A framework for designing balanced product platforms by estimating the versatility of components

Abstract

Mass customisation is a common trend in many industries, and the platform-based product family strategy is a widely used method for this purpose. While the platform strategy can reduce the cost of variety by sharing common assets such as components and production processes, it has the risk of losing market share owing to its limitation on diversity. A balance between commonality and variety needs to be achieved when designing platforms that are both efficient and effective. In this paper, we focus on developing a platform that is versatile for highly effective differentiation to increase market share, incorporating the preferences of customers for different kinds of diversity. By distinguishing preferred and non-preferred diversity and ignoring the unnecessary need for differentiation, a platform designer can increase commonality without loss of market share. Under the assumption that a versatile platform is composed of versatile components, we estimate the versatility of components to identify the versatile ones. The estimation method consists of two phases: the market analysis phase, for identifying which specifications are preferred to be differentiated, and the product analysis phase, for assessing how much impact the differentiation may have on the component. A high versatility score indicates that the corresponding component is suitable for being platformed since it is not likely to be changed to increase market share. At the same time, a low versatility score provides a clue for improving the product architecture. The proposed method was applied to computer mouse design and yielded a reasonable platform plan.

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