LENSin | Exploring the opportunities of networked production to improve product-service systems

Future scenarios Sustainable manufacturing Design tool

Overview

During the three-year research project which gained me a PhD degree, I looked at the near-future trends of distributed manufacturing (DM) and how they could be applied to designing sustainable product-service systems (PSS). I have built, tested and refined a future scenario-based idea generation toolkit to help companies and designers create product-service systems.

Context

UK, Brazil, China

Duration

2016-2019

The Problem

By mixing products and services, companies can differentiate their offerings and have a competitive advantage. However, the development of product-service systems is still hindered by organisational and cultural challenges, the need for long-term strategic thinking and a lack of supportive regulations. The focus of this research project was to find innovative ways of creating and maintaining sustainable product-service systems in various contexts.

The Goal

To facilitate the design of product-service systems through distributed manufacturing enabled by the latest technologies (e.g., additive manufacturing, smart factory, etc.).

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

Distributed networks can potentially be more resilient, responsive and scaleable than their centralised counterparts. Illustration: Baran (1964)

The Process

Research Question 1: What barriers prevent companies and consumers from successful product-service systems implementation and acceptance?

Method 1: Desk research - understanding the most common implementation challenges of product-service systems.

Duration: 2 weeks

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

Reckless consumer behaviour with products they do not own is one of the many issues encountered by product-service systems providers. Photo: Daisy Chen (Unsplash)

Research Question 2: What are the characteristics of distributed manufacturing?

Method 2: Desk research - collecting benefits, limitations and near-future trends of distributed manufacturing.

Duration: 3 weeks

Method 3: Semi-structured interviews with distributed manufacturing experts.

Participants: 10 professionals from industry and academia.

Duration: 4 weeks

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

Distributed manufacturing is a shift from centralised mass production to small-scale local production, reminiscing the pre-Industrial Revolution era but enhanced with the Internet

Research Question 3: What is the potential of distributed manufacturing to address the implementation barriers of sustainable product-service systems?

Method 4: Analysis of early research findings and their integration in the near-future scenarios of distributed manufacturing-enabled product-service systems design.

Duration: 2 weeks

Method 5: Integration of the near-future scenarios into the first version of the PSS+DM Toolkit.

Duration: 4 weeks

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

Near-future scenarios have been built using the cognitive mapping method, which helped visualise the potential relationships between the PSS barriers and DM opportunities

Research Question 4: How to enable designers and industrial companies to consider distributed manufacturing when creating or improving product-service systems?

Method 6: Four rounds of idea generation workshops designed to test, evaluate and revise the PSS+DM toolkit.

Participants: 94 designers and employees of industrial companies, involved in design and innovation processes.

Duration: 5 weeks

Method 7: Development of the final version of the toolkit based on the data collected during the testing workshops.

Duration: 3 weeks

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

Participants of the toolkit’s testing workshops had to design sustainable product-service systems and later evaluate the toolkit’s completeness, effectiveness and usability

The Outcomes

  • An open-source idea generation toolkit which encourages future-oriented thinking towards the solutions for sustainable product-service systems.

  • 40 near-future scenarios of distributed manufacturing.

  • Increased awareness of a sustainable mix of products and services, their design and implementation.

Product-Service Systems; Distributed Manufacturing; Future Scenarios; Design Tools; Design Research Methodology, Future Trends, Additive Manufacturing, Sharing Economy, Workshop Facilitation, Sustainability

The PSS+DM Toolkit supports the development of brand-new product-service systems and helps improve the existing ones.

Credits to the team: Dr Fabrizio Ceschin, Prof Aguinaldo dos Santos, Prof Carlo Vezzoli, Prof Liu Xin, Prof David Harrison, Dr Eujin Pei

Interested in the PSS+DM Toolkit ? Drop me a line: aine@petrulaityte.com

Publications