Decision Making in Modular Product Platform Development

摘要

In order to achieve larger market share andrnaddress individual customer needs, firms arernchallenged to manage the seemingly contradictoryrnexistence of internally low variety and a maximumrnexternal variety. One very powerful approach is tornuse modular product architectures (PA). This permitsrnone to establish product families based on platforms.rnUsing platforms is a common strategy in diversernindustries. For development of platform architectures,rnthere are almost infinite possible configurations.rnThere is a need for a framework for evaluation andrnselection of possible concepts. By evaluating designrnconcepts one is faced with decision-making. To dornthis, one must make choices over a distinct evaluationrnmethod and effective metrics. In this choice, thernquality of information is the limiting and determiningrnfactor, it is the differentiating characteristic amongrnmethods. To show this, diverse methods will bernpresented and their characteristics and benefits willrnbe discussed.rnKeywords. Product Development, ProductrnArchitecture, Product Family, Product Platform,rnMetrics, Criteria, Evaluation, Decision Making,rnModularity, Information Quality, Analytic HierarchyrnProcess, Pugh Selection Process, Utility, Value.