Author(s): Samuel M. Sackey, Richard M. Greenough , F. Nyarko

More and more manufacturers are adding value to their core products, in the form of services. This business concept, termed ‘servitization’, or ‘servicisation’, seeks to enable manufacturing companies

to generate increased revenues while helping to reduce operating costs and risks for the users of their products. To realise this ‘win-win’ objective, the service provider may employ technologies that enable cost effective delivery of services to support a product platform.

PSS (a related term) is a business offering that includes both a product and related or supporting services such that the product and services are inseparable. When using a PSS, the customer may not necessarily own the asset in order to benefit from the services it delivers.

If the user does NOT own the asset, the risks and responsibilities normally associated with product ownership often remain with the producer (Baines et al., 2007).