Ontology for Colaborative Development of Product Service Systems Based on Basic Formal Ontology

The paper is one of the few attempts to develop a
Product Service System (PSS) ontology aiming to facilitate
Knowledge Management in collaborative PSS design, focusing
upon machine industry. The PSS ontology includes concepts such
as products, services, PSS, PSS lifecycle, process and stakeholders,
including direct customers, consumers and their feedback. The
context sensitivity approach is proposed to fully support the use of
different tools for PSS development by various stakeholders. The
context model includes both PSS ontology and a so-called usercentric
ontology. The process to develop the ontologies is
described. The approach to build the PSS ontology is based on the
so-called Basic Formal Ontology (BFO). The foreseen applications
of both ontologies in industrial practice of machine vendors and
the expected benefits are being elaborated.