Developing Knowledge–Intensive Product–Service Systems–Interview Results from Finnish Manufacturing Companies

Product manufacturers have increasingly started moving into the service business by introducing services along with their core products. However, there seem to be difficulties in the transition from product-based to service-based business. Manufacturers have strongly focused on planning and producing physical products, and services have been compulsory add-ons to products. Moreover, the design of industrial services is predominantly done with little or no systemization. We have started a research project the main objective of which is to outline a framework for the concurrent design of physical product and knowledge-intensive services. We consider it essential to develop support and service processes in parallel with the design of the product. Interviews among Finnish product manufacturers confirm this assumption. In this paper we will introduce the main results from our interviews, which focused on product and service development.