Product service systems: exploring operational practices

Increasingly, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are offering integrated solutions of products and services (product service systems (PSS)). To be successful in a service strategy, the OEM has to be able to provide services at a lower cost than the do-it-yourself alternative of the customer. We identify five service operations guidelines to achieve operational excellence in the field of PSS. The guidelines are based on a structured return-on-invested-capital analysis in collaboration with an OEM in the compressed air and generator industry (due to confidentiality reasons the OEM is referred to as AirGen). Each of the guidelines is cascaded into operational practices.