SARS-CoV-2 has become a global pandemic, causing many disruptions in multiple sectors. The World Health Organization has urged the public to wear face masks as part of the countermeasure. As the demand for face masks increased, research on the environmental sustainability of face masks production started to emerge. However, the scope of the prior studies is limited to environmental impacts during the manufacturing process. Broadening the research scope is critical to acquire a comprehensive environmental impact analysis. Therefore, this study investigates the life cycle impact assessment of disposable face mask production, from raw material extraction to the point of sale, by adopting the life cycle assessment method. Disposable face masks are assessed for a single person, over one functional unit (FU) of 30 12-h days. The ReCiPe approach was used with a Hierarchist perspective. The results reveal that disposable face mask manufacture contributes significantly to enormous environmental impact categories. As a solution, this study proposes a reconfiguration of the manufacturing process, by altering the design and material proportion of the earloop to minimise the environmental impact. The investigation indicates that the proposed design might decrease the global warming contribution, from 1.82593 kg CO₂ eq. to 1.69948 kg CO₂ eq.

Perturbations have a negative influence on the operation of the business system, which may weaken business performance. However, in the field of the product–service system (PSS), perturbation is still a rarely discussed concept. Researchers and managers have a limited understanding of perturbations in the context of PSS. This hinders PSS designers and managers to prepare for mitigation due to a lack of knowledge and information. Thus, this paper aims to build a taxonomy of PSS perturbation through a systematic literature review. To achieve this target, the authors have reviewed 171 papers and found 18 effective papers. Twenty-five items are considered effective ones that are directly related to PSS perturbation. The result of the review shows that PSS perturbations could be classified into six categories, namely, behavioral, social, environmental, competence, resource, and organizational perturbations. The proposed terminology and taxonomy appear to be effective, which could enable researchers to understand the scope of PSS perturbations on a conceptual level. This finding is also expected to provide useful knowledge and information for researchers who are interested in vulnerability analysis and the robust design of PSS.

A product–service system (PSS) is a concept concerning sustainability, as it offers the opportunity to decouple economic success from material consumption, thereby reducing the environmental impact of economic activities. However, researchers have identified significant barriers frequently impeding sustainability potential, which are called rebound effects. Unfortunately, the existing studies are insufficient, and there are few published studies on the actual avoidance of the rebound effect, which is a significant limitation for practical applications for decision-makers and policymakers. Therefore, this study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric review of the relationship between the rebound effect and PSSs, including its drivers and mitigation strategies. This study incorporates multiple perspectives to map and analyze the landscape of rebound effect research in the context of PSSs and used 152 articles from a systematic literature review covering all publication years. Using the Scopus and Web of Science database, journals, citations, authors, and keywords were identified. This study identified the annual trend of research, listed the most influential articles, and uncovered six research topic clusters related to the rebound effect and PSSs. As an innovative feature of this study, it categorised the identified drivers based on their contextual dependencies to elucidate their interrelationships. This study also presents a categorisation of mitigation strategies based on the type of approach. This study is expected to support decision-makers and practitioners in developing sustainable PSS implementation strategies.

The product–service system is a significant research subject related to business model innovation and sustainability. However, the product–service system feature has affected the consumption behaviour, affecting nurture. The authors identified an apparent knowledge gap in the prior literature concerning nurture in the product–service system. This study examined whether nurture should be a prominent issue in the product–service system since certain features can significantly affect the achievement of set targets by generating a rebound effect. This study demonstrated that the business model system is complex, with interconnected solutions and issues. Solutions are not implemented in isolation, therefore, each decision affects the system. This study employed feedback system thinking using system dynamics. To validate its findings against the actual situation, this study employed car-sharing as a case study. The findings of this study indicate that the variable of nurture is a significant indicator of profit growth but generates a deterioration in the environmental and social performance of product–service system implementation, which leads to a rebound effect of the product–service system.

In recent decades, the product-service system (PSS) has been spotlighted due to its innovation and sustainability. As a novel business system, PSS provides additional value for products through the addition of service, which effectively upgrades the traditional manufacturing industry. For realizing a successful PSS, a robust and reliable operation stage is extremely important for users to stay satisfied and loyal. Thus, designers need to ensure that this system is not sensitive to any influential perturbation. Namely, they must achieve the desensitization of PSS to vulnerability. However, the current PSS design field still does not provide an effective method to assess the vulnerability in the whole life stage of PSS. This would lead to less time for the PSS provider to respond to various events. Furthermore, the tremendous loss could be caused due to the immaturity of the system. Therefore, this research has developed a vulnerability assessment framework based on variation mode and effect analysis (VMEA) for PSS. This developed framework has the ability to identify the potential noise factors and assess their severity based on multiple steps of analysis. This method has proved its effectiveness through an application example, and it is also expected to enable PSS researchers to design a robust PSS.

For recent decades, product-service system (PSS), an integration of products and services, has become a promising business mode for traditional manufacturing firms to upgrade their business instead of only selling products. However, after the 2000s, more and more attention has been paid to the upgradability of this system. It is worried that the enlarged life cycle of services could not enlarge the life of the business. Although most services and products are designed to satisfy customers for a longer time, some customers are reluctant to keep using PSS until the end of their physical life due to the changing social and technical factors. With this consideration, the concept of upgradable PSS (UPSS), a type of PSS that could predict future change and plan upgrades in advance is proposed to maintain the satisfaction of stakeholders. To date, it is found that the current UPSS is still in a conceptual stage, which lacks detailed and normative methods to ensure the identification and refinement process of requirements towards upgradable PSS are effective because of the knowledge and subjective limitations. This paper introduces an upgradable Product-Service System (PSS) design method based on time-axis design and Knowledge Acquisition in automated Specification (KAOS). This method could enable designers to anticipate future changes in stakeholders’ value propositions and refine future requirements into rational upgradable solutions for PSS. The proposed method begins by introducing the concept of time-axis-based design, providing designers with support in identifying future changes across different temporal dimensions. Based on the grasped change in future, the modified KAOS is proposed to support designers in identifying the PSS characteristics to realize stakeholders’ expectations and understandably show the structure of PSS. To verify the effectiveness, the authors have adopted a case study of primary school furniture system design. For future research, a developed solution-generation technique is expected.