Abstract
The buyer’s market that developed over the past decades demands for a large number of customized product variants. At the same time, companies face an immense pressure to reduce costs. These contradicting goals dominate many product strategy discussions. Should variants be avoided or should companies rather seek to master their variants efficiently?
This paper presents a possible solution that combines both strategies mentioned. The multiple-variant problem is tackled through a flexible definition of product structures which forms the basis for product configuration. Industrial examples demonstrate how such a strategy can be implemented successfully.
“Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.”
(Ford 1922)
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Schierholt, K., Scherer, E. (1998). Handling Multiple-Variant Production: Methodologies for Parametrisation and Configuration of Products. In: Drexl, A., Kimms, A. (eds) Beyond Manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP II). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03742-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-03742-3_4
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