Productisation: A review and research agenda

Productisation relates to the process of analysing a need, defining and combining suitable elements, tangible and/or intangible, into a product-like defined set of deliverables that is standardised, repeatable and comprehendible. This paper clarifies the concept of productisation by surveying the extant literature and reporting the origins, characteristics, benefits and features along with aiming to support future work. The analysed literature is categorised, its content is analysed, and the need for a clear framework is highlighted. The results indicate that productisation has a specific role in addressing the challenges of being able to describe and explain complex, often abstract offerings and producing them, involving activities both to ensure adequate standards and those activities leading to selling the products. A well productised product is easier to buy, sell and market, has stronger features and may enable benefits depending on the product type. Productisation has implications through having a complementary role amongst well established functions and in strengthening the linkage of market needs and engineering-oriented development. The concept requires further development. Potential future research directions are presented. •This study combines extant literature and analyses the concept of productisation.•We report the origins, characteristics, benefits and features of productisation.•Productisation relates to combining necessary elements into a product-like object.•The article introduces four content categories with distinct features.•The concept has a relevant role in the interface of engineering and management.