MPPro

MPPro - Variant Management of Modular Product Families

Today, companies face increasing cost pressure and a growing demand for customization of products. An answer to this double challenge is effective variant management using modular product families. This allows for economies of scale through the reuse of modules and customization through customer-specific configuration of modules. While numerous well-established approaches exist to initially define a modular product family, the variant management of the modular product family in the market phase, has not yet been answered in research.

This question is of vital importance though. Many companies experience that in the market phase of the modular product family, more and more special products are being brought to market whose cost/sales price ratio is significantly worse than that of standard products. As a result, the modular product family as a whole becomes less and less profitable. What is needed, are concepts and tools to support the variant management of modular product families in the market phase. The required concepts and tools are developed within this project.