Towards a framework for lean product-service systems

More and more companies are beginning to move beyond manufacturing as a sole source of profit by offering integrated bundles of physical goods and services. This phenomenon has become popularly known as servitization, or the establishment of Product-Service Systems (PSSs). Additionally, since the success of the Japanese after WWII and the subsequent popularization of the term “Lean Production” in the 1990s, Lean too has become almost a nirvana for the majority of producers in the Western world. Though some developments in lean service operations have been presented in the extant literature, there seems to be a lack of knowledge in combining the successes associated with Lean thinking with the potential of PSSs. Therefore, in this paper, we analyse PSS operations in light of lean thinking, in order to propose a framework for lean PSSs.