A training and development skills to support product - service design from informatics perspective

Product-service design (PSD) is one of the prevailing approaches for combining product and service offerings in a consumer market. Both design companies and industries are searching for ways to offer better products and services to meet the ever-changing demand in customer's preference. Taking the amount of design information generated during the design process, management of design information and knowledge have now become an important issue that is worth investigating. Hence, it becomes necessary for design engineers to develop design skills relevant for managing large amounts of design information. Traditionally, there are a number of design skills that have been emphasized in the literature. These skills include cognitive, visual-thinking, hands-on and so on. However, scarcely in the research literature are skills focused on developing intensive design information and knowledge management. This study proposes a framework for training and skill development in product-service design from an informatics perspective. The study also aims at investigating the desired design skills necessary to bridge the gap in the processing of design information within engineering practice. Five stages of training and development skills are discussed and each stage represents an elaborate and detailed overview of the product-service design process.