Effects of customization and product modularization on financial performance

The need amongst customers for customized products is constantly increasing, and companies can gain competitive advantage by being able to offer a broad product assortment. This study\u27s purpose is to investigate the financial effects of using product modularization as a strategy to manage the need for product customization The paper is based on analysis of data collected through an online survey of Swedish manufacturing firms. The results show that product mod-ularization is a mediator between the need for customization and financial performance, sug-gesting that product modularization is an efficient strategy to facilitate companies\u27 needs for developing customized products

The impacts of modularity in Innovation Systems: a literature review

Modularity has been widely used for products and services development, due to the benefits perceived by the organizations, since it favors mainly the integration for the development within networks of collaboration. The objective of this article is to identify, based on a literature review, the impacts of the use of modularity in Innovation Systems. For this, a systematic bibliographic review was carried out to identify publications that deal with the relationship between the adoption of modular strategies and Innovation Systems. 45 articles were selected that deal with the subject, within the national, regional, sectoral and technological perspectives, thus presenting the analysis regarding the impacts at each level of the innovation systems and an agenda for future research

-행위자기반 시뮬레이션 접근법

학위논문(석사) -- 서울대학교대학원 : 공과대학 협동과정 기술경영·경제·정책전공, 2022.2. 이정동.모듈성(modularity)은 ‘near-decomposability’, ‘loose coupling’ 등의 개념으로부터 유래하여 기술적, 조직적 시스템 등의 복잡한 시스템의 중요한 설계원칙 중 하나로 자리잡았으며 다양한 분야에서 연구 대상이 되어왔다. 산업계에서 전자산업과 같이 모듈성이 높은 산업에서는 기술혁신의 속도가 빠르고, 모듈성이 낮은 자동차 산업에서는 혁신의 속도가 느리다는 이야기를 흔히 한다. 본 연구의 목적은 이러한 산업계의 직관적 관찰을 진화적 관점에서 시뮬레이션 모형을 통해 표현하고 확인해보는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 Ma and Nakamori(2005)의 기술혁신에 대한 행위자기반 모형을 이용하여 제품의 모듈성을 제품의 설계 구성요소들 간의 관계를 나타내는 특성으로 정의하고, 기술진화적 관점에서 제품 아키텍처의 모듈성 정도가 기술혁신의 속도 및 성과에 미치는 영향을 고찰해보았다. 시뮬레이션 결과, 높은 제품 모듈성을 가진 산업일수록 더 빠른 기술혁신 속도를 보이지만, 모듈성이 너무 높은 산업에서는 제품 성능면에서 가능성의 공간이 제한되어 높은 성과를 달성하지 못함을 확인할 수 있었다. 본 연구 결과를 통해 제품 모듈성과 기술혁신 사이 관계에 대한 일반화된 결론과 함께 학문적, 정책적, 경영적 시사점을 도출하였다.Modularity originated from concepts such as 'near-decompossibility' and 'loose coupling' and has become one of the important design principles of complex systems such as technical and organizational systems, and has been studied in various fields. In the industry, it is common to say that technological innovation is fast in highly modular industries such as the electronics industry, and that innovation is slow in automobile industries with low modularity. The purpose of this study is to express and confirm these intuitive observations of the industry through a simulation model from an evolutionary point of view. In this study, Ma and Nakamori (2005)'s Agent-based model for technological innovation was used to define product modularity as a characteristic representing the relationship between product design components, and to examine the effect of the degree of modularity of product architecture on the speed and performance of technological innovation. The simulation shows that industries with high product modularity show a faster pace of technological innovation, but industries with too much modularity do not achieve high performance due to limited possibility space in terms of product performance. Through the results of this study, academic, policy, and management implications were derived along with generalized conclusions on the relationship between product modularity and technological innovation.목 차 초 록 iii 목 차 iv 표 목차 vi 그림 목차 vii 1. 서론 1 2. 이론적 배경 및 선행연구 5 2.1 모듈성의 개념 5 2.2 제품 모듈성과 기술혁신 8 2.3 제품진화 시뮬레이션 13 3. 연구방법론 16 3.1 행위자기반 시뮬레이션 모형 16 3.1.1 연구방법론으로서의 행위자기반 모형 16 3.1.2 Ma and Nakamori(2005)의 행위자기반 모형 18 3.2 제품 아키텍처의 모듈성 25 4. 시뮬레이션 결과 및 고찰 28 4.1 모형 타당성 검증 29 4.2 제품 모듈성에 따른 기술혁신 속도 및 성과 차이 37 4.3 강건성 분석 46 5. 결론 57 5.1 요약 및 시사점 57 5.2 한계점 및 향후연구 59 참 고 문 헌 61 Abstract 69석

Pudotusputken suunnitteluprosessin kehittäminen – Osittain konfiguroitavan tuotealustan kehitys projektiliiketoimintaympäristöön

Tämä diplomityö kohdistui MSP-pudotusputken tuoterakenteen ja sen suunnitteluprosessin kehittämiseen, josta ANDRITZ Oy:n tuotehallinnan osasto vastaa. Tavoitteena oli nopeuttaa suunnitteluun käytettävää aikaa, minimoida projektikohtaista kopiointia sekä parantaa sarjoitus- ja mitoitustiedon hallintaa. Työssä käytettiin aineistonkeruumenetelminä kirjallisuuskatsausta, haastatteluita, tilastoja sekä yhtiön dokumentaatiota. Työ jakaantui neljään osaan: työn johdantoon, kirjallisuustutkimukseen, käytännön toteutukseen sekä johtopäätöksiin. Suunnittelu- ja tuotekehitysprosessiin vaikuttavat yrityksen liiketoimintaympäristön lisäksi kehitettävä tuoterakenne ja sen muuntelutarve. Koska ANDRITZ Oy toimittaa projektikohtaisia tuotteita, syvennyttiin kirjallisuustutkimuksessa projektiliiketoimintaan liittyvien suunnitteluprosessien teoriaan. Tarkoituksena oli selvittää yritykselle sekä sen tuoteperheelle sopivin suunnitteluprosessi, jota pystyttiin hyödyntämään käytännön toteutuksessa. Kirjallisuustutkimuksen aikana myös muunneltavan tuoterakenteen teoriaan kiinnitettiin huomiota, jotta kehitettävä pudotusputken tuoterakenne sekä sen suunnitteluprosessi tukisivat toisiaan tehokkaan toiminnan varmistamiseksi. Kirjallisuustutkimuksen keskeisenä johtopäätöksenä oli, että muunneltavien tuotteiden kehitys pohjautuu pääasiassa modulointiin, tuotealustan ja tuoteperheen kehittämiseen sekä tuotekonfigurointiin. Projektituotteet edellyttävät lisäksi toimituskohtaista suunnittelua, mikä asettaa rajoitteita tuotestrukturoinnissa hyödynnettäville menetelmille. Täysimittainen tuotekonfigurointi on esimerkiksi projektiliiketoimintaympäristöön usein liian jäykkä ratkaisu. Tehdyn kirjallisuusselvityksen perusteella todettiin, että projektiliiketoimintaa harjoittavien yritysten tuotteille soveltuvimpia tuotekehitys- ja suunnitteluprosessin paradigmoja olivat avoimeen moduulijärjestelmään perustuvan tuotealustan ja osittain konfiguroinnin kehittäminen. Kirjallisuustutkimuksessa tutkittiin lisäksi eri muunneltavien tuotteiden suunnitteluprosesseja. Koska suunnittelu- ja tuotekehitysprosessi kohdistui jo olemassa olevan tuoterakenteen kehittämiseen, valikoitui käytettäväksi suunnittelumenetelmäksi Brownfield-prosessi. Sen avulla olemassa oleva tuotevalikoima saatiin rationalisoitua kohti modulaarista tuoteperhettä, joka mahdollisti samalla konfiguroinnin. Käytännön toteutus toteutettiin Brownfield-prosessin askelia seuraamalla, muuttamalla pudotusputken tuoterakenne parametrisesta tuoterakenteesta modulaariseksi tuoteperheeksi. Käytännön toteutuksen aikana pudotusputken tuotearkkitehtuuri sekä mitoitus- ja sarjoitustieto päivitettiin ajan tasalle, tuoterakenne jaettiin geneerisiin elementteihin sekä konfigurointitieto määritettiin konfigurointia varten. Käytännön toteutuksen tuloksena oli pudotusputkelle kehitetty sen eri tuotevariaatiot kattava 0-malli, joka perustuu avoimeen moduulijärjestelmään sekä osittain konfiguroitavaan tuotealustaan. Tutkimukselle asetetut tavoitteet saavutettiin niiltä osin kuin niitä pystyttiin arvioimaan. Työn eräänä havaintona oli se, että kirjallisuudessa esitettyjen muunneltavien tuotteiden suunnitteluprosessien sekä tuoterakenteen suunnittelumenetelmien hyödyt olivat linjassa käytännön toteutuksessa tehtyjen havaintojen kanssa. Työn lopuksi esitettiin myös toteutuksen aikana tunnistettuja eri jatkotutkimus- ja kehityskohteita, kuten oman suuttimen kehitys sekä MTS-pudotusputken tuoterakenteen päivitys.This thesis focused on the development of the product structure and design process for the MSP-standpipe, for which ANDRITZ Oy's product management department is responsible for. The goal was to minimize the time used on designing, reduce project-specific copying, and improve management of serialization and dimensioning information. The data collection methods used in this thesis were literature review, interviews, statistics and company documentation. The thesis was divided into four parts: introduction, literature research, practical implementation, and conclusion. In addition to the company's business environment, the design and the product development processes are affected by the product structure and its variation needs. Since ANDRITZ Oy supplies project-specific products, the literature research focused on the theory of design processes in a project business environment. The purpose was to define the most suitable design process for the company and its product family. This process is then utilized in the practical implementation. During the literature research, attention was also paid to the theory of the modifiable product structure, so that the product structure of the standpipe and its design process would support each other to ensure efficient operation. The main conclusion of the literature research was that the development of variable products are mainly based on modularization, platform and product family development, and product configuration. The products used in project businesses also require customer-specific solutions, which set restrictions for product structuring methods. For example, a fully configurable solution might be too rigid for the project business environment. According to the literature research, it could be concluded that the most suitable product development and design process paradigms for the company was the development of a product platform based on a partly configurable open module system. In addition, the different design processes for configurable products were examined in the literature research. Since the design and product development process focused on the development of an already existing product structure, the Brownfield process was selected as the design method to be used. With it, the existing product range could be rationalized towards a modular product family, which enables configuration. The practical implementation was carried out by following the steps of the Brownfield process. In this process, the product structure of the standpipe was redesigned from a parametric structure to a modular product family. During the implementation, the product architecture of the standpipe as well as the dimensioning and serialization information were updated. The product structure was also divided into generic elements, and the configuration information was determined for the configuration task. The outcome of the practical implementation was a 0-model developed for the standpipe covering all its different variations and sizes. This 0-model was based on an open module system and a partly configurable product platform. The goals set for this thesis were achieved to the extent that they could be assessed. One of the observations of the work was that the benefits of the design processes and the design methods of the product structure of modifiable products presented in the literature were in line with the observations made in practical implementation. At the end of the work, various further research and development topics identified during the implementation were also presented. These included among other things the development of the own spray nozzle and the update of the product structure of the MTS-standpipe

Speeding-up new product development Vs rapid development

Nowadays, the increasing competitiveness inside the markets has ended up in a huge necessity by companies to improve and accelerate the development of new products. It is for that reason that distinguishing the different types of projects and treating them accurately according to their own needs is essential in order to save costs and resources, thus making a good product performance and remaining and even increasing their market share. In this thesis some theoretical and practical approach is going to be presented about which are the determinant factors in order to decide whether a project requires a whole implementation of New Product Development or whether it needs a fast track process using Rapid Development concept. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to study which are the main differences and similarities between these two processes, and how these two concepts are understood inside the companies. This work has been carried out by doing a literature review of the topic in order to define the theoretical framework, and by studying the case of 4 companies, making interviews and analyzing the collected data so as to see how they understand and apply these processes in practice. As a result, this thesis defines both processes finally making a list of their main determinant factors. Furthermore, it joins these theoretical findings with the data acquired in the interviews detecting that the companies have not a differentiated standardized RaDe process yet although the majority of them understand the importance of having one to improve the company’s performance. On the other hand, it has been detected that the companies who have stronger criteria about that concept seem to be the ones who are having less difficulties on building a more defined path to implement a separate process for fast track projects.Outgoin