A simulation tool for prioritizing product-service system (PSS) models in a carsharing service

Although the notion of product-service system (PSS) has been highlighted to design a promising and practical products or services, researchers have little interests on the validation of operation models in successfully delivering the services to customers. In particular, the success of a service model can be difficult to be decided because the judgment of service providers and customers are inevitably considered. Thus, this paper aims at developing a simulation tool based on fuzzy classification, which can evaluate the performance of service models in a carsharing system. The fuzzy classification is applied to derive a service model that provides the highest income for service providers and the best service for customers. For this, this paper devises 36 service models that combine various options of carsharing service by considering relocation techniques and trip types (for example, one-way or roundtrip). In addition, a simulation algorithm is run to analyze the performance of various carsharing service models. Finally, the performance of all models is compared by three criteria (average profit per day, car utilization ratio and reservation acceptance ratio) for the aforementioned service models. A case of carsharing service in Seoul is investigated to illustrate the proposed simulation tool. This approach is expected to provide a useful tool for carsharing managers who are in charge of prioritizing the best service model before implementing the service in a realistic situation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.