Analytic Hierarchy Process for Prioritization of Design Requirements for Domestic Plumbing Services

Abstract

Sustainable trends of servitization have progressively increased over the last couple of decades. So developing product–service–system design is important for academic researchers and leading manufacturers. Design principles and customer needs typically cast the requirements at the early stages of design development. The prime objective of this study is to prioritize design requirements for domestic plumbing services. Design requirements of domestic plumbing are taken as an example to demonstrate the application of the analytic hierarchy process and rough group. We conducted in-depth interviews including exploratory surveys. We applied the analytic hierarchy process and rough group method to prioritize the design requirements and product–service components of plumbing. Altogether 34 design requirements were identified from previous studies and interactions with stakeholders for domestic plumbing. These design requirements are categorized into a hierarchical structure of product, service, and system. The results show that the most important product-related design requirements are efficiency and flexibility. Service-related design requirements are response/delivery and availability. System-related design requirements are skills and communication of plumber. The study provides a design management insight for PSS implementation in plumbing services in the domestic sector. This study includes ranking and prioritization of design requirements, which may help design managers and designers to make effective and efficient decisions on the design of product–service systems.