Motivation

Companies are faced with the challenge of handling a variety of internal and external factors on innovation processes. Examples of these influences are market demand for product innovations, a tightening of laws and regulations, and incremental or radical innovations in product and production technologies. These internal and external influences recur cyclically and complicate the task of anticipating and planning innovation processes.

Companies have to cope with shortened innovation cycles and shorter periods for integrating new technologies. The same applies to the used approaches, methods, and tools.

Moreover, there is a trend towards product-service systems (PSS) in the industrial sector. Instead of selling pure technical products, many companies are starting to market a bundle of different products and services. Companies are offering customers solutions for their needs and problems as opposed to just selling technical products.

This increases the number of disciplines involved in the innovation of a PSS. In addition to product development and the subordinate domains of mechanics, electrics/electronics, and software, service development also has to be taken into account and integrated into innovation processes. As a result, the amount of time and effort needed for coordination increases.