An Ontology-based Approach for Product-Service System Design

Abstract

Companies developing physical products are challenged to find solutions through services as a means of innovative value-added solutions to support customer’s needs. Designing integrated product and service systems to increase customer satisfaction requires the ability of companies to use knowledge in a more efficient way. However, the knowledge representation of product-service systems (PSS) remains an open issue. Current PSS representations are limited to one aspect be it user requirements, value or function. This paper proposes the use of ontologies as means for representing product-service systems. Ontologies are used in a case-based reasoning (CBR)-based support system. The CBR system enables the user to find PSS examples that could be used as a reference for new problems. This paper discusses the advantages of the proposed approach in conjunction with a case study.