scholarly journals Analysis of visual representation techniques for product configuration systems in industrial companies

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Shafiee ◽  
K. Kristjansdottir ◽  
L. Hvam ◽  
A. Felfernig ◽  
A. Myrodia
Keyword(s):  
Visual Representation ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Configuration Systems ◽  
Representation Techniques

A Process-Oriented Approach for Management of Product Configuration Models

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Mesihovic ◽  
Johan Malmqvist
Keyword(s):  
Product Configuration ◽  
Configuration Model ◽  
Product Configuration Management ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Process Oriented ◽  
Configuration Systems ◽  
Process Context ◽  
Product Configuration Model ◽  
The Right ◽  
Oriented Approach

Efficient product configuration systems have been widely recognized by industrial companies as an important tool for meeting increasing customer requirements for specifically adapted products according to their needs/requirements. The main obstacle in this area has been the long-term maintenance of the product configuration models with the new product definition information generated throughout the product lifecycle. Much of the work in this area has focused on product architecture issues, data modelling techniques and software tools. However, in order to be useful, the models and software applications must be put into the right business process context that is supported by the proper organizational framework. Thus, the paper presents a generic process-oriented approach for change management of product configuration-related information in industrial companies. The process contains steps for identification of new and/or changed product configuration knowledge, request of a change in the product configuration model, evaluation of the request, and finally an update of the product configuration model in the system. In addition, there is a description of employees’ competence profile descriptions and the organizational roles needed to support an effective product configuration management process in an industrial company.

scholarly journals Application of design thinking to product-configuration projects

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-241
Author(s):  
Sara Shafiee ◽  
Anders Haug ◽  
Saeedeh Shafiee Kristensen ◽  
Lars Hvam
Keyword(s):  
Design Thinking ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Stakeholder Satisfaction ◽  
Study Approach ◽  
Industrial Companies ◽  
Multiple Data ◽  
Configuration Systems

PurposeProduct configurators are expert systems that support product customization by defining how predefined entities and their properties may be combined. Developers of configuration systems act as designers, although they do not often recognize that they are performing as such. Moreover, exploring solution spaces is typically not integral to configuration projects, as this task is typically perceived as mapping existing knowledge to the configurator. This article argues that developing configurators may be understood by distinguishing between the problem and solution spaces using design thinking (DT).Design/methodology/approachA multiple-case-study approach with four configuration projects is adopted to study two projects involving DT and compare them to two similar projects not involving DT. Data collection depended on multiple data sources via workshops and semi-structured interviews.FindingsFirst, DT methods and concept–knowledge (C-K) theory are integrated into configuration projects. Second, the application of DT during configurator development is presented through workshops and interviews, which demonstrates the benefits of DT in overcoming existing challenges.Research limitations/implicationsThe case studies demonstrate the successful implementation of DT in developing configurators. However, a limited number of cases in only one company limits the generalizability of the results.Practical implicationsThe framework's individual steps create a structured approach to supporting industrial companies with a toolbox of DT techniques and methods for configuration projects.Originality/valueThe results show that the application of DT to configuration projects can improve user motivation, stakeholder satisfaction and knowledge acquisition.

scholarly journals Return on investment from the use of product configuration systems – A case study

2018 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
pp. 57-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrin Kristjansdottir ◽  
Sara Shafiee ◽  
Lars Hvam ◽  
Martin Bonev ◽  
Anna Myrodia
Keyword(s):  
Return On Investment ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Configuration Systems

UML AS DOMAIN SPECIFIC LANGUAGE FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF KNOWLEDGE-BASED CONFIGURATION SYSTEMS

2000 ◽  
Vol 10 (04) ◽  
pp. 449-469 ◽  
Author(s):  
ALEXANDER FELFERNIG ◽  
GERHARD E. FRIEDRICH ◽  
DIETMAR JANNACH
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Domain Knowledge ◽  
Unified Modeling Language ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Domain Specific ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Standard Design ◽  
Configuration Systems ◽  
Industrial Software ◽  
Description Languages

In many domains, software development has to meet the challenges of developing highly adaptable software very rapidly. In order to accomplish this task, domain specific, formal description languages and knowledge-based systems are employed. From the viewpoint of the industrial software development process, it is important to integrate the construction and maintenance of these systems into standard software engineering processes. In addition, the descriptions should be comprehensible for the domain experts in order to facilitate the review process. For the realization of product configuration systems, we show how these requirements can be met by using a standard design language (UML-Unified Modeling Language) as notation in order to simplify the construction of a logic-based description of the domain knowledge. We show how classical description concepts for expressing configuration knowledge can be introduced into UML and be translated into logical sentences automatically. These sentences are exploited by a general inference engine solving the configuration task.

Expected and Realized Costs and Benefits from Implementing Product Configuration Systems

2010 ◽  
pp. 216-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasper Edwards
Keyword(s):  
Turnaround Time ◽  
Relative Difference ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Primary Driver ◽  
Change Projects ◽  
Expected Benefits ◽  
Configuration Systems ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Individual

Product configuration systems (PCS) are a technology well suited for mass customization and support the task of configuring the product to the individual customer’s needs. PCS are at the same time complex software systems that may be tailored to solve a variety of problems for a firm, e.g. supporting the quotation process or validating the structure of a product. This chapter reports findings from a study of 12 Danish firms, which at the time of the study have implemented or are in the process of implementing product configuration systems. 12 costs and 12 benefits are identified in literature, and using radar diagrams as a tool for data collection the relative difference are identified. While several of the firms are mass customizers it is not the primary driver for implementing PCS. The analysis reveals that expected and realized benefits are consistent: 1) Improved quality in specifications, 2) Using less resources, and 3) Lower turnaround time. Interestingly, the realized benefits are all higher than the expected benefits. The expected benefits highlight the motivation, and this has implications for human factors as they point in the direction of significant changes to come in the adopting organization. It is observed that product configuration projects are treated as simple technical projects although they should be regarded as organizational change projects.

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