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What Do Experienced Practitioners Discuss When Designing Product/Service Systems?

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Design Computing and Cognition '18 (DCC 2018)

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Abstract

This paper presents empirical results aimed at increasing the understanding of conceptual activities of Product/Service Systems (PSS) design by experienced designers from industry. Results are derived from a protocol analysis of five PSS design sessions, using the Function–Behavior–Structure coding scheme. Sessions included five pairs of professional designers and the task was to redesign a concept for an existing PSS to improve its resource efficiency. The results show (i) the distribution of design issues during PSS design sessions, (ii) on average 47% of the overall cognitive design effort spent by the designers is related to behavior, and (iii) all the design issues except requirements are constantly focused on during the entirety of the design sessions. Major differences compared to product design are the average occurrence of function for PSS design (23%) for product design (4%) and of structure for PSS design (22%) compared to the product design (35%).

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Acknowledgements

This research is supported in part by the Mistra REES (Resource Efficient and Effective Solutions) program funded by Mistra (The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research) (grant number DIA 2014/16). It is also supported in part by a grant from the US National Science Foundation Grant No. CMMI‐1400466 to the third author.

Informed consent was obtained from the participants of the design sessions on a voluntary basis and is in line with the regulations as described by Linköping University’s Centre for Applied Research Ethics. The authors acknowledge their contribution to this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Management and Engineering, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden

    Abhijna Neramballi & Tomohiko Sakao

  2. University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, USA

    John S. Gero

Authors
  1. Abhijna Neramballi
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  2. Tomohiko Sakao
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  3. John S. Gero
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Abhijna Neramballi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science and School of Architecture, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC, USA

    John S. Gero

Appendix: Design Brief Used for the PSS Design Session

Appendix: Design Brief Used for the PSS Design Session

This appendix shows major parts of the design brief. The complete design brief is to be uploaded on the first author’s ResearchGate page.

  • The company

The design is carried out for a company who develops, manufactures, and delivers coffee machines and related services. This hypothetical firm is named Jobbkaffe and is based in Sweden. Instructing on use, installing the machines, supplying consumables, and carrying out MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) are part of the company’s service portfolio.

  • Client of the company

University A, whose employees are mainly professors, PhD students, and administrative staff, is the client of Jobbkaffe. The employees and their guests want to get something warm to drink, typically early in the morning as well as during a morning break and an afternoon break.

  • Design object

The design object addressed is one of their major offerings, including both product and service. The product model is named Spengler PSL 50 BTC (a model existing on the real market—see Fig. 13) and is provided by Jobbkaffe. Instead of only providing a physical product, Jobbkaffe also provides service.

Fig. 13
figure 13

Photo of the product

Full size image

  • Design task

A redesign task is to be completed in a group of two practitioners working in a cooperative manner. Each group is demanded to derive a concept with the highest potential for the offering that improves resource efficiency within approx. 1 h. In the end, the group must describe the concept on a blank paper with text (drawings can also be used for clarification). Resource here means a natural resource such as material and energy, but not a human resource. In case specific information is not available, the group to make an assumption, e.g., material types. The language is preferred to be in English, but you may choose Swedish.

  • Deliverable of the task

The deliverable is a concept for the offering containing products and services described on a blank paper. The concept should be derived from the group discussion, including choices and reasons for the developed concept. The concept needs to have sufficient information before detailed design begins. The improvement can be all on the products, the services, and the payment model, but could be on one or two of them.

  • Data of product model

    Beverage types:

    The product is equipped with a total of 7 different beverages with a counting system for selectable strength and size. The main ingredients are; freshly grinded coffee beans, chocolate powder and milk powder, which are used in different combinations.

    How the product works:

    A distinctive touch display instructs on the different beverage choices. The coffee machine brews coffee through a steel filter in 30 seconds. For beverages containing milk or chocolate the powder instantly blends with the water. The machine is equipped with a cup sensor that is used to pour out drink only when a cup is positioned. The coffee machine has a system that takes care of any residual liquid and coffee grounds and indicates when these have to be emptied. The residual liquid and coffee grounds are gathered in two separate dispensers and has to be emptied manually when full.

    How the product is installed:

    The machine is connected to the regular water system as e.g. a dishwasher and uses a regular wall socket for electricity.

    Peripheries:

    Cups made of paper are offered beside the machine, but mugs can also be used. There is a cup holder that smaller cups can be put on or it can be turned to the side in order to fit larger mugs. The machine is filled with coffee beans, milk powder, and chocolate powder. Other consumables e.g. tea bags and sugar has to be provided next to the machine.

    Materials:

    Outer casing: Painted or brushed stainless steel plates

    Beverage dispenser: Styrene Acrylonitrile (SAN)

    Lid to beverage dispenser: Polystyrene (PS)

    Smaller plastic details: Polyamide (PA)

    Others: Not marked

    Other specifications of the product:

    Height: 800 mm (1750 mm including base cabinet)

    Width: 450 mm

    Depth: 455 mm

    Weight: 45 kg

    Electrical connection: 230 Volt

    Maximum power: 2300 W

    Capacity: (Consumable; Amount per cup; In total):

    Coffee beans; 2500 g; 15 g/150 ml

    Hot chocolate; 1700 g; 21 g/150 ml

    Milk; 1200 g; 6 g/150 ml

  • Data of related services

Jobbkaffe delivers warranty of quality, early information on the next maintenance (in case pre-ordered), and telephone support service. Daily check of machines, cleaning, waste removal, etc. and supply of filling in coffee beans, etc. is carried out by a cleaning service company working for Linköping University.

  • Payment model

The customer buys the coffee machine (the initial installation is included in the price). Jobbkaffe provides additional options on demand by the customer: buying consumables, as well as regular service and support in case of failure.

Reference :

The product model: http://www.Jobmeal.se/sv/automater/kaffeautomater/p/psl-50btc.

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Neramballi, A., Sakao, T., Gero, J.S. (2019). What Do Experienced Practitioners Discuss When Designing Product/Service Systems?. In: Gero, J. (eds) Design Computing and Cognition '18. DCC 2018. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05363-5_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05363-5_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-05362-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-05363-5

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