Analysis of value creation by product-service-systems in the German medical engineering industry

Our analysis of seven companies from the German medical engineering industry revealed that product-service-systems play a central role in value creation. Customer solutions are highly individual and often consist of a medical product and corresponding services spanning the complete product life cycle. This paper shows on an empirical basis that information technology becomes an enabler for services around medical equipment and that information technology implements products and services towards an integrated customer solution. Strategic objectives indicate a trend towards continuous partner-relationship between manufacturers and their clients. In particular, the ability to co-develop services and products simultaneously was considered as an important success factor related to integrated product-service design. The companies intend to build individual customer solutions with the help of standardization and modularization to successfully drive the challenging strategic expansion and commercialization of product-service-systems in the medical engineering industry.     «

Our analysis of seven companies from the German medical engineering industry revealed that product-service-systems play a central role in value creation. Customer solutions are highly individual and often consist of a medical product and corresponding services spanning the complete product life cycle. This paper shows on an empirical basis that information technology becomes an enabler for services around medical equipment and that information technology implements products and services towards...     »