A Strategic Platform Design Method for Developing Customized Families of Services

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Jun Shu ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Soundar R. T. Kumara
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Service Model ◽  
Platform Design ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Module Selection ◽  
Service Offering

Products are often paired with additional services to satisfy customers’ needs, differentiate product offerings, and remain competitive in today’s market. This research is motivated by the need to provide guidelines and methods to support the design of such services, addressing the lack of knowledge on customized service design as well as methods for designing and evaluating services for mass customization. We extend concepts from module-based product family design to create a method for designing families of services. In particular, we introduce a strategic platform design method for developing customized families of services using game theory to model situations involving dynamic market environments. A module-based service model is proposed to facilitate customized service design and represent the relationships between functions and processes that constitute a service offering. A module selection problem for platform design is considered as a strategic module sharing problem under collaboration, and we use a coalitional game to model module sharing and decide which modules provide more benefit when in the platform based on marginal contribution of each module. To demonstrate implementation of the proposed method, we use a case study involving a family of banking services.

A Strategic Module-Based Platform Design Method for Developing Customized Products in Dynamic and Uncertain Market Environments

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson ◽  
Soundar R. T. Kumara
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Strategy ◽  
Theoretic Approach ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Platform Design ◽  
Design Information

Product family design facilitates mass customization by allowing highly differentiated products to be developed around a platform while targeting products to distinct market segments. Therefore, effective platforming of products is a cost-effective way to achieve mass customization The objective in this research is to develop a Strategic Module-based Platform Design Method (SMPDM) to determine a platform design strategy to support product family design in a dynamic and uncertain environment. Ontologies are used to represent products and enable sharing and reuse of design information. Data mining techniques are used to identify a platform and modules by utilizing design information stored in a large database or repository. To determine a platform for family design in dynamic and uncertain market environments, the SMPDM uses agent-based decision-making, involving a market-based negotiation mechanism and a game theoretic approach based on module-based platform concepts and a mathematical model. To demonstrate and validate the usefulness of the proposed method, it is applied to a family of power tools and tested in multiple scenario-based experiments. The SMPDM provides an optimal platform design strategy that can be adapted to various dynamic and uncertain market environments. Therefore, the SMPDM can help develop design strategies to manage and create a cost-effective variety of products based on a platform in support of mass customization.

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.

A Design Method for Developing a Universal Product Family in a Dynamic Market Environment

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Functional Module ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Cost Effective ◽  
Design Guidelines ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Market Segments

Innovative companies that generate a variety of products and services for satisfying customers’ specific needs are invoking and increasing research on mass-customized products, but the majority of their efforts are still focused on general consumers who are without disabilities. This research is motivated by the need to provide a basis of universal design guidelines and methods, primarily because of a lack of knowledge on disabilities in product design as well as methods for designing and evaluating products for everyone. Product family design is a way to achieve cost-effective mass customization by allowing highly differentiated products to be developed from a common platform while targeting products to distinct market segments. By extending concepts from product family design and mass customization to universal design, we propose a method for developing a universal product family to generate economical feasible design concepts and evaluating design feasibility with respect to disabilities within dynamic market environments. We will model design strategies for a universal product family as a market economy where functional module configurations are generated through market segments based on a product platform. A coalitional game is employed to model module sharing situations regarding dynamic market environments and decides which functional modules provide more benefit when in the platform based on the marginal contribution of each module. To demonstrate implementation of the proposed method, we use a case study involving a family of mobile phones.

Optimal Design and Robustness Assessment of Product Family Considering Quantity Discounts in Supply Chain

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yutaka Nomaguchi ◽  
Daiki Osaki ◽  
Kikuo Fujita
Keyword(s):  
Supply Chain ◽  
Optimal Design ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Quantity Discounts ◽  
Quantity Discount ◽  
Component Commonality ◽  
Optimal Design Method ◽  
Supply Capacity

Product family design generally aims at overhead reduction due to component commonality meeting various customer needs. Quantity discount is one of the most crucial factors to consider cost reduction effects. However, it also contains the risk of drastic profit decrease when a demand or supply capacity unexpectedly changes. This research aims at proposing an optimal design method of product family with assessment of robustness of expected profit. First, this paper discusses the structure of the optimal design problem of product family considering quantity discount in supply chain. The modeling of quantity discount faces a problem of discontinuous of design spaces. The discontinuity of a design space makes optimization more difficult. This research proposes a method to solve it with reasonable calculation cost by utilizing branch and bound and linear programming. A case study of designing a product family of drip coffee maker demonstrates the application of the proposed method in order to verify it.

Developing the C-shaped QFD 3D Matrix for service applications with a case study in banking services

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arash Shahin ◽  
Elham Bagheri Iraj ◽  
Hossein Vaez Shahrestani
Keyword(s):  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Quality Function Deployment ◽  
Service Design ◽  
Service Performance ◽  
Customer Requirements ◽  
Banking Services ◽  
Content Type ◽  
3D Matrix ◽  
Design Characteristics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop the C-shaped quality function deployment (QFD) 3D Matrix for service applications. Design/methodology/approach The C-shaped QFD 3D Matrix proposed by Vezzetti et al. (2016) has been developed for simultaneous analysis of the relationships among three sets of factors of customer requirements, service design characteristics and service performance indicators. The three sets of factors have been determined and based on their interrelationships, 3D and concurrent houses of quality have been formed. Then, service design characteristics and service performance indicators have been prioritized. The obtained priorities have been also compared with traditional concurrent model of QFD. Findings The findings obtained from the traditional and developed approach seem different, implying that applying the C-shaped QFD 3D Matrix provides a more real perspective of concurrent engineering and the results in different set of priorities of service factors. Research limitations/implications The case study was limited to banking services. If the developed approach is used in other institutes, the prioritization of service design characteristics and service performance indicators might be changed. Originality/value Compared to Vezzetti et al. (2016) who proposed the C-shaped QFD 3D Matrix for analyzing interrelationships among two customers and a provider, or two providers and a customer, in this paper, the C-shaped QFD 3D Matrix has been developed for analyzing interrelationships among three sets of factors of customer requirements, service design characteristics and service performance indicators.

Universal Product Family Design Valuation in an Uncertain Market Environment

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Daniel A. McAdams
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Universal Design ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Design Strategies ◽  
Financial Model ◽  
Proposed Model ◽  
Perform Sensitivity Analysis ◽  
Market Trends

Strategic adaptability is essential in capitalizing on future investment opportunities and responding properly to market trends in an uncertain environment. Customized products or services are an important source of revenue for many companies, particularly those working with in a mass customization environment where customer satisfaction is of paramount important. In this paper, we extend methods from mass customization and product family design to create specific methods for universal product family design. The objective of this research is to propose a valuation financial model to facilitate universal design strategies that will maximize the expected profit under uncertain constrains. Real options analysis is applied to estimate the valuation of options related to introducing new modules as a platform in a universal product family. We use customers’ preferences based on performance utilities for universal design to reflect demand and demographic trends. To demonstrate implementation of the proposed model, we use a case study involving a family of light-duty trucks. We perform sensitivity analysis to investigate the behavior of the estimated option value against chaining system parameters.

Data Mining and Fuzzy Clustering to Support Product Family Design

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seung Ki Moon ◽  
Soundar R. T. Kumara ◽  
Timothy W. Simpson
Keyword(s):  
Data Mining ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Product Function ◽  
Fuzzy C Means Clustering ◽  
Large Product ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
Using Data

In mass customization, data mining can be used to extract valid, previously unknown, and easily interpretable information from large product databases in order to improve and optimize engineering design and manufacturing process decisions. A product family is a group of related products based on a product platform, facilitating mass customization by providing a variety of products for different market segments cost-effectively. In this paper, we propose a method for identifying a platform along with variant and unique modules in a product family using data mining techniques. Association rule mining is applied to develop rules related to design knowledge based on product function, which can be clustered by their similarity based on functional features. Fuzzy c-means clustering is used to determine initial clusters that represent modules. The clustering result identifies the platform and its modules by a platform level membership function and classification. We apply the proposed method to determine a new platform using a case study involving a power tool family.

Product Configuration Design Based on Extensible Product Family for Mass Customization

2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuyou Zhang ◽  
Harry H. Cheng
Keyword(s):  
Mass Customization ◽  
Machine Tools ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Design Method ◽  
Product Family ◽  
New Product ◽  
Product Configuration ◽  
Basic Unit ◽  
Configuration Design ◽  
Nearest Neighbor Matching

A new product configuration design method based on extensible product family is presented in this paper. The extensible product family is a multi-layered model with extensible function, extensible principle, and extensible structure. Treating extensible element as a basic unit, the model can be used to associate extensible parts with reusable factors in the range from 0 to 1. The principle of configuration method has been implemented in software. Complicated rule editing and modification are handled by Ch, an embeddable C/C++ interpreter. Designers can establish and edit the configuration rules including formulas dynamically. According to the client requirements and nearest-neighbor matching, the results of the designed configuration can be obtained automatically. Furthermore, the multi-dimensional information about parameters and reusable factors can be displayed and analyzed graphically. If the client requirements or configuration rules are changed, the system can be easily re-configured to obtain designed results based on the new configuration quickly. The system has been successfully deployed and used to design complicated products with a large number of configurations and different specifications such as elevators, machine tools and smut-collectors.

A Framework for Designing Balanced Product Platforms by Estimating Versatility of Components

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chang Muk Kang ◽  
Yoo Suk Hong
Keyword(s):  
Market Share ◽  
Mass Customization ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Platform Design ◽  
Trade Off ◽  
Product Platforms ◽  
Common Trend ◽  
Highly Effective ◽  
Two Measures ◽  
Family Strategy

Mass customization is a common trend in industries and platform-based product family strategy is widely used for an efficient mass customization. While commonization of a platform is a viable mean for reducing the customization cost, it also has a risk of losing some market share due to its limitation on differentiating individual products. This trade-off requires a platform to be balanced between commonality and distinctiveness of products. In this paper, we focus on developing a versatile platform that maximizes the use of common components while facilitating differentiations which are highly effective for increasing the market share of a product family. A versatile platform is comprised of versatile components which do not restrict effective differentiations even if it is commonized. To determine a certain component is versatile or not, we considered which specifications are preferred to be differentiated in the market and how much change would be required for the component to differentiate a specification. With these two measures, we define a versatility index representing how versatile a component is. Components with higher versatility values are appropriate to be platformized since they are less likely to be changed for differentiations. Furthermore, identification of non-versatile components may provide a clue for improving architecture of the product. The proposed method is applied to the PC mouse design, which yields reasonable alternatives for platform design.

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