… and justice for all – cost fairness in Volkswagen’s product family

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Müller
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Game ◽  
Cost Sharing ◽  
Cost Reduction ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Theoretical Solution ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Game Theoretic

Purpose Product families offer companies economic advantages in the development and the production stage while satisfying a wide range of customer needs. This concept generates economies of scale and scope, which lead to a significant cost reduction. The realization of product families by several autonomous firms highlights the problem of fair cost sharing. Despite broad agreement on fairness as a highly desired aim, in practice there is a lack of precise terms of operationalization. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to use a game theoretical framework to achieve fair cost sharing. It is shown that the cooperative game solution ensures fairness and therefore should be accepted by all the partners. Design/methodology/approach Therefore, this study uses a game theoretical framework to reach a fair cost sharing. All family members are modeled as players in a cost reduction game. Using a cooperative game lens allows the identification of fair cost shares. It is shown that cooperative game solution ensures fairness and therefore should be accepted by all partners. Findings It is shown that the average cost assignment method is not fair and therefore not stable. Moreover, the authors show that the game theoretical solution ensures fairness and therefore will be accepted by all partners. Research limitations/implications One main problem of the game theoretic solution concepts is the fact that the benefits of the PFD must be known for the various possible coalitions. By means of suitable forecasts, however, this can be avoided and is not a special problem of the game theoretical solution. The other two main problems are the assumption that the participating companies reach binding agreements ex ante, which are also met ex post, as well as the assumption that side payments between the participating companies are possible. Practical implications It has been demonstrated that game theoretic instruments deliver a fair solution. With the calculated shares, all firms have an incentive to join the grand coalition what ensures a positive motivation and long-term stability. Originality/value This paper’s main contribution is the analysis of a real-life product family through the lens of cooperative game theory.

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.

Managing COVID-19 in workplaces – a theoretical framework for integral employees’ health

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Gauer ◽  
Barbara Germann
Keyword(s):  
Literature Review ◽  
Psychological Stress ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Job Demands ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Theoretical Base ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stress Theory ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Strategic Measures

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop a framework on how to deal with stressors emerging from the COVID-19 outbreak. The theoretical framework aims to explain pandemic-related stressors and potential ways to prevent them, considering a wide range of interacting factors at individual, team and organizational levels to ensure their employees’ health. Design/methodology/approach The authors drew on an integrative literature review to identify pandemic-related stressors influenceable by the organization and gathered solution approaches to counteract them. Popular psychological stress theories served as a theoretical base for the framework. Findings The authors based the framework on an integration of the transactional stress theory (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984) and the job demands resources model (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004), focusing on their respective theoretical strengths. The final framework offers a solid orientation for scholars regarding the introduction of holistic and strategic measures in coping with pandemic-related stressors. A section describing possibilities for practitioners’ use of the framework has been integrated. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to offer a framework on how to handle COVID-19-related stressors in the workplace by implementing teamwide and companywide measures.

scholarly journals Shifting land use in German coastal mainland destinations: historical development of tourism in Norden-Norddeich

2018 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-248
Author(s):  
Ben Wielenga
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Business Models ◽  
Wadden Sea ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Sea Area

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present the way in which the mainland of the German Wadden Sea area transitioned from traditional sectors into an almost entirely tourism destination, and which factors contributed to and/or necessitated such a development. Design/methodology/approach The overall approach in this paper has adopted a focus on an extensive case study of the German mainland of the Wadden Sea area. Scientific articles have been used to, first, structuring the theoretical framework and then to gain a general understanding on what a transition exactly entails. As a result, the theoretical framework has been written in an examination of existing literature on transitions and functioned as the theoretical support and foundation for the case study analysis. The analysis has been shaped by means of a number of scientific articles, branch reports, books and websites that, in most instances, specifically focused on the chosen case. Since the area of study is located in Germany, specific literature on this area was mostly limited to the German language, a language of which the author has a basic, yet not thorough, understanding. However, the overall scope of the developments in the case in regard to the transition from agricultural and fishing communities to communities in which tourism plays a substantial role has been understandable. Findings One of the most important sectors that economically benefit the Wadden Sea region, especially on the Dutch and German Wadden islands, is tourism. While tourism development on the Dutch mainland is minimal, the sector considerably developed in the past few decades on the German mainland, generally as a result of declining yields through multifarious unfavorable developments in traditional sectors such as agriculture and fishing, amongst others. Throughout previous centuries, Norden-Norddeich possessed some small-scale tourism facilities; however, negative developments in those traditional sectors required the municipality to prevent an impasse situation, resulting in altering business models and upscaling tourism facilities. Initiatives in different layers (micro, meso and macro) were initiated and gradually intensified in order to develop Norden-Norddeich as a counter destination for the expensive German islands. Following the phases of transition, Norden-Norddeich gradually developed and can now be regarded as a stable and dynamic holiday destination as well as a system that nowadays almost completely adheres to tourism. It took Norden-Norddeich ten years to transition toward tourism. Presently, Norden-Norddeich is the most visited mainland destination at the German Wadden Sea coast. In contrast, small-scale activities are set up in the mainland part of the Wadden Sea area in the Netherlands, but miss out on effective collaboration between different stakeholders that are involved in both planning and management (such as policy makers) and executive roles (such as the people who organize activities and/or facilities). Furthermore, the area is managed in such a way that does not contribute yet to upscaling economic development, mostly as a result of regulatory issues that hinder such developments. However, increasing efforts by several stakeholders are being taken that should ultimately lead to a sustainable socio-economic development of the Dutch mainland part of the Wadden Sea area. Originality/value Analyzing the stages of transition on the German mainland of the Wadden area might function as an example for stakeholders in villages or cities located on the mainland of the Dutch Wadden to become aware of how processes of tourism transitions occur, what factors are needed to start off such a transition and what effects a transition might have on the revitalization of a certain area. Moreover, the case of Norden-Norddeich could stand out as an example for Dutch stakeholders in the Wadden region to perceive in what way a locked-in situation could be prevented or solved by shifting from one system to another by taking on a wide range of initiatives that might be led and stimulated by different actors.

Reliability improvement incentive strategies in the manufacturing industry

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Suyuan Wang ◽  
Huaming Song ◽  
Canran Gong
Keyword(s):  
Failure Rate ◽  
Cost Sharing ◽  
Manufacturing Industry ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Reliability Improvement ◽  
Reliability Level ◽  
Game Theoretic ◽  
The Incentive Mechanism ◽  
Feasible Solutions ◽  
The Cost

PurposeCompanies face the critical reliability problem of products due to the development of outsourcing. This study intends to provide some feasible solutions for a company to improve the reliability level of products.Design/methodology/approachThe paper considers the reward and reliability decisions regarding a product made with two complementary components from two different suppliers: high-capable and low-capable. Two kinds of reliability improvement incentives (normal incentive and cost-sharing incentive) through which a manufacturer provides a reward and shares the reliability improvement cost with a supplier are discussed. As the Stackelberg leader, the manufacturer determines the strategy, while the suppliers are responsible for determining its reliability. Using a game-theoretic framework, four different contract scenarios are addressed. We develop analytical methods to better understand how the manufacturer decides the incentive mechanism to be used for the suppliers.FindingsThe results show that cost-sharing contracts do not always lead to a higher reliability level and more enormous profits. Setting a target reliability level is better for the manufacturer. The cost-sharing contract is beneficial for a high-capable supplier even though it does not directly participate in that kind of mechanism. A low-capable supplier gains more profit when the manufacturer provides incentive mechanisms that do not specify a target reliability level.Originality/valueThis paper investigates the reliability improvement mechanism used for complementary products and focuses on identifying the optimal decisions when demand is influenced by the gap between the product's failure rate and the standard failure rate.

A Systematic Method for Designing Profitable Product Families

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Srinivas Nidamarthi ◽  
Gu¨nther Mechler ◽  
Harsh Karandikar
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Minimum Cost ◽  
Profit Margin ◽  
Digital Cameras ◽  
Customer Choice ◽  
Systematic Method ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
A Company

Every company has the business objectives of maximizing customer choice as well as its profitability. Typically, companies address maximum customer choice through a large spectrum of variants in their products to satisfy varying customer needs. For example, a camera manufacturer may wish to offer various choices such as fixed focus, auto-focus, variable zoom, different zoom ranges, SLR, APS, and digital cameras, and in different combinations, to satisfy customers with different demands (including the price that they wish to pay). The business goal, therefore, is to design a product family that meets a wide range of customer choices but at a minimum cost so as to maximize the profit margin. These two objectives, choice and profit margin, are not as contradictory as they seem. In this paper, we show that by using a set of systematic methods a company can identify the essential design elements of a profitable product family. We have successfully applied this method in a number of product families ranging from airhandling fans to robot controllers, and from mass-produced products to project based customized products.

scholarly journals Cooperative game‐theoretic features of cost sharing in location‐routing

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 2157-2183 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ondrej Osicka ◽  
Mario Guajardo ◽  
Thibault van Oost
Keyword(s):  
Cooperative Game ◽  
Cost Sharing ◽  
Location Routing ◽  
Game Theoretic

A novel approach based on utility mining for store layout: a case study in a supermarket

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (2) ◽  
pp. 304-319 ◽  
Author(s):  
Serkan Altuntas
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Business Intelligence ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Data Mining Algorithm ◽  
Product Families ◽  
Utility Mining ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Novel Approach

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a novel approach based on utility mining for store layout. Design/methodology/approach A utility mining-based data mining algorithm is utilized in this paper. Findings A real-life case study in a supermarket is conducted to illustrate the proposed approach. The findings show that the proposed approach can be used easily and efficiently to arrange store layout. Research limitations/implications There are two limitations to this study. First, space allocation to each product family is not considered. Second, product placement in each product family is not taken into account in the proposed approach. Originality/value In this paper, a novel approach is proposed for business intelligence in retail business. The proposed approach uses a utility-based data mining approach, namely, the high-utility itemset mining (HUIM) algorithm, to rearrange store layout and to determine the relations among product families. The quantities and prices of items purchased corresponding to product families are taken into account in the proposed approach to address the needs in practice. Business intelligence software is also developed as an integral part of the proposed approach to utilize the HUIM algorithm.

scholarly journals Transfer of Plasmid DNA to Clinical Coagulase-Negative Staphylococcal Pathogens by Using a Unique Bacteriophage

2015 ◽  
Vol 81 (7) ◽  
pp. 2481-2488 ◽  
Author(s):  
Volker Winstel ◽  
Petra Kühner ◽  
Bernhard Krismer ◽  
Andreas Peschel ◽  
Holger Rohde
Keyword(s):  
Plasmid Dna ◽  
Genetic Manipulation ◽  
Current Knowledge ◽  
Virulence Determinants ◽  
Coagulase Negative Staphylococci ◽  
Reliable Technique ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Genetic Barriers

ABSTRACTGenetic manipulation of emerging bacterial pathogens, such as coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS), is a major hurdle in clinical and basic microbiological research. Strong genetic barriers, such as restriction modification systems or clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR), usually interfere with available techniques for DNA transformation and therefore complicate manipulation of CoNS or render it impossible. Thus, current knowledge of pathogenicity and virulence determinants of CoNS is very limited. Here, a rapid, efficient, and highly reliable technique is presented to transfer plasmid DNA essential for genetic engineering to important CoNS pathogens from a uniqueStaphylococcus aureusstrain via a specificS. aureusbacteriophage, Φ187. Even strains refractory to electroporation can be transduced by this technique once donor and recipient strains share similar Φ187 receptor properties. As a proof of principle, this technique was used to delete the alternative transcription factor sigma B (SigB) via allelic replacement in nasal and clinicalStaphylococcus epidermidisisolates at high efficiencies. The described approach will allow the genetic manipulation of a wide range of CoNS pathogens and might inspire research activities to manipulate other important pathogens in a similar fashion.

scholarly journals Use of Proteins Identified through a Functional Genomic Screen To Develop a Protein Subunit Vaccine That Provides Significant Protection against Virulent Streptococcus suis in Pigs

2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Brockmeier ◽  
Crystal L. Loving ◽  
Tracy L. Nicholson ◽  
Jinhong Wang ◽  
Sarah E. Peters ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Immune Response ◽  
Vaccine Trial ◽  
Streptococcus Suis ◽  
Protein Subunit ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Degree Of Protection ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Associated Proteins ◽  
Clinical Protection ◽  
Cellular Immune

ABSTRACT Streptococcus suis is a bacterium that is commonly carried in the respiratory tract and that is also one of the most important invasive pathogens of swine, commonly causing meningitis, arthritis, and septicemia. Due to the existence of many serotypes and a wide range of immune evasion capabilities, efficacious vaccines are not readily available. The selection of S. suis protein candidates for inclusion in a vaccine was accomplished by identifying fitness genes through a functional genomics screen and selecting conserved predicted surface-associated proteins. Five candidate proteins were selected for evaluation in a vaccine trial and administered both intranasally and intramuscularly with one of two different adjuvant formulations. Clinical protection was evaluated by subsequent intranasal challenge with virulent S. suis . While subunit vaccination with the S. suis proteins induced IgG antibodies to each individual protein and a cellular immune response to the pool of proteins and provided substantial protection from challenge with virulent S. suis , the immune response elicited and the degree of protection were dependent on the parenteral adjuvant given. Subunit vaccination induced IgG reactive against different S. suis serotypes, indicating a potential for cross protection.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document