Final Report Summary - PROSSALIC (Product-Service System across Life Cycle)
PROJECT DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE SUMMARY
Nowadays, the purchasing habits of consumers have been changing: they do not buy anymore goods or services in the traditional sense, perceiving them as two separated entities. They rather look for a solution, whose value encompasses a lot of intertwined components, some of them being services and some being goods. In this context, the Product-Service System (PSS) concept finds its root. The servitization process of a product manufacturer into a provider of a PSS still constitutes a major managerial challenge. This challenge is based on a new kind of solution, which considers the continuum between services and products, where services represent a key element for gaining competitiveness. Theoretical and practical experiences show that servitization pushes organisations to change their strategies, operations and value chain, technologies, people expertise and system integration capabilities. As a consequence, different competences are requested to be analysed to have a complete vision of the PSS phenomenon. The general aim of the ProSSaLiC (Product-Service System across Life Cycle) exchange program has been to facilitate the deployment of a collaborative scheme focused on the exchange of the knowledge required to develop new methodologies, models, methods and ICT tools to support the servitization process of the companies in the adoption of Product- Service Systems. Due to the vastness of the area, an international interdisciplinary working group is important to fulfil the need of providing a complete vision of the PSS phenomenon. For this reason, it has been relevant to bring together, in the context of a collaborative scheme of research exchanges, the reciprocal knowledge of the partners. This project has linked 10 members: 4 European countries, 2 associated countries, and 4 third country partners, which have agreed on a common exchange program related to the analysis of the “Product-Service System across Life Cycle”.
The project has seen the exchange of a set of various activities of PhD students, researchers and professors.
The main object of the exchange scheme has been to enable the reciprocal transfer of knowledge between the members and among the scientific community.
The knowledge obtained will be used to support manufacturing companies in their servitization process and in the improvement of the PSS the already offered to their customers. As stated in the Europe 2020 strategy, the manufacturing sector is a key enabler for the Europe’s Grand Societal Challenges; it needs to undertake structural transformations in order to manufacture the products of the future, pursuing at the same time the economic, social and environmental sustainability. The different research results obtained and the exchange of knowledge along the ProSSaLic project goes in this direction, In fact, create knowledge supporting the achievement of these four objectives can ensure a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the entire Europe. Numerous stakeholders are involved in this transition; in particular, companies, societies (government and civil society) and individuals (consumers and users) play a key role for this growth.
In this context, Prossalic research results will support all the involved stakeholders in defining, and benefiting from new business opportunities by enabling the engineering and the improvement of new, customer-oriented, quality of life by enhancing PS solutions.
WORK PERFORMED AND MAIN RESULTS ACHIEVED
The exchanges of researchers to transfer knowledge between the members of the ProSSaLiC consortium have been deployed by a set of various activities: integrated exchange programs, training in laboratories, lectures exchange program, workshops / seminars.
Moreover, in order to disseminate the research outputs coming from the “integrate exchange program” and “the training in laboratories” different public events such as PhD workshops, industrial events and special sessions in conferences were organized by the partners in order to disseminate the ProSSaLiC initiatives. In particular, different secondments have been performed either in the EU to non EU countries but also on the other way round.
The active involvement of external stakeholders in the different countries, in order to transfer and acquire knowledge in the field, is a relevant result of the project.
In the following, a list of the most relevant joint publications and a list of the main public events organized and sponsored by the consortium are reported.
The following works were performed and results achieved so far accordingly.
1- PhD students and researchers performed integrated exchanges, namely abroad periods, used to let them gain knowledge on the research advances achieved in PSS fields at the premise of a member of the project consortium. Locally, activities were organised, such as the attendance of courses and seminars, active participation in joint research activities and training in laboratories.
2 - Researchers and professors held lectures as standalone lectures or as part of the didactic offer of the hosting institutions. Also PhD students from the partner institutions attended these lectures.
3 - Researchers and professors held industrial seminars to transfer knowledge also outside the consortium.
4 – Events such as Industrial Workshop and Joint special session have been organized to share the knowledge developed within the field during the ProSSaliC project both at the academic and industrial level.
5- Joint publications were also a relevant objective of the ProSSaLic exchange program and to the presentation of researches jointly performed by the partners.
Nowadays, the purchasing habits of consumers have been changing: they do not buy anymore goods or services in the traditional sense, perceiving them as two separated entities. They rather look for a solution, whose value encompasses a lot of intertwined components, some of them being services and some being goods. In this context, the Product-Service System (PSS) concept finds its root. The servitization process of a product manufacturer into a provider of a PSS still constitutes a major managerial challenge. This challenge is based on a new kind of solution, which considers the continuum between services and products, where services represent a key element for gaining competitiveness. Theoretical and practical experiences show that servitization pushes organisations to change their strategies, operations and value chain, technologies, people expertise and system integration capabilities. As a consequence, different competences are requested to be analysed to have a complete vision of the PSS phenomenon. The general aim of the ProSSaLiC (Product-Service System across Life Cycle) exchange program has been to facilitate the deployment of a collaborative scheme focused on the exchange of the knowledge required to develop new methodologies, models, methods and ICT tools to support the servitization process of the companies in the adoption of Product- Service Systems. Due to the vastness of the area, an international interdisciplinary working group is important to fulfil the need of providing a complete vision of the PSS phenomenon. For this reason, it has been relevant to bring together, in the context of a collaborative scheme of research exchanges, the reciprocal knowledge of the partners. This project has linked 10 members: 4 European countries, 2 associated countries, and 4 third country partners, which have agreed on a common exchange program related to the analysis of the “Product-Service System across Life Cycle”.
The project has seen the exchange of a set of various activities of PhD students, researchers and professors.
The main object of the exchange scheme has been to enable the reciprocal transfer of knowledge between the members and among the scientific community.
The knowledge obtained will be used to support manufacturing companies in their servitization process and in the improvement of the PSS the already offered to their customers. As stated in the Europe 2020 strategy, the manufacturing sector is a key enabler for the Europe’s Grand Societal Challenges; it needs to undertake structural transformations in order to manufacture the products of the future, pursuing at the same time the economic, social and environmental sustainability. The different research results obtained and the exchange of knowledge along the ProSSaLic project goes in this direction, In fact, create knowledge supporting the achievement of these four objectives can ensure a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth of the entire Europe. Numerous stakeholders are involved in this transition; in particular, companies, societies (government and civil society) and individuals (consumers and users) play a key role for this growth.
In this context, Prossalic research results will support all the involved stakeholders in defining, and benefiting from new business opportunities by enabling the engineering and the improvement of new, customer-oriented, quality of life by enhancing PS solutions.
WORK PERFORMED AND MAIN RESULTS ACHIEVED
The exchanges of researchers to transfer knowledge between the members of the ProSSaLiC consortium have been deployed by a set of various activities: integrated exchange programs, training in laboratories, lectures exchange program, workshops / seminars.
Moreover, in order to disseminate the research outputs coming from the “integrate exchange program” and “the training in laboratories” different public events such as PhD workshops, industrial events and special sessions in conferences were organized by the partners in order to disseminate the ProSSaLiC initiatives. In particular, different secondments have been performed either in the EU to non EU countries but also on the other way round.
The active involvement of external stakeholders in the different countries, in order to transfer and acquire knowledge in the field, is a relevant result of the project.
In the following, a list of the most relevant joint publications and a list of the main public events organized and sponsored by the consortium are reported.
The following works were performed and results achieved so far accordingly.
1- PhD students and researchers performed integrated exchanges, namely abroad periods, used to let them gain knowledge on the research advances achieved in PSS fields at the premise of a member of the project consortium. Locally, activities were organised, such as the attendance of courses and seminars, active participation in joint research activities and training in laboratories.
2 - Researchers and professors held lectures as standalone lectures or as part of the didactic offer of the hosting institutions. Also PhD students from the partner institutions attended these lectures.
3 - Researchers and professors held industrial seminars to transfer knowledge also outside the consortium.
4 – Events such as Industrial Workshop and Joint special session have been organized to share the knowledge developed within the field during the ProSSaliC project both at the academic and industrial level.
5- Joint publications were also a relevant objective of the ProSSaLic exchange program and to the presentation of researches jointly performed by the partners.
