Proposition of an ontology to support product service systems of systems engineering

The venue of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles implies the design not only of the product but also of services related to it. These systems are known as Product Service Systems (PSS). Moreover, they are not only PSS but also System of Systems (SoS). Up till now, research has been addressing the design of PSS and SoS separately. The PSS literature focuses mainly on the product servitization and the increasing heterogeneity of PSS elements. On the other hand, the SoS literature focuses on the relationships between SoS constituent systems and their management. Both research domains propose systems modeling approaches and systems architectural patterns independently according to PSSs and SoS development contexts. In order to address this gap and support PSSoS design and development, there is a need to identify necessary data, the PSSoS ontology. The proposed ontology is developed with the Unified Modeling Language (UML) and is structured in four views: the stakeholder view, the service view, the systems view, and the operational view. The proposed model has been validated by nine industrial experts as well as five industrial projects; and is illustrated via the case of Plug&Charge within one of the major automotive French constructors.

Automated summary

The emergence of new technologies such as autonomous vehicles highlights the importance of designing both products and related services. Existing research has traditionally focused on product servitization and system relationships separately, without fully integrating the design of PSS and SoS.