Robust capacity planning for the delivery of Industrial Product-Service Systems

Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS2) are integrated product and service offerings that deliver superior customer value in industrial applications by mutually determined planning, development, delivery and use of product and service shares. A particular challenge for the provision of IPS2 is the planning of resources, e. g. field service engineers (FSE). As a consequence, organizations which offer IPS2 or industrial services experience a lack of decision support in determining robust capacity planning strategies in highly dynamic and uncertain environments. In this paper, a simulation-based capacity planning approach is introduced. The focus is on capacity planning of FSE for IPS2 delivery in IPS2 or service networks. After some general considerations on robust capacity planning for IPS2 delivery with the help of scenario simulations, the core elements of the agent-based simulation approach are presented. The most important parameters, control variables and performance indicators are discussed and the procedure of simulation-based scenario planning is outlined. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.