Product Service Systems (PSSs) are considered to be a promising approach towards a sustainable, resource efficient economy (Tukker, A., 2015) (defined as ‘a mix of tangible products and intangible services designed and combined so that they are jointly capable of fulfilling final customer needs’ (Tukker, A. & Tischner, 2006)), because they make the delivery of satisfaction possible through functions and not necessarily through products, fulfilling needs with less resources and consequently with lower impact. This is especially true when they are specifically designed to provide high quality resource efficient products. Bundles is a Dutch company that is intending to do exactly that, making high quality home appliances accessible through a Use oriented PSS (Tukker, 2003) where they lease washing machines and other home appliances, maintaining the ownership over the washing machine and becoming responsible for all maintenance and repair costs. Bundles has as a goal the reduction of waste and environmental impact caused by the use and disposal of low-end non efficient machines. They intend to increase the lifetime of their products, submitting them to several use cycles by recovering the appliance, refurbishing it and installing it in a new home. Supported by IoT technologies they currently monitor the use phase (to calculate the monthly fee based on the number of washing cycles) and are now interested in extending the possibilities of these technologies for refurbishment, reuse, and recycling processes. Additionally, with the advantage of maintaining control over the ownership of a great number of appliances, Bundles opens interesting opportunities for material and part recovery. For all of these reasons Bundles is recognized for having a business model that could benefit the circular economy. In order to fulfill all of the above, Bundles exclusively works with washing machines from German manufacturer Miele due to their high content of recyclable materials, high quality and long lasting characteristics. However, these characteristics of the product represent today, limitations to many of the envisioned processes to achieve having several use cycles. Making processes like refurbishment and part replacement expensive or not possible at all. Because of this it is unclear for Bundles how to deal with the deterioration of the machines after several use cycles and how customers will perceive this deterioration, and although Miele gives their products a life expectancy of approximately 20 years, Bundles only considers the machine to have a life expectancy of approximately 10 years within their business model. Additionally, Bundles offer is bounded to a machine that is also available for customers to purchase, limiting their competitive advantages over product-based business models. A customer with the stability and economic possibilities of purchasing a Miele washing machine will most likely perceive Bundles’ PSS as expensive in the long term. Nowadays Bundles and Miele, design and deliver their services/products independently from each other and for different types of business models. This project focuses on finding opportunities to improve the synergy between Miele's product and Bundle's service to enhance the economic, circular and environmental possibilities of the current PSS. In order to do that, this project initiated with a literature and field research with all primary stakeholders, considering them individually and relationships with one another, that delivered insights regarding the current limitations of the components and delivery of the PSSs and potential opportunities for its improvement, within all phases of its life cycle (Pre-use, Use and Post-use). The insights were then translated into values or Focus Areas to guide the ideation and further development of the PSS: Personalization is identified as a relevant value for the Pre-use phase, to increase the perceived value of the user over the PSS and refurbished products and for the Use phase, as an opportunity for the reduction of the environmental impact. Likewise, communication is identified to be a value that can be used to positively influence the user behaviour to reduce the environmental impact of the Use phase (highest among all phases of the lifecycle of a washing machine (Öko-Institut, 2005)), and improve his/ her involvement in maintenance and caring procedures. Lastly, refurbishment is selected as a focus area for the Post-use phase since the improvement of the product in this aspect could not only reduce costs for Bundles but also increase the life expectancy of the product. These values were used as a guideline throughout the ideation process, which delivered a collection of several concepts that were further evaluated together with all main stakeholders, the sinal result of these process delivered a combination of a new concept washing machine and a personalization platform. The new PSS proposes a washing service that allows users to personalize their washing machines inside and outside. The user can select a color for the front panel of the machine, thanks to the implementation of a replaceable layer and obtains a personalized ‘Washing Package’, which includes: a set of programs, number of washes per month (frequency) and set of tips. All three elements are defined by a system that considers the user’s specific washing needs with information obtained through a digital platform (The Washing Test), and pairs them with identified recommendations for: the reduction of environmental impact of washing, the best care for clothes, and recommendations related to the care and maintenance of the washing machine. The personalization of the Washing Package allows users to take the best care for their clothes without an excessive use of resources (energy and water). The internet module of the washing machine and its sensors allow the monitoring of use and state of the components of the machine. The data collected from the monitoring of use is used by the system to constantly update the Washing Package to adapt it to changes in the user’s needs or identified behaviour that increases the environmental impact. The design of the washing machine, allows it to have several use cycles without losing its aesthetic value, its quality or its resource efficiency. The construction, materials and finishings of the washing machine are proposed for the optimization of refurbishment processes as well as the improvement of access to its components for updates and repairs allowing the machine to increase its life expectancy within the PSS to the originally establishes expectancy of 20 years (defined by Miele). As a final step of this project the new concept was evaluated first, together with the main stakeholders and then submitted to an assessment to identify its improvements in disassembly and ease of access as well as refurbishment processes and the reduction of the environmental impact in comparison with the current PSS. The new concept appears to have the potential of improving the implementation of the PSS throughout all of the phases of its lifecycle and is assessed positively by the stakeholders specifically considering its potential to reduce refurbishment costs, increase the life expectancy of the product, increase the perceived value of the user over refurbished products and PSSs, and the reduction of the environmental impact of the use phase. The results of the validation and assessment allowed the identification of information gaps for further research and further development of the concept. These include for example, the development of test settings and prototypes for further proof of concept, a more refined and accurate Life Cycle Assessment to identify further specific points of improvement, further detailing and analysis of the product structure and construction to reduce its material input, and further study and analysis regarding the recovery of the product and the possibilities of the reintroduction of its materials and components in the manufacturing of new washing machines . To conclude, the new concept proposes product service combination which characteristics enhance each others functions and overall envisioned processes towards the reduction of environmental impact and increase of circularity, whilst considering the involvement of Miele and Bundles in a new collaborative relationship for the achievement of all processes and successful implementation of the PSS. ... Read more

In this thesis, guidelines are proposed for designing a Blockchain based bike-sharing service. These guidelines are based upon the design process of a circular bike-sharing service DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organisation) which was designed as a use-case for this project. This thesis also describes the design process of this DAO and what this use-case concept contains. ... Read more

Nowadays, the increasing populations and the higher demands of human’s life are creating a high pressure on the environment. Laundry as a routine for all the families, requires a large number of resources especially with regards to its water and energy consumption. With the innovation in both the business model and IoT technology, HOMIE is currently working on making positive impact on the environment with their "Pay-per-use" smart washing machine. Even though the result shows it is effective, according to the research, users’ behavior change could assist in saving even more resources. Therefore this project is established to explore the IoT supported interventions to stimulate sustainable user behavior in the washing process.

The main outcome of the project is a set of IoT supported interventions based on the washing machine, the machine interface and mobile application to influence users on decisions during the laundry process, to spur sustainable choices and foster sustainable washing habits. ... Read more

The effects of the linear economy on our environment are becoming more visible every day. Governments act by introducing sustainability related laws and legislation, stimulating companies to make their products ready for a circular economy. This project aimed at using the benefits of the Internet of Things to design a circular supermarket lighting product-service system for Signify. The result of this design project is StoreSight, a result oriented product-service combination that provides store owners with value that goes beyond the illuminaition of the store only.

Signify already offers circular lighting services (e.g. Light as a Service) in a few segments, but is aiming to also do so in the supermarket segment. However, the length of the refurbishment cycles of the supermarkets hinders Signify to offer Circular Lighting as it is offered in other segments. The length of the refurbishment cycles of supermarkets are often a lot shorter than the technical lifetime of a lighting system. As a result, luminaires are replaced and thrown away despite being in perfectly good condition.

Different academics point out that the Internet of Things (IoT) creates opportunities for circular propositions. The connection of physical objects through the internet enables them to sense their own and their environments status, process this information and interact with their users. These capabilities help service providers to extend the useful life of products, maximise the utilisation of products, loop products through additional use cycles, regenerate natural capital from their products, and make sure these products are used efficiently. Since Signify wants to become a player in the field of IoT and is already equipping its products with sensors and connectivity, there is an opportunity to use this for circular purposes as well.

The result of this design project is the StoreSight concept, a circular result oriented product-service combination that enables the reuse of retail luminaires. Over time, StoreSight will evolve from a service that enhances attractiveness of the store, into service that enhances the shopping comfort and finally into a service that gathers different types of data to enable store optimisation. The StoreSight system roughly consist of three components: hardware, a service squad, and a software platform. The first component, the hardware, consist of a modular lighting grid with movable CE ready luminaires and upgradable sensing devices. The second component, the service squad, consists of the stakeholders from Signify and its partners that will interact with the store owner during the contract period. They will make sure the luminaires will be reused when the store is refurbished. The final element is the platform, a digital software application that enables the different stakeholders to control the lighting and access data about the luminaires from so-called luminaire passports. The StoreSight concept shows how IoT could enable stakeholders to communicate with each other about the luminaires and their remaining value. These insights improve the collaboration of stakeholders in reusing the luminaires in a new lighting plan.
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This thesis explores how Internet of Things (IoT) can support Circular Economy in its goal of decoupling economic development from finite resources consumption. This is made specifically in the context of products as services, using as the case of study the Pay-per-Use washing-machine service by startup company HOMIE. The machine is connected to HOMIE’s database through a tracker that sends the data of users’ consumption so that they are charged accordingly.

However, product-as-services rely on the service provider as the main actor for product circulation. The product use per use, as an intensive resource consumption part of the lifecycle, and its relationship with users’ decisions is not therein contemplated. So, for this project, design strategies for sustainable behavior are included in the development of this product service system (PSS) as a complementary concept to Circular Economy.

This study found out that smart products have a special relation with sustainable behavior strategies, since connectivity enables in great extent the design of eco-interactions, which can be used to reduce the environmental impact during the use phase. Additionally, IoT is considered itself a source of value creation, which can be used in development of service features that, by means of connectivity, solve issues that were not tackled before. Thus, more attractive value propositions can be created.

The findings mentioned above were translated in a design for the case of study. For it, a human-centered and iterative approach was central for the problem finding and concept development. The former included user research with both quantitative and qualitative data analysis while the latter was divided in two stages: Idea generation and concept selection, and concept development. Concerning the concept development , the selected direction was detailed, prototyped and tested with multiple users that matched the desired customer profile. The insights obtained from the user testing led to a final design iteration.

The final improved design is a Smart PSSs eco-system integrated by 3 devices: the webpage, the washing machine interface and an app. All together aim to improve the experience of use of HOMIE’s Pay-per-Use service while fostering more sustainable practices and motivating adoption. Therefore, they are built with a strong sustainable behavior design rationale. The outcome of this thesis shows a clear example of how connectivity can be used to improve a circular business model, and therefore to reduce the environmental impact of products.
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