ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to generate a 'bird's eye' view of the state of the art of product-service systems (PSS) in the base materials need area. The working definition for base materials, adopted in the context of this project is: materials used to perform a given process, either in a site or in a household. The PSS provider needs to understand that supplier-driven material management is a huge change for the customer. The supplier can bring new benefits through a systems approach. In general, the most important technical issue in this need area is the usually glacial design of base materials. Material suppliers and, often, material users show some resistance to change in this field. Practical experiences identified by the members of the working group on base materials are described below under the following headings: company internal; value chain; partnership/co-operation; technical feasibility; and institutional.
