FUNCTIONAL PRODUCTS: HIGHLIGHTING THE POTENTIAL AND EXTENDING THE DEFINITION

Sammanfattning: The Functional Product (FP) concept has brought an innovative view on howproducts can be offered to customers. When offering FP, the FP provider iscommonly responsible for the hardware performance, which may be basedeither on an existing product or on a new product. The focus is on the deliveryof a total-care offer (performance/productivity, availability, function), ratherthan on the physical product and related support services. The underlying ideaof FP design is to meet the individual needs of customers; e.g., by providingfunctions such as torque, rotation, etc. through provision of function with anagreed-upon (guaranteed) level of availability. Among all related integratedproduct service (IPS) concepts, the FP stands out as an innovative andFPD ideas were proposed as possible solutions to identified PSS challenges.Secondly, the FP definition was extended in terms of emerging constituentsand business model elements. Both results are based on literature reviewstaking into account the related IPS concepts’ constituents and generic as wellas IPS concepts’ business model elements. Both literature reviews were used toframe the in-depth interviews with a number of manufacturing corporations onparticular issues accordingly. As an overall result, the research behind this thesis has shown that the extended definition of the FP, both technology-wise and business-wise, can expand andthus increase the FP potential as well as further consolidate the FP innovation development. In addition, the presented results have also shown that the FP research field is expanding due to increasing interest from manufacturing industry as well as academia. This interest stems from a desire to achieve successful FP development, improved marketing/sales and subsequent operation of the FP at customers.This licentiate thesis consists of an introduction and three appended papers.sustainable business-to-business concept for the manufacturing industry.This licentiate thesis aims to highlight FP potential and to extend the FPdefinition in order to increase that potential. To achieve the desired aim,literature reviews together with in-depth interviews were used as the researchapproach. Firstly, in regards to highlighting FP potential, through the literaturereview, on the one hand, a number of PSS challenges (as a related IPS concept)were identified and analysed; on the other hand, FP development ideas (i.e.,methods, tools, models) were studied and analysed. As a result, certain existingFPD ideas were proposed as possible solutions to identified PSS challenges.Secondly, the FP definition was extended in terms of emerging constituentsand business model elements. Both results are based on literature reviewstaking into account the related IPS concepts’ constituents and generic as wellas IPS concepts’ business model elements. Both literature reviews were used toframe the in-depth interviews with a number of manufacturing corporations onparticular issues accordingly. As an overall result, the research behind this thesis has shown that the extended definition of the FP, both technology-wise and business-wise, can expand and thus increase the FP potential as well as further consolidate the FP innovation development. In addition, the presented results have also shown that the FP research field is expanding due to increasing interest from manufacturing industry as well as academia. This interest stems from a desire to achieve successful FP development, improved marketing/sales and subsequent operation of the FP at customers.This licentiate thesis consists of an introduction and three appended papers.