Product Service System Reference Ontology
A basis ontology for enhancing engineering of Product Service System(s) (PSS) in manufacturing, by modelling all the aspects that affect, or could affect a PSS.
Ana Teresa Correia, Institut fuer angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB-Bremen)
Dragan Stokic, Institut fuer angewandte Systemtechnik Bremen GmbH (ATB-Bremen)
Product Service System (PSS) working group
Product Service System (PSS) Reference Ontology
Copyright (c) 2025 Open Applications Group
business model
In the case of a Product Service System, the Business Model can be product-oriented, use-oriented or result-oriented
plan specification to fulfill objectives of a business organization
at this stage we do not have sufficient constructs to create necessary and sufficent conditions for this class. We know what it should be in the case of product service system(s) but on a Business Model level it should be generic for many type of business model
commercial service realizable entity
realizable entity that concretizes a commercial service specification which is about a product and that is realized in a commercial service
consumable resource role
needs to be harmonized with consumable resource role in BMIC ontology
role that is borne by a material entity, when that entity is intended to be consumed/transformed in a planned process and the quantity of the resource is reduced after use
The required constructs for providing necessary and sufficient conditions are not available in this release.
manufacturing resource role
role that inheres in an independent continuant where that continuant bears a disposition that, if realized, is realized in a manufacturing process
non-consumable resource role
needs to be harmonized with non-consumable resource role in BMIC ontology
role that is borne by a material entity, when that entity is intended to be used but quantity is not reduced in a planned process
product design specification
This class will be harmonized with MaterialProductSpecification in ProductionPlanning ontology
In the industrial context they can be also understood as normative prescriptions, defined by a blueprint/recipe
design specification that is a set of characteristics essential for a type of material products and that have to be jointly taken into account to prescribe the material product
product family
group of related goods produced by the same company under the same business organization
product family specification
specification that is a set of characteristics essential to group material products based on design and / or production processes and / or value proposition of the business organization
product provider
person or organization which has a product provider role
product quality
needs to be harmonized with ´quality attribute´ and ´quality attribute specification´ concepts in BMIC ontology
quality that describes an aspect, or attribute, related to the product
product requirement specification
requirement specification that prescribes a material product
product service system
PSS is a system which includes at least one material product and at least one commercial service, related to this product, and may include agents or groups of agents and infrastructure and which bears a PSS Role. For now, we are only considering material products, no software products (to be reviewed in the future)
The class may also include infrastructure (facility or software infrastructure)
The commercial service in the PSS is related to the material product, it's not "any" service
Mont, Oksana K. "Clarifying the concept of product–service system." Journal of cleaner production 10.3 (2002): 237-245.
engineered system that aims to satisfy a need of the market (e.g. to be sold in order to provide profit and support customers by covering their needs), and jointly fulfil customer’s needs and it must include some material product and commercial service specification, and agents or group of agents and may include infrastructure (software or hardware)
product provider role
supplier role held by a person or business organization that both produces and sells a product, or only sells it
product service system business customer
the (group/company) customer of the Product Service Sytem, using the PSS for their own business
PSS business customer
business organization that buys and uses the PSS and related products and services
product service system business process
PSS business process
The required constructs for providing necessary and sufficient conditions are not available in this release. The process will probably stay primitive, the sub-classes (when we define them in the next cycle) will be the ones with necessary and suficient conditions.
business process in which PSS is developed, implemented, distributed and used
product service system consumer role
PSS consumer role
customer role held by a person or business organization when it receives and consumes a product service system
product service system indicator
we might need a generic "indicator",needs to be further detailed
measurement information content entity used to measure/evaluate any aspect within the scope of PSS, namely a process, a PSS, a product, a service, etc.
product service system provider
PSS provider
supplier that bears a product service system provider role
product service system provider role
supplier role held by a person or business organization that offers product service system(s) and owns intellectual property rights (IPR) on the commercial service specification
product service system quality
PSS quality
quality that describes an aspect or attribute related to the PSS
product service system requirement specification
PSS requirement specification
requirement specification that depicts the aspects which are necessary for the design, development or offer of PSS and is defined by an agent or group of agents
requirement specification that prescribes a product service system
product service system resource role
PSS resource role
role held by a material resource that is a mean (source) that can be used for the design, development, offer or delivery of a PSS
product service system supplier organization
product service system provider organization
product service system vendor organization
PSS supplier organization
business organization that both produces and sells something (product, service, PSS), or only sells it
product variant set
Product variants are versions of products with variations in attributes such as color, size, material, features, pricing, etc.
a specific item that is bundled in with related variants to form one distinguishable product
subset of goods that belongs to a product family, based on design and / or production processes and / or value proposition of the business organization
product variant set specification
specification that is a set of characteristics essential to group a subset of material products that belongs to a Product Family, based on design and / or production processes and / or value proposition of the business organization
service requirement specification
requirement specification that prescribes a commercial service
service specification
we will need to address what the product may have to support the service
design specification that is a set of characteristics essential for a commercial service and that have to be jointly taken into account to prescribe the commercial service
PSSProvider owns a PSS (inverse to PSS belongsTo PSSProvider)
is part of
relates something to another thing that it is some component or portion of, regardless of how that whole-part relationship is manifested
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/mereology/