Commonality and Product Family Design Integrated With Inventory Decisions

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Takai
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Simultaneous Optimization ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Beverage Containers ◽  
Inventory Decisions

Commonality or the use of the same components among products in a product family has been considered an effective approach to designing a product family; however, simultaneous optimization of commonality, product family design, and inventory decisions has not been comprehensively studied. In this paper, we propose a framework to simultaneously optimize commonality, product family design, and inventory decisions by incorporating inventory-related costs in the profit formula. Design of beverage containers is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the proposed framework.

An Approach to Integrate Commonality and Product Family Design With Inventory Decisions

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shun Takai
Keyword(s):  
Product Family ◽  
Service Level ◽  
Simultaneous Optimization ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Lot Size ◽  
Expected Number ◽  
Inventory Cost ◽  
Beverage Containers ◽  
Replenishment Cycle ◽  
Inventory Decisions

Commonality, or the use of the same components among products in a product family, has been considered an effective approach to design a product family. By implementing commonality, a firm can reduce the number of distinct components, component inventory, and inventory cost. However, product design may change and product cost may increase due to using common components that may require different interface conditions and be more expensive than the initially considered components. While the benefits and challenges are well recognized, simultaneous optimization of commonality, product family design, and inventory decisions has not been comprehensively studied. In this paper, we present an approach to integrate commonality, product family design, and inventory decisions by incorporating inventory-related costs in the profit formula. In the proposed approach, (1) commonality matrix is defined to assign product demands to components and component costs to products, (2) continuous inventory review policy is used to calculate safety inventory, (3) joint ordering is implemented to calculate inventory-replenishment lot size and cycle inventory, and (4) cycle service level (CSL) and expected number of component shortage per replenishment cycle (ESC) are utilized to calculate inventory-understock costs. The design of three beverage containers is used as an illustrative example to demonstrate the proposed approach, and sensitivity analysis is performed to contrast commonality and product family design of the three beverage containers with and without incorporating inventory decisions.

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 decision support system for product family design

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 ◽  
pp. 113-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elim Liu ◽  
Shih-Wen Hsiao ◽  
Shih-Wei Hsiao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Support ◽  
Decision Support System ◽  
Support System ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Product Family Design

Sensitivity and Correlation Analysis and Implications in Scalable Product Family Design for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhila Pirmoradi ◽  
G. Gary Wang
Keyword(s):  
Correlation Analysis ◽  
Electric Vehicles ◽  
Hybrid Electric Vehicles ◽  
Electric Energy ◽  
Product Family ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Product Family Design ◽  
Hybrid Electric ◽  
Market Needs ◽  
And Control

Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) bear great promises for increasing fuel economy and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions by the use of advanced battery technologies and green energy resources. The design of a PHEV highly depends on several factors such as the selected powertrain configuration, control strategy, sizes of drivetrain components, expected range for propulsion purely by electric energy, known as AER, and the assumed driving conditions. Accordingly, design of PHEV powertrains for diverse customer segments requires thorough consideration of the market needs and the specific performance expectations of each segment. From the manufacturing perspective, these parameters provide the opportunity of mass customization because of the high degree of freedom, especially when the component sizes and control parameters are simultaneously assessed. Based on a nonconventional sensitivity and correlation analysis performed on a simulation model for power-split PHEVs in this study, the product family design (PFD) concept and its implications will be investigated, and limitations of PFD for such a complex product along with directions for efficient family design of PHEVs will be discussed.

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