Product Support Knowledge (original) (raw)

Dimensioning of product support: issues, challenges, and opportunities

Annual Symposium Reliability and Maintainability, 2004 - RAMS

The research study examines issues related to dimensioning of product support strategies for advanced industrial products on the basis of a case study conducted in a manufacturing company that produces automated production line systems. The focus is mainly on investigating engineering factors/parameters that influence product support. Product support can be defined as any form of assistance that companies offer their customers to gain maximum value from manufactured products. In general, it creates additional value/profit for the product owner as well as for the manufacturer. It can be broadly classified into two, namely, services to support product and services to support customers. Services to support the product are mainly dependent on the product's designed-in characteristics, operational environment, as well as on owner's operational, maintenance, and support strategies. Services to support the customer are influenced by customer characteristics related to operational and maintenance skills and capabilities. Dimensioning of product support is influenced by the product's designed-in characteristics-especially those characteristics related to RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Supportability).

Design and development of product support and maintenance concepts for industrial systems

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 2003

Product design and service delivery both affect service performance, and therefore a product support strategy must be defined during design stage, in terms of these two dimensions, to ensure the delivery of "promised product performance" to customers. Furthermore, product support strategy should not only be focused around product, or its operating characteristics, but also on assisting customers with services that enhance product use and add additional value to their business processes. This paper examines various issues such as reliability, availability, maintainability, and supportability (RAMS), etc., which directly or indirectly affect product support, maintenance needs and related costs on the basis of a case study conducted in a manufacturing company. The main purpose of the study was to analyse the critical issues related to the product support and service delivery strategy as being practised by the company, and to suggest means for improvements. On the basis of the case study, the paper presents an approach for design and development of product support and maintenance concepts for industrial systems in a multinational environment. The paper emphasizes that the strategy for product support should not be centred only on "product", but should also take into account important issues such as the service delivery capability of the manufacturers, service suppliers, the capability of users' maintenance organization, etc.

Product support strategy: conventional versus functional products

Journal of Quality in Maintenance Engineering, 2005

Purpose -Most advanced durable industrial products need some kind of support to compensate for weaknesses in design or in product exploitation. Aims to examine different scenarios for product support and discusses approaches for development of product support strategy for conventional and functional products. Design/methodology/approach -The paper is based on a case study of a manufacturer of advanced durable industrial production systems. Findings -Traditionally, the customer buys, operates, and maintains equipment used in production systems. Alternatively, the customer can buy the performance, instead of the physical product. In such cases, the manufacturer is responsible for operating, maintaining, and supporting the product in addition to designing and making it. Thus, the long-term profit for both user and manufacturer will depend on the product's designed-in life cycle costs, RAMS (reliability, availability, maintainability and supportability) characteristics, as well as on the effectiveness and efficiency of the product exploitation and support processes. In general, product support is a source of income for the manufacturer. In a functional product scenario, the need for product support is a liability and a cost driver for the manufacturer. Hence, delivery of performance requires a fundamentally different approach for product support strategy. Originality/value -An examination of different scenarios and different approaches for manufacturers' product support strategies.

Semantic Knowledge Based Approach for Product Maintenance Support

Global Product Development, 2011

The purpose of this paper is to use semantic technology to represent the knowledge for product maintenance. Companies are begining to understand the importance of utilising an effective approach to manage existing knowledge in order to increase their intellectual capital. However, one of the main constraints that have hindered the solution in resolving technical problems has been the efficient access to knowledge and expertise. Therefore, there is need for enhancing the management and maintenance of knowledge through a semantic based approach. This research project adopts a qualitative research approach and a five-phase research programme methodology. This research project has highlighted that semantic technology enhances the reusability, flexibility and maintainability of knowledge and its management.

Proposal for a Comprehensive and Integrated Model of Support for the Development of New Products

Revista Produção e Desenvolvimento, 2018

The development of new products (NPD) is crucial for the existence of companies, source of competitive advantage and determinant of their business success. Several factors, both operational and organizational or even strategic, contribute to the innovation process that supports NPD. The holistic assessment of all these factors as a whole has not been the subject of research leading to the proposal for an integrated and systemic model. In this way, this article aims to propose a comprehensive conceptual model that integrates the strategic, organizational and procedural levels, as well as the set of factors to be taken into account in NPD projects. Based on the literature review, a comprehensive and integrated conceptual model of NPD support (MAIDNP) is deductive-inductive. This model can therefore be a tool for evaluating processes, projects and products, dedicated to companies that innovate, design and develop new products.

Product-service systems–from customer needs to requirements in early development phases

Proceedings of the 1st CIRP Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2) Conference, 2009

Framed by Product-Service Systems (PSS), this paper discuss how needs and requirements are applied in early phases. In product development literature these and closely related terms are mixed, and a focus on gathering customer information about goods and their use guides the development team. This theoretical study highlights that lifecycle commitments such as PSS insist on the generation of a broader information basis. The application of a divergent view on goods, their use and the customers is likely to provide such information ...

A knowledge management framework to support product-service systems design

International Journal of …, 2009

This paper presents a framework for knowledge reuse in a Product-Service Systems design scenario. The project aim is to develop a methodology to capture, represent and reuse knowledge to support product development in a collaborative enterprise context. The three core elements are: design knowledge, manufacturing capability knowledge, and service knowledge. There are three principal components of the proposed methodology. The first is a process based design model: defining design according to specific tasks, and associating previous knowledge with those tasks. The second is manufacturing capability knowledge: supporting feature based design and manufacture through representing machining features, best practices in machining and inspection, and machining capability. The third component is service knowledge: ensuring that design takes account of the service requirement. The developing paradigm of Product-Service Systems and the requirement for co-design of products and services has influenced the structure of the knowledge base, as well as outlining specific service related requirements. This paper presents the proposed knowledge base structure along with a detailed case study in which the proposal was developed and validated.

Improving Product-Service Systems by Exploiting Information From The Usage Phase. A Case Study

Procedia CIRP

Nowadays the relevance of Product-Service-Systems (PSS) is increasing. Providing customers with products and supporting services suiting the customer expectations becomes a key-factor for being successful in the market. Contemporarily, a huge amount of data such as usage-data from sensors or Product Embedded Information Devices as well as customer feedback from social media, forums or blogs is already available for manufacturers of PSS. These data sources provide valuable knowledge about the customer's usage of products and their expectations and complaints. The successful exploitation of PUI-Product Usage Information (such as sensor data or user feedback) becomes a key success factor for future product developments as they aid the development of PSS directly deriving from costumer requirements. But an efficient use of such knowledge requires the setup of PUI related analysis, filters and the identification of dependencies between PUI and design parameters or component attributes. Thus, transferring the usage information to design requirements is currently the major challenge in the process of developing successful PSS. Currently, there is a lack of research for a systematic transfer of PUI into product design requirements. A basic precondition for a knowledge transfer is a formal and neutral representation of both sides, usage data on the one hand and design parameters on the other. An approach for such a neutral representation is KbeML, which is specified as a formal extension of the established SysML standard, enabling a linkage of PUI and formalized KBE models. This paper provides a case study regarding the connection of PUI and KBE models in the branch of White Goods. The information gathered from sensors embedded in washing machines will be considered in order to retrieve improved design requirements for next generation washing machines. In a first step the product structure of a washing machine will be represented in a formal and neutral manner by using KbeML. This way the washing machine is formally described in terms of an assembly structure, and broken down into subsystems and eventually individual parts, which are defined by their relevant core parameters. In addition, the derived sensor data will be formalized as a SysML extension. The linkage between both sides (product structure data and PUI) can be achieved by mapping design parameters directly to parameters and values provided by sensors. To enable an analysis of these parameters the modelling language will provide statistical elements (e.g. median) allowing the extraction of critical values (information) from data streams. This way a comprehensive modelling environment can be provided to corresponding stakeholders, supporting an effective and efficient application of usage data for the development of new or the improvement of existing PSS.

Administration and operation of product-related content

International Journal of Product Development, 2009

This paper presents methods, models and tools which are of relevance for the administration and operation of product-related content during the development of complex products. The central method presented in this paper is a handling method including a product data model and a process model as a tool and as well as a method, respectively, for analysing the interactions of the actors of a product development project. The effects which could be achieved by using the presented methods, models and tools are higher efficiency and speed of the development of complex products as a result. Thus, positive effects on these important factors determining a company's success are aimed at.

An Ontology-based Approach for Product-Service System Design

The Philosopher's Stone for Sustainability, 2013

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.