Business process simulation for the design of sustainable product service systems (PSS)

Abstract

Nowadays, a lot of manufacturing companies are shifting their value proposition from a product-centric perspective to sustainable Product-Service-Systems (PSS). This transition allows companies to improve the customization of their offer and to contribute to the reduction of material flow and consumption; nonetheless, it poses some new challenges in terms of mindset and organization. In particular, the analysis of the literature about PSS shows that there is still a gap concerning the evaluation and the monitoring of new or reengineered PSS provision processes using business process simulation. Few examples of simulation in PSS field can be found, and multidimensional models considering customer perspective and environmental sustainability beyond the economic driver are not yet available. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to compare different simulation paradigms and to define the most suitable to support the engineering phase of a sustainable, customer-oriented PSS. Two possible alternatives were identified and discussed through a test-case.