Design model for the calculation of product-service systems in single and small batch production

• Applicant: Professor Dr.-Ing. Günther Schuh
• Subject Area: Production Systems, Operations Management, Quality Management and Factory Planning
• Term: from 2020 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 449991824

Single and small-batch production is characterized by complex value-added processes and services, which are manufactured by individual customer requirements in small batch sizes up to unique items. Especially the transparent calculation of new orders and change requests is therefore a great challenge. At the same time, the increasing spread of Product Service Systems (PSS) increases the complexity of costing, as additional intangible services must be calculated exactly. PSS are a combination of material and product-related services, such as spare parts sales, maintenance or repair. They aim to increase sales of the core product. As intangible components, they contribute to the problem-solving power of the product. PSS not only present companies with the additional challenge of having to calculate intangible services precisely, but also with the need to master another complexity driver - PSS. In addition, the sustainable and resource-saving design of these systems is becoming increasingly important. This can only be achieved by a design that meets the requirements and a corresponding (effort) calculation. Here, innovative information and communication technologies (ICT) offer new potentials for an effective and efficient design of the calculation process for the entire life cycle. Due to the increasing availability of data along the entire product life cycle, transparency increases significantly and allows the identification of clear cause-effect relationships and prognosis possibilities through intelligent analysis algorithms. Thus, the quality of the costing process can be significantly increased and optimized in all four relevant target variables: accuracy, speed, systematization and automation. However, current costing models usually do not take the use of ICTs sufficiently into account. The aim of the research project is to develop a design model for the calculation of PSS in the single and small-batch production that uses the new potentials of ICT. First of all, existing approaches from science will be evaluated with regard to the added value for a holistic calculation process. Based on this evaluation, a design model for costing will be developed, which integrates and processes all cost-relevant data both internally and externally. In doing so, the various cost drivers of the different phases of the product as well as their interactions with other data must be considered. By means of a suitable analysis of the data it should be possible to filter important information, from which in turn sustainable knowledge can be generated. This model thus enables continuous learning in the costing process from the offer to the final costing in relation to product manufacture and all product-related services provided along the life cycle.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants