A concept map to support the planning and evaluation of artifacts in the initial phases of PSS design

Designing Product-Service Systems (PSS) is associated with multiple problems and challenges, usually derived from its multidisciplinarity and partially intangible nature. One particular issue is the high likelihood of ignoring the creation of relevant information regarding one or more PSS elements during the early design phases. Proceeding to later stages (e.g., detailed design) without generating the required information regarding all PSS elements and their relationships may lead to rework and lack of integration. Dealing with this problem requires adequate planning and evaluation of the artifacts (such as documents and models) created in the initial design phases. As a fundamental theoretical basis to support the creation of solutions that may help project managers dealing with this challenge, this paper presents a concept map to structure the concepts that compose artifacts resulting from the initial stages of PSS design and how those concepts interrelate. This concept map aims to structure which classes of information should be defined in the early phases of the design process before proceeding to a detailed design. The concept map was created by extracting concepts and relationships proposed in classifications, taxonomies, ontologies, meta-models, and concept maps in the PSS and servitization fields. Those documents were identified through a comprehensive systematic literature review. The resulting concept map was verified for completeness against formal documentation of two retrospective PSS design projects. The final proposed concept map is composed of 143 concepts interconnected through 278 relationships. In its current format, the concept map may be used as a checklist to support project managers in planning and evaluating early phases of PSS design based on information completeness. Researchers may also employ it to deploy ontologies, approach further knowledge and information-related challenges in PSS design, or structure PSS-related model-based systems engineering approaches. In future research, this concept map shall be deployed in a meta-model based on artifacts commonly used in PSS design, structuring a computational tool to allow and support practical application on planning and evaluating PSS design projects.