A Product and Process Modeling Based Approach to Study Cost Implications of Product Variety in Mass Customization

2007 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mei Zhang ◽  
Mitchell M. Tseng
Keyword(s):  
Process Modeling ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Cost Implications

On the Applicability of Product Variety Design Concepts to Automotive Platform Commonality

1998 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zahed Siddique ◽  
David W. Rosen ◽  
Nanxin Wang
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Entire Range ◽  
Design Research ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Operating Mode ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Market Segments ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Design Concepts ◽  
Key Characteristics

Abstract The issue of moving from a mass production operating mode to mass customization, or even limited customization, has many companies struggling to reorganize their product architectures. Enabling the production of several related products for different market segments, from a common base, is the focus of the product variety design research area. In this paper, the applicability of product variety design concepts to the design of automotive platforms is explored. Many automotive companies are reducing the number of platforms they utilize across their entire range of cars and trucks in an attempt to reduce development times and costs. To what extent can research on product variety design apply to the problem of platform commonization? This question is explored by comparing product variety design concepts (standardization, modularity, mutability, etc.) to platform structures and requirements. After assessing the applicability of these concepts, a platform representation and methods for measuring platform commonality are proposed that incorporate key characteristics of these concepts. An application to two platforms is included. Although preliminary, this work has led to insight as to why automotive platform commonization is difficult and how product design variety research can potentially aid commonization. The findings are potentially applicable to product platforms in general.

scholarly journals Trading Away Wide Brands for Cheap Brands

2013 ◽  
Vol 103 (6) ◽  
pp. 2554-2584 ◽  
Author(s):  
Swati Dhingra
Keyword(s):  
Product Innovation ◽  
Innovation Policy ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Production Costs ◽  
Foreign Competition ◽  
Welfare Gains ◽  
Firm Competition ◽  
Product And Process Innovation ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
The Impact

Firms face competing needs to expand product variety and reduce production costs. Access to larger markets enables innovation to reduce costs. Although firm scale increases, foreign competition reduces markups. Firms' ability to recapture lost markups depends on the interplay between within-firm competition and across-firm competition. Narrowing product variety eases within-firm competition but lowers market share. I provide a theory detailing the impact of trade policy on product and process innovation. Unbundling innovation provides new insights into welfare gains and innovation policy. Product innovation increases welfare beyond standard gains from trade. The relative returns to innovation policy change with trade liberalization. (JEL D24, F13, O31)

Achieving automotive suppliers’ mass customization through modularity

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 306-329 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qun Wu ◽  
Kun Liao ◽  
Xiaodong Deng ◽  
Erika Marsillac
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Equation Modeling ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Automotive Suppliers ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Role Of Information

Purpose Previous literature tends to combine postponement and modularity or view them as parallel factors to achieve mass customization (MC) while ignoring the sequence of a firm to design and implement operations and supply chain strategy. Based on a customer-oriented strategy and theories of organizational information processing theory, three-dimensional (3D) concurrent engineering and resource dependency, the purpose of this paper is to propose a sequential model reflecting the sequence of practices as well as an overview picture for a firm to achieve MC. Design/methodology/approach The model links three company antecedents – postponement orientation, operational alignment and information sharing, to three company supply chain practices – product and process modularity and supplier segmentation. These practices, in turn, lead to the company’s MC capabilities. The proposed model is tested with a data set collected from automotive suppliers in China and in the USA. Structural equation modeling is used to analyze the data and test the model. Findings The results suggest that, for suppliers to achieve MC, postponement orientation and operational alignment are vital antecedents. The results also reveal the important responsibility and role of information sharing practices in coordinating suppliers’ modularity practices. Originality/value This research provides three findings that are of value to both academicians and practitioners of supply chain management. First, this study originally proposed and empirically tested that a postponement orientation is an antecedent of product and process modularity and supplier segmentation to achieve MC in the automotive sector, contrary to the traditional view of parallel relationships for both. Second, it developed and verified measures of operational alignment and supplier segmentation for future research use. Third, the vital role of information sharing to coordinate internal and external supply chain practices to achieve MC is empirically supported.

Sustainable Production in the Age of Mass Customization: An Example in the Footwear Industry

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serena Graziosi ◽  
Michele Germani
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Sustainable Production ◽  
Waste Material ◽  
Production Lines ◽  
Waste Streams ◽  
Footwear Industry ◽  
Production Environments

It is well known that the global market is driving companies towards new productive paradigms oriented to product customization, agility and environmental sustainability. Companies have to face the problem of providing as much product variety as possible in order to rapidly satisfy a wide number of specific market segments. Even if the emerging automated agile production environments could enable them to manage product variety, in many productive fields, large waste streams, due to the practical difficulty of adapting the traditional production lines to product changes, are still present. At the same time a growing public concern for the environment, is forcing companies to investigate alternative uses for waste material. In this paper we present a practical example from the footwear industry in order to show how companies can successfully apply the concept of sustainable production taking into account the mass customization requirements but contemporarily reducing the material waste. The approach is focused on the combination in the same plant of two different production lines: one is dedicated to the primary production while the other uses the waste material to realize the secondary production.

scholarly journals Concept of Product Complexity Modeling in the Development of a Machine Shaft

2017 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 91-98
Author(s):  
Jerzy Pokojski ◽  
Łukasz Woźnicki
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Process Modeling ◽  
Process Models ◽  
Detailed Structure ◽  
Product Complexity ◽  
Speed Reducer ◽  
Design Process Modeling ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Paper Product

AbstractIn the paper product and design process modeling on the basis of speed reducer is presented. The paper proposes to build the product and process models and parallel to that carry out the project activities as these models reflect the detailed structure of the projects.The most important feature of the proposed approach is its possibility to model only important parts of the models and to keep track of the development of their chronological paths. The approach may be treated as a partial CPM/MOKA model or as network-integrated CPM/MOKA models.

Complexity Analysis of Assembly Supply Chain Configurations

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Wang ◽  
Xiaowei Zhu ◽  
S. Jack Hu ◽  
Yoram Koren
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Supply Chains ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Analytical Study ◽  
Complexity Analysis ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Entropy Theory ◽  
Modular Assembly ◽  
Supply Chain Configuration ◽  
Assembly Constraints

This paper studies the complexity of assembly supply chains in mass customization environment. The high product variety from mass customization increases the complexity of assembly supply chains. The paper identifies the factors causing supply chain complexity and defines a complexity measure of an assembly supply chain based on these factors and the information entropy theory. Algorithms that determine the optimal supply chain configuration are developed to minimize the supply chain complexity (without and with assembly constraints). This analytical study of supply chain complexity will generate new insights on the influence of product variety on supply chains performance in mass customization. The model and algorithms developed in this paper can assist in making decisions such as when and how to implement a modular assembly supply chain and how much variety should be economically offered.

2314 Product and Process Modeling for Product Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 2010.20 (0) ◽  
pp. _2314-1_-_2314-5_ ◽  
Author(s):  
Katsufumi Araki ◽  
Katsuya Terashima ◽  
Makoto Senoo ◽  
Jun Kanie
Keyword(s):  
Product Development ◽  
Process Modeling ◽  
Product And Process

scholarly journals Pharmaceutical Product Modularization as a Mass Customization Strategy to Increase Patient Benefit Cost-Efficiently

Systems ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 59
Author(s):  
Maria Siiskonen ◽  
Johan Malmqvist ◽  
Staffan Folestad
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Outcome ◽  
Product Design ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Variety ◽  
Pharmaceutical Products ◽  
Pharmaceutical Product ◽  
Patient Needs ◽  
Treatment Optimization ◽  
Design Requirements ◽  
The Individual

Customized pharmaceutical products aim to comply with the individual needs of a patient to enhance the treatment outcome. The current pharmaceutical production paradigm is, however, dominated by mass production, where the pharmaceutical products embrace a one-size-fits-all design with a low possibility of treatment optimization to patient needs. This production paradigm is not designed or intended for customized pharmaceutical products and operating this production context for customized pharmaceutical products is argued to be cost-inefficient. To address this challenge of inefficient production of customized pharmaceutical products, this study proposes an approach to modular pharmaceutical product design. As a mass customization strategy, product modularization enables serving customers with customized products cost-efficiently. The proposed modular pharmaceutical products integrate three product design requirements originating from patient needs: a scalable dose strength, a flexible target release profile, and a scalable treatment size. An approach to assess the value of these product designs is presented, by means of proposing three benefit metrics complying with respective design requirements and a cost metric assessing the cost of producing these modular pharmaceutical product designs. Results suggest that pharmaceutical product modularization can, by keeping the number of produced components low, substantially increase the external product variety and, hence, enhance the treatment outcome of patients. Furthermore, results indicate that the achieved benefit for the patient through product modularization increases beyond additional costs arising during production. However, a careful modularization must be performed to optimize the tradeoff between the increased benefit and cost.

scholarly journals Editorial: Special Issue Contributed from CHEMECA 2008-Mathematical Modeling

2009 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark I Nelson ◽  
Brent Young ◽  
Harvinder S Sidhu
Keyword(s):  
Mathematical Modeling ◽  
Process Modeling ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Chemical Product ◽  
Editorial Special Issue ◽  
Product And Process ◽  
Engineering Conference

The papers in this issue of Chemical Product and Process Modeling are substantially those that arose from special sessions on “mathematical modeling" at the 36th Australasian Chemical Engineering Conference (held between 28th September to 1st October 2008, in Newcastle, Australia). The papers in this special issue are available at: www.bepress.com/cppm/vol4/iss3.

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