Methodology for evaluating the impact of design for service in product development

Abstract

The goal of this research is to find a method to identify high life-cycle service costs during the early stages of the product development process. Development teams have often found it challenging to identify service elements, their costs and their relation to product design and overall service performance. Without thorough consideration of these interrelationships, product design risks not to facilitate the efficient delivery of services.

This report consists of a literature study and an empiric research part. In the literature review we discuss the importance of services as a part of a manufacturing company's value proposition, the concept of product-service systems and service quality. We study product development processes and introduce two generic models, one for product design and one for service design. We discuss their inherent challenges and challenges in combining them into one unified process. Further the concept of cost of design is introduced and the fact that later changes in design are more expensive. Finally we introduce common tools used during the development process to improve various product aspects, especially serviceability. As a part of the empiric research a series of interviews were conducted to understand the relationship between various service elements and serviceability and how they affect the entire product life-cycle.

As a result of this thesis a Design for Service tool is introduced. Based on basic marketing estimates and the frequency of service requirements and their cost the tool determines the total life-cycle service costs of a product. The tool also suggests design guidelines for the most significant cost drivers to improve the overall serviceability level. The thesis concludes that by using such tools during early stages of development processes down stream costs can be reduces significantly while improving product performance and service quality.