The undergoing transformation in our current socio-economic models, led by the advent of emerging technologies, has changed the relation of customers to products and services. Customers play no longer a passive role in the product and service development process as they express their product and service experiences and opinions through several channels such as discussion forums, blogs, chat, idea voting, and more. In addition, sensor systems in combination with products incorporated in the Internet of Things (IoT), are becoming increasingly common. The potential endless amounts of available information offer a rich ground for value creation in the product-service innovation chain.
As of today, in a market where innovative products and services become “commodities” very rapidly, manufacturers have to renew their offers very quickly. Meeting this challenge will require integrating innovation in products, services and processes to bring the greatest value to the end-user, and to preserve and improve the attractiveness of their brand, while keeping and even increasing their pricing power. Under these conditions, manufacturers need to focus on innovative strategies that will increase product-service engineering capabilities towards a more attractive, efficient and flexible framework that will enable them to remain competitive despite the continuous and fast changes of the global market. Furthermore, manufacturers have to face more and more constraints in terms of sustainable development and of social equity to give access to their products and services for the greatest number of people. Meeting this challenge will require novel approaches where the customer is a key driver of a personalized and responsible usage realization of product and services.