A Product-Service Systems Design Method with Integration of Product Elements and Service Elements Using Affordances

This paper describes the systematic design method for Product-Service Systems (PSS) where service and product elements are integrated using affordances. In the PSS design method, a service element is composed of the activities from the service blueprint and the functions from the function analysis. The service elements contain the service providers and receivers and their activities and are to be connected with appropriate product elements. The integration of service elements and product elements is done by mapping service elements to product elements using the affordance. The activities of the stakeholders are the key in a service element and the product elements associated to a service element should be those that support these activities. As the affordance is defined as the property of the artifact that naturally induces certain human activities, affordances provide the means for designing product elements from service elements. The function-activity interaction method is used to identify relevant affordances and then the affordance features, structural aspects of products that provide affordance, are designed. Specific instances of those affordance features realize the relevant product elements. A case example is illustrated to demonstrate that this method can help to systematically design service elements and product elements of a PSS in a service-dominant approach.