual uncertainty framework. The framework prescribes four elements, which include identifying a set of uncertainties, discerning the relationships between uncertainties, tools and techniques to treat uncertainties and finally, results that could ease uncertainty management and analysis efforts. The conceptual uncertainty framework was applied to an industry case study in availability contracts, where each of the four elements was realised. This application phase of the research included the identification of uncertainties in PSS, development of a multi-layer uncertainty classification, deriving the structure of Bayesian Network and finally, evaluation and validation of the Bayesian Network. The findings suggest that understanding uncertainties from a system perspective is essential to capture the network aspect of PSS. This network comprises of several stakeholders, where there is increased flux of information and material flows and this could be effectively represented using Bayesian Networks.

The thesis topic was ``Analysis of client satisfaction with ČSOB a. s. services and products``. The objective of the thesis was to survey satisfaction of ČSOB a. s. clients with the quality of its products and services. The purpose of the thesis was to evaluate the questionnaire survey and then to propose ideas for improvement of services provided by ČSOB a. s. Further, I have focused on the portfolio of products and services offered by the bank to retail clients and on comparison of three, based on the survey, most frequently used products with the competitor banks in the Czech Republic. The thesis provides an overview of the portfolio of products and services offered by ČSOB a. s. to retail clients and of the clients´ satisfaction with the products and services.

A Product-Service System (PSS) is an integrated combination of products and services. Industrial systems falling under the Pay-for-Performance (PfP) business model are a type of PSS where an organization sells services to its customers. Offering a PfP system requires analysis of huge amount of data and based on the information gained, an organization can charge its customer on the performance. In this thesis, we identified several services that can be provided to PfP systems and identified several reasons for having a cloud platform together with edge computing for successful deployment of PfP systems. The main contribution of this thesis has been on identifying different architectural solution for PfP systems. We carried out this task by performing a cost analysis of a remote monitoring solution provided by Microsoft Azure for a single Stressometer system. Due to high cost and limited provisioning of Azure services in different Azure regions, we mentioned few alternative ways of designing the solution for PfP system that best suit needs of organizations that have systems distributed globally such that all industrial systems can be provided as PfP systems.

Manufacturing companies have begun developing Product Service Systems to provide customers with enhanced product-service offerings. Transitioning to a service-oriented development process allows companies to restructure risks, responsibilities, and costs normally associated with owning products. They potentially allow companies to sell products through different channels and offer additional elements of differentiation to their competitors. However, PSS comes with a lot of challenges that manufacturing companies have struggled to overcome. Some of these challenges include switching away from traditional hardware-focused mindset and the service manufacturing paradox. This thesis focused on challenges regarding integrating services within product development processes. A Swedish manufacturing company was considered as the primary case study for investigation. 14 people from different functions were interviewed. The investigation revealed 17 challenges categorized into five main themes. These themes were lack of clear company messaging regarding services, immature service development process, sub-optimal division of tasks and responsibilities, resources issues, and lack of integration in processes. Additionally, three external companies were interviewed to investigate their service maturity level and how they were able to overcome common challenges in service integration. Based on the insights gained from both internal and external interviews three solutions were created. These solutions are new roles and updated responsibilities, a new integrated service process, and a Product-Service Readiness Level chart. Future considerations for the investigated company were also submitted to provide a guide for further development of these solutions. / Tillverkningsföretag har börjat utveckla produktservicesystem för att ge kunderna förbättrade produkttjänster. Övergången till en tjänsteorienterad utvecklingsprocess tillåter företag att omstrukturera risker, ansvar och kostnader som normalt är förknippade med att äga produkter. De tillåter potentiellt företag att sälja produkter genom olika kanaler och erbjuder ytterligare inslag av differentiering till sina konkurrenter. Men PSS kommer med många utmaningar som tillverkande företag har kämpat för att övervinna. Några av dessa utmaningar inkluderar att byta bort från traditionella hårdvarufokuserade tänkesätt och tjänstetillverkningsparadoxen. Detta examensarbete fokuserade på utmaningar när det gäller att integrera tjänster i produktutvecklingsprocesser. Ett svenskt tillverkningsföretag ansågs vara den primära fallstudien för utredning. 14 personer från olika funktioner intervjuades. Undersökningen avslöjade 17 utmaningar kategoriserade i fem huvudteman. Dessa teman var brist på tydliga företagsmeddelanden om tjänster, omogen tjänsteutvecklingsprocess, suboptimal fördelning av uppgifter och ansvar, resursfrågor och bristande integration i processer. Dessutom intervjuades tre externa företag för att undersöka deras mognadsnivå för tjänster och hur de kunde övervinna vanliga utmaningar inom tjänsteintegration. Baserat på insikterna från både interna och externa intervjuer skapades tre lösningar. Dessa lösningar är nya roller och uppdaterade ansvarsområden, en ny integrerad serviceprocess och ett diagram för produkt-tjänstberedskapsnivå. Framtida överväganden för det undersökta företaget lämnades också in för att ge vägledning för vidareutveckling av dessa lösningar.

Purpose – The purpose of this master thesis was to extend the understanding of the capabilities needed to enable the organizational transformation required throughout the servitization process. This research aims to identify what capabilities for servitization were important for the case company and understand how these capabilities were developed by adopting a dynamic capability perspective. Methodology – This research adopted a single-case study design to collect and analyze in-depth information about the interviewee’s experiences and perceptions about the case company’s servitization process. Findings – This research developed a holistic set of capabilities for servitization which were critical for the case company to enable organizational transformation within the context of product-oriented servitization. Four main capabilities for servitization were uncovered Strategic Alignment, Customer Relationship, PSS Innovation, and PSS Delivery. Moreover, a framework was created dividing the capabilities into higher- and second-order dynamic capabilities, hence explaining the importance of dynamic capabilities for the development of capabilities. Theoretical Implications – This study extended the understanding of capabilities for servitization by mapping them within the context of the case company. This research also displayed the role of high-order dynamic capabilities as the case company’s capacity to transform and manipulate the organization with the purpose to build second-order dynamic capabilities; therefore, denoting a capability hierarchy by which to distinguish between high- and second-order dynamic capabilities within the context of servitization. Managerial Implications – This research provides managers with a comprehensive collection of capabilities to take into consideration when formulating or executing strategy within the context of product-oriented servitization. Additionally, the distinction among high- and second-order dynamic capabilities for servitization may provide servitizating manufacturers with a new approach to map, organize and prioritize capability development based on the understanding of their function and related micro-foundations.

Tjänstefiering är en kontinuerlig process som hjälper tillverkningsföretag att addera tjänster till deras etablerade produkter. Gränsen mellan tjänster och produkter blir allt mer suddig och trenden mot ett tjänsteorienterat företag av traditionella produktorienterade företag medför stora förändringar inom många industrier. En av de industrierna är tillverkningsindustrin där krav på resurseffektiv produktion ökar. Detta arbete fokuserar på lastbilsbranschen i Sverige där det ses en tydlig utveckling av erbjudande som består av tjänster och produkter tillsammans. Dessutom står denna bransch för höga utsläpp som belastar miljön. Genom att erbjuda tjänster förväntas lastbilsbranschen både skapa bättre kundrelation och förlänga produkternas livscykel. En lyckad implementeringen av produkter och tjänster kallas för ett ”product service-system” (PSS). Det finns tre olika typer av PSS: Produktorienterad, Användningsorienterad och Resulatatorienterad PSS. Lastbilsbranschen i Sverige präglas främst av ett Produktorienterad PSS men de stora tillverkningsföretagen har tjänster från alla olika PSS. Scania som en ledande svensk lastbilstillverkare erbjuder en blandning av tjänster. Deras tjänsteportfölj inkluderar bland annat reparation, underhåll, uppgradering och återvinning av deras produkter som klassificeras som produktorienterade tjänster. Vidare erbjuder de även användningsorienterade tjänster som ”leasing” och uthyrning samt resultatorienterade tjänster och digitala tjänster som Fleet Managementtjänsten. De flesta tjänster som har studerats i rapporten bidrar till en ökad resurseffektivitet i lastbilsbranschen i Sverige. Andra slutsatser som har dragits under arbetets gång är följande: Digitaliseringen kommer främja de användnings- och resultatorienterade tjänsterna. Ju större företaget desto större sannolikhet att lyckas med en lönsam tjänstefiering.  Tjänster som finns tillgängliga idag som exempelvis förarutbildning, men även de kommande nya typer av digitala tjänsterna har för huvudsyfte att sanka kostnaderna for åkandet genom att minska bränsleförbrukningen. Ytterligare någon positiv påverkan erhålls av de tjänster som minskar slitaget på̊ lastbilen eftersom livslängden på̊ åkeriernas lastbilar ökar. Det är tydligt att tjänstefieringen har många fördelar med tyvärr är det fortfarande en stor utmaning för många av de mindre och medelstora tillverkningsföretagen i Sverige. Några av utmaningarna är den bristande kunskapen inom tjänstefiering och de stora organisatoriska förändringarna som en sådan process kräver. I samband med detta presenteras två olika modeller som har för syfte att underlätta implementeringen av tjänstefiering i tillverkningsföretagen. Den första modellen är Olivia och Kallenbergs modell och den andra är ATIT modellen som står för Avancerade tjänster i tillverkningsindustrin. / Servitization is a continuous process that helps manufacturing companies in the process of adding services to their established products. The line between services and products is becoming increasingly blurred and the trend towards a service-oriented company from a traditional product-oriented companies is leading to major changes in many industries. One of these industries is the manufacturing industry, where the demand for resource-efficient production is increasing. This report focuses on the truck industry in Sweden, where there is a clear development of offerings that consist of services and products together. In addition, this industry accounts for high emissions that burden our environment. By offering more services, the truck industry is expecting to create a better customer relationship and extend their product’s life cycle. A system with a successful implementation of products and services is called a product-service system (PSS). There are three different types of PSS: Product Oriented-, Usage Oriented- and Result Oriented PSS. The truck industry in Sweden is mainly characterized by the Productoriented PSS, but large manufacturing companies often offer services from all different PSS. Scania as a leading Swedish truck manufacturer offers a mix of services. Their service portfolio includes reparation, maintenance, upgrading and recycling of their products, which are classified as product-oriented services. Furthermore, they offer usage-oriented services such as "leasing" and renting, result-oriented services and digital services such as the Fleet Management services. Most services that have been studied in the report contribute to increased resource efficiency in the truck industry in Sweden. In conclusion, digitization will promote the usage- and resultoriented services. The larger the company, the greater the probability of succeeding in servitization. Services that are available today, such as driver training, but also the upcoming new types of digital services, aim to reduce the costs of driving by reducing fuel consumption. An additional positive effect is obtained from the services that reduce wear and tear on the truck which increases its life cycle. It is clear that the servitization has many advantages, but unfortunately it is still a big challenge for many of the small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in Sweden. Some of the challenges are the lack of knowledge in servitization and the major organizational changes that such a process requires. Additionally, two different models were presented which aim to facilitate the implementation of servitization in the manufacturing companies. The first model is Olivia and Kallenberg's model and the second one is the ATIT model.