The Designer component supports the creation and the management of product-service data by engineers and designers during the collaborative design process. It focuses on managing the information flows and providing decision aiding during the different design steps of a PSS (Product-Service System) solution/offer as well as offers domain knowledge to engineers to improve the design efficiency. PSS engineer will use the component to create PSS conception, configuration and main structures according to requirement specifications. The PSS engineer can also use the component to coordinate and manage the whole design process.
Hence, the Designer component will act as a connector among different domain engineers, including PSS top managers, to facilitate their communication, data management, decision making, etc. Furthermore, it will perform a link to different specific legacy CAX tools to circulate the information flow and data sharing or management. Finally, since the different development stages of a PSS solution/offer will have inevitable interrelationships, there are interactions between the Designer component and the others on the ICP4Life platform