An Approach to Product Family Positioning Based on Shared Surplus

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiyang Zhang ◽  
Jianxin Jiao
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Market Segments ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Notebook Computer ◽  
Customer Preferences ◽  
Engineering Costs

To compete in the marketplace, manufacturers have been seeking for expansion of their product lines by providing product families. Product family positioning aims at planning the appropriate products to be provided to the target market segments. Due to the involved complexity such as diverse customer preferences, engineering costs, competition among similar products, etc, positioning the product family is very difficult. This paper proposes a shared surplus model for product family positioning. A comprehensive methodology for product family positioning is developed. An application of the proposed methodology for the notebook computer family positioning is reported.

Designing Product Families With Competition: A Design for Market Systems Approach

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Karimian ◽  
Jeffrey W. Herrmann
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Original Problem ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Customer Preferences ◽  
Manufacturing Productivity ◽  
Zero Sum ◽  
Design For Market Systems

Manufacturing firms use product families to provide variety while maintaining economies of scale to improve manufacturing productivity. Designing a successful product family requires consideration of both customer preferences and the competition. This paper presents a design for market systems approach to product family design and solves the problem of designing a product family when the competition is simultaneously designing its product family. In particular, the problem is formulated as a two-player zero-sum game. Our analysis of this problem shows that it can be separated into multiple subproblems whose solution provides an optimal solution to the original problem. The paper presents an example to illustrate the approach.

An Extension of the Commonality Index for Product Family Optimization

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aida Khajavirad ◽  
Jeremy J. Michalek
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Companion Paper ◽  
Manufacturing Cost ◽  
Discrete Problem ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Continuous Space ◽  
Product Family Optimization ◽  
Gradient Based ◽  
Commonality Index

One critical aim of product family design is to offer distinct variants that attract a variety of market segments while maximizing the number of common parts to reduce manufacturing cost. Several indices have been developed for measuring the degree of commonality in existing product lines to compare product families or assess improvement of a redesign. In the product family optimization literature, commonality metrics are used to define the multi-objective tradeoff between commonality and individual variant performance. These metrics for optimization differ from indices in the first group: While the optimization metrics provide desirable computational properties, they generally lack the desirable properties of indices intended to act as appropriate proxies for the benefits of commonality, such as reduced tooling and supply chain costs. In this paper, we propose a method for computing the commonality index introduced by Martin and Ishii using the available input data for any product family without predefined configuration. The proposed method for computing the commonality index, which was originally defined for binary formulations (common / not common), is relaxed to the continuous space in order to solve the discrete problem with a series of continuous relaxations, and the effect of relaxation on the metric behavior is investigated. Several relaxation formulations are examined, and a new function with desirable properties is introduced and compared with prior formulations. The new properties of the proposed metric enable development of an efficient and robust single-stage gradient-based optimization of the joint product family platform selection and design problem, which is examined in a companion paper.

Platform Investment Decisions in Product Family Design

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicolas A. Zacharias ◽  
Ali A. Yassine
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Investment Decisions ◽  
Target Market ◽  
Market Segment ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Design Models ◽  
Conceptual Engineering ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Market Coverage

The paper proposes an intermediate modeling ground that bridges the gap between engineering design models and marketing models for the development of platform-based product families. In this model, each variant in the product family is assumed to contribute a percentage to the overall market coverage inside a target market segment and we wish to maximize this coverage subject to an available development budget. Following the conceptual engineering design phase of the product family, this model will optimize the initial investment in the platform, the commonality level between variants, and the number of variants to be produced in order to maximize market coverage. An application of the model using a Drill product family is included to demonstrate the usefulness of the proposed model.

An Approach to Quantifying Design Flexibility for Mass Customization in Early Design Stages

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phil Cormier ◽  
Andrew Olewnik ◽  
Kemper Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Design Process ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Customer Preferences ◽  
Design Flexibility ◽  
Functional Aspects ◽  
Early Design Stages ◽  
Design Options ◽  
Research Metrics

With the increasing stratification of customer preferences, companies must offer a number of options to remain competitive. Current methodologies, such as product families, seek to offer more options to the consumer while minimizing costs to the company. Customizable products are striving to offer the customer what they truly desire by increasing the level of influence the consumer has on their instance of the design. As the shift from cosmetic changes and modular options continues, systems will be required to have a greater amount of design flexibility to allow for the changes made by individual consumers. Drawing on reconfigurable system and product family research, metrics for flexibility are proposed for use in the early stages of the design process. Discussion focuses on functional aspects of a product which affect flexibility and the rational behind the component metrics representing their flexibility. The goal of the metrics is to assist with the evaluation of design options by rating the overall flexibility of the system early in the design process. A case study is presented to demonstrate the use of the metrics.

Robust Product Family Consolidation and Selection Using the Hypothetical Equivalents and Inequivalents Method

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bryan R. Dolan ◽  
Kemper E. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Utility Theory ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Value Functions ◽  
Product Lines ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Robust Solution ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Multi Attribute Utility Theory ◽  
Similar Materials ◽  
Effective Product

The design and development of effective product lines is a challenge in modern industry. Companies must balance diverse product families that satisfy wide ranging customer demands with practical business needs such as combining manufacturing processes and using similar materials, for example. In this paper, the issue of consolidating an existing product family is addressed. Specifically, the Hypothetical Equivalents and Inequivalents Method (HEIM) is utilized in order to select an optimal product family configuration. In previous uses, HEIM has been shown to assist a decision maker in selecting one concept from a set when concept attributes conflict with each other. In this extension of HEIM, the optimization problem’s constraints are formulated using two different value functions, and common solutions are identified in order to select an optimal family of staplers. The result is then compared with the result found using a multi-attribute utility theory (MAUT) based approach. While each method has its advantages and disadvantages, and MAUT provides a necessary first step for product family consolidation and selection, a robust solution is achieved through HEIM.

scholarly journals Design of Personalized Devices—The Tradeoff between Individual Value and Personalization Workload

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 241
Author(s):  
Juliane Kuhl ◽  
Andreas Ding ◽  
Ngoc Tuan Ngo ◽  
Andres Braschkat ◽  
Jens Fiehler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Customer Value ◽  
Early Stage ◽  
Treatment Success ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Flow Diverter ◽  
New Method ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Individual Value

Personalized medical devices adapted to the anatomy of the individual promise greater treatment success for patients, thus increasing the individual value of the product. In order to cater to individual adaptations, however, medical device companies need to be able to handle a wide range of internal processes and components. These are here referred to collectively as the personalization workload. Consequently, support is required in order to evaluate how best to target product personalization. Since the approaches presented in the literature are not able to sufficiently meet this demand, this paper introduces a new method that can be used to define an appropriate variety level for a product family taking into account standardized, variant, and personalized attributes. The new method enables the identification and evaluation of personalizable attributes within an existing product family. The method is based on established steps and tools from the field of variant-oriented product design, and is applied using a flow diverter—an implant for the treatment of aneurysm diseases—as an example product. The personalization relevance and adaptation workload for the product characteristics that constitute the differentiating product properties were analyzed and compared in order to determine a tradeoff between customer value and personalization workload. This will consequently help companies to employ targeted, deliberate personalization when designing their product families by enabling them to factor variety-induced complexity and customer value into their thinking at an early stage, thus allowing them to critically evaluate a personalization project.

A Market-Based Design Strategy for a Universal Product Family

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Differentiated Products ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Market Segments ◽  
Light Duty

Companies that generate a variety of products and services are creating, and increasing research on, mass-customized products in order to satisfy customers’ specific needs. Currently, the majority of effort is focused on consumers who are without disabilities. The research presented here is motivated by the need to provide a basis of product design methods for users with some disability—often called universal design (UD). Product family design is a way to achieve cost-effective mass customization by allowing highly differentiated products serving distinct market segments to be developed from a common platform. By extending concepts from product family design and mass customization to universal design, we propose a method for developing and evaluating a universal product family within uncertain market environments. We will model design strategies for a universal product family as a market economy where product family platform configurations are generated through market segments based on a product platform and customers’ preferences. A coalitional game is employed to evaluate which design strategies provide more benefit when included in the platform based on the marginal profit contribution of each strategy. To demonstrate an implementation of the proposed method, we use a case study involving a family of light-duty trucks.

Self-reference bias in students' and managers' selection of target market segments

2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48
Author(s):  
Luke Greenacre ◽  
Victoria Jaeger ◽  
James Martin ◽  
Sarah Patrick ◽  
Yolanda Nguyen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Target Market ◽  
Market Segments ◽  
Reference Bias ◽  
Self Reference ◽  
Selection Of

Algorithm-Based Support for the Redesign of Product Variants

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Redeker ◽  
Philipp Gebhardt ◽  
Thomas Vietor
Keyword(s):  
Economies Of Scale ◽  
Graph Matching ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Automated Analysis ◽  
Production Volume ◽  
Scale Production ◽  
Product Families ◽  
First Case ◽  
Subtractive Manufacturing ◽  
Definition Of

Abstract Incremental Manufacturing is a novel manufacturing approach where product variants are manufactured based on a finalization of pre-produced parts through additive and subtractive manufacturing processes. This approach allows a multi-scale production with the possibility to scale product variants as well as the production volume. In order to ensure high economic efficiency of the manufacturing concept, there is a need for pre-produced parts that come as close as possible to the final variant geometries to ensure that only variant-specific features need to be added by additive or subtractive manufacturing steps. Furthermore, to ensure high economies of scale, a high degree of commonality should be ensured for the pre-produced parts manufactured in mass production. In this context, a graph-based method is developed that enables an automated analysis of product families, based on physical and functional attributes, for standardization potentials. The method thus provides support for the strategic definition of pre-produced parts and is embedded in an overall approach for the redesign of products for Incremental Manufacturing. For the demonstration of the approach, which is based on 3D Shape and Graph Matching methods, a first case study is carried out using a guiding bush product family as an example.

scholarly journals A Framework for Development Architecture for Modular Products: Cross-Domain Variety Management Perspective

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 2921-2930 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kwansuk Oh ◽  
Jong Wook Lim ◽  
Seongwon Cho ◽  
Junyeol Ryu ◽  
Yoo S. Hong
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Development Stage ◽  
Real Field ◽  
Reference Architecture ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Architecture Framework ◽  
Management Perspective ◽  
Domain Mapping ◽  
The Cross

AbstractVariety management is a cross-domain issue in product family design. In the real field, the relationships across the domains are so complex for most of the existing product families that they cannot be easily identified without proper reference architecture. This reference architecture should provide the cross- domain mapping mechanisms in an explicit manner and be able to identify the proper units for management. From this perspective of cross-domain framework, this paper introduces development architecture (DA) to describe the relationships between elements in market, design, and production domains and to give insights for the cross-domain variety management in the product development stage. DA has three parts: (1) the arrangement of elements in each domain, (2) the mapping between elements, and (3) the identification of management sets and key interfaces which are the proper units for variety management. The proposed development architecture framework is applied to the case of front chassis family of modules of an automobile.

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