Service concept design

Abstract: Manufacturing companies are continuously experiencing tougher competition; to meet this challenge a trend is to offer functional products. A functional product is a total care offer consisting of capital intensive hardware integrated with its accompanying services needed to keep it operational. The price of the product should also correspond to its usage, while the ownership of the hardware can remain at the supplier who may then modify it to meet future requirements. Design processes for hardware products usually have a predefined process to support a methodical work approach. Structured development processes are not used as much in service design, raising the question of how services should be developed. This thesis treats the conceptual phase of the design process of supporting services within functional products. To gain an understanding of the design process of the services for a functional product, a case study approach in the aerospace industry was chosen. The conceptual phase in the design process was investigated and written documentations with complementing interviews were analysed. Methods from engineering design and service design were employed to describe the service and support the design process. In the design process it was found that customer participation in the creation of the service concept is critical to ensure customer's needs as well as discuss new solutions and special issues. It also becomes possible to obtain valuable input and instant feedback on solutions. The draft contract was analysed, it revealed a number of function requirements to be satisfied along with their interaction between each other. A service blueprint was used to add requirements of time performance while displaying the whole service in a simple manner.