The Experts below are selected from a list of 59625 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Sebastian K. Fixson - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The power of integrality: Linkages between Product Architecture, innovation, and industry structure
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2007Co-Authors: Sebastian K. Fixson, Jin-kyu ParkAbstract:A substantial literature stream suggests that many Products are becoming more modular over time, and that this development is often associated with a change in industry structure towards higher degrees of specialization. These developments can have strong implications for an industry's competition as the history of the PC industry illustrates. To add to our understanding of the linkages between Product Architecture, innovation, and industry structure we develop detailed Product Architecture measurements based on a previously proposed method [Fixson, S.K., 2005. Product Architecture assessment: a tool to link Product, process, and supply chain design decisions. Journal of Operations Management 23 (3/4), 345-369] and study an unusual case in which a firm - through decreasing its Product modularity - turned its formerly competitive industry into a near-monopoly. Using this case study we explore how existing theories on modularity explain the observed phenomenon, and show that most consider technological change in rather long-term dimensions, and tend to focus on efficiency-related arguments to explain the resulting forces on competition. We add three critical aspects to the theory that connects technological change and industry dynamics. First, we suggest integrating as a new design operator to explain Product Architecture genesis. Second, we argue that a finer-grained analysis of the Product Architecture shows the existence of multiple linkages between Product Architecture and industry structure, and that these different linkages help explain the observed intra-industry heterogeneity across firms. Third, we propose that the firm boundary choice can also be a pre-condition of the origin of architectural innovation, not only an outcome of efficiency considerations.
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Product Architecture assessment: A tool to link Product, process, and supply chain design decisions
Journal of Operations Management, 2005Co-Authors: Sebastian K. FixsonAbstract:Increasingly heterogeneous markets, together with shorter Product life cycles, are forcing many companies to simultaneously compete in the three domains of Product, process, and supply chain. Dependencies among decisions across these domains make this competitive situation very complex. To address this complexity, three-dimensional concurrent engineering (3D-CE) has been suggested ([Fine, C.H., 1998. Clockspeed - Winning Industry Control in the Age of Temporary Advantage. Perseus Books, Reading, MA.]). Applying 3D-CE requires an operationalization of one of its core elements: the Product Architecture. In this paper, I develop a multi-dimensional framework that enables comprehensive Product Architecture assessments. The framework builds on existing Product characteristic concepts such as component commonality, Product platforms, and Product modularity. The framework's utility is illustrated with two example Products, showing how individual Product Architecture dimensions link decisions across different domains. This framework can be used to focus advice for Product design on Product Architecture dimensions that are critical for a given operational strategy, to assess advantages and limitations of operational strategies in conjunction with given Product Architectures, or to develop dynamic capabilities such as planning effective Product-operation strategy combinations. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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assessing Product Architecture costing Product life cycles allocation rules and cost models
Design Automation Conference, 2004Co-Authors: Sebastian K. FixsonAbstract:Product families and Product platforms have been suggested as design strategies to serve heterogeneous markets via mass customization. Numerous, individual cost advantages of these strategies have been identified for various life cycle processes such as Product design, manufacturing, or inventory. However, these advantages do not always occur simultaneously, and sometimes even counteract each other. To develop a better understanding of these phenomena, this paper investigates the cost implications of the underlying design decision: the Product Architecture choice. The investigation includes factors such as Product life cycle phases, allocation rules, and cost models, all of which impact the cost analysis results. Based on this investigation, directions for future research on Product Architecture costing are provided.Copyright © 2004 by ASME
Oluwafemi Famuyiwa - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Matching Product Architecture with supply chain design
European Journal of Operational Research, 2012Co-Authors: Bimal Nepal, Leslie Monplaisir, Oluwafemi FamuyiwaAbstract:Product Architecture is typically established in the early stages of the Product development (PD) cycle. Depending on the type of Architecture selected, Product design, manufacturing processes, and ultimately supply chain configuration are all significantly affected. Therefore, it is important to integrate Product Architecture decisions with manufacturing and supply chain decisions during the early stage of the Product development. In this paper, we present a multi-objective optimization framework for matching Product Architecture strategy to supply chain design. In contrast to the existing operations management literature, we incorporate the compatibility between the supply chain partners into our model to ensure the long term viability of the supply chain. Since much of the supplier related information may be very subjective in nature during the early stages of PD, we use fuzzy logic to compute the compatibility index of a supplier. The optimization model is formulated as a weighted goal programming (GP) model with two objectives: minimization of total supply chain costs, and maximization of total supply chain compatibility index. The GP model is solved by using genetic algorithm. We present case examples for two different Products to demonstrate the model’s efficacy, and present several managerial implications that evolved from this study.
Maryvonne Dulmet - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Simulating change propagation between Product Architecture and development organization.
International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2010Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Jean-pierre Micaëlli, Ghassen Harmel, Maryvonne DulmetAbstract:In order to limit the effects of technological change on Product design, concepts like Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced, in order to support complex Product development. In engineering design, numerous works have studied this central issue but change propagation within Product Architecture has been hardly addressed. Concerning organizational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to new organization design but hardly to an incremental evolution of project organization. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that Product Architecture and development organization were strongly interrelated. However, little research has studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of Product and organization co-evolution remains. This paper aims at presenting a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between Product Architecture and development organization. This method uses a "management by uncertainty" approach and a mathematical model in order to propagate change. An industrial case study illustrates it in case of component changes.
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Simulating change propagation between Product Architecture and development organisation
International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2010Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Jean-pierre Micaëlli, Ghassen Harmel, Maryvonne DulmetAbstract:In order to limit the effects of technological change on Product design, concepts such as Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced, in order to support complex Product development. In engineering design, numerous works have studied this central issue but change propagation within Product Architecture has hardly been addressed. Concerning organisational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to a new organisation design but hardly any to an incremental evolution of project organisation. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that Product Architecture and development organisation were strongly interrelated. However, few research works have studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of Product and organisation co-evolution remains. This paper aims to present a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between Product Architecture and development organisation. This method uses a 'management b...
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Propagating Product Architecture decisions onto the project organization : a comparison between two methods.
International Journal of Design Engineering, 2009Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Maryvonne Dulmet, Samuel Deniaud, Jean-pierre MicaëlliAbstract:Concepts like Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced in order to limit the effects of technological change on complex Product design. Researchers have highlighted that Product Architectures and design organizations (projects, teams...) are strongly interrelated. However, little research has analyzed this relationship. System architects and design managers need a method that helps them to simulate the mapping of the Product Architecture onto the project organization by propagating choices and then assessing alternatives. In this paper, two propagation methods are presented and compared. The first one is based on a fuzzy process, which is proposed by the authors. The second one is based on a matrix approach. Both are applied to define new robotized gearbox Architectures. A sensitivity analysis is conducted. It is concluded that in new Product development situations or in re-engineering projects, system architects could use these methods in the early design stages to forecast the more appropriate design project organization.
Glen M Schmidt - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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matching Product Architecture and supply chain configuration
Production and Operations Management, 2010Co-Authors: Sezer Ulku, Glen M SchmidtAbstract:In this paper, we examine the suggested link between Product Architecture (i.e., the extent to which a Product is modular vs. integral) and supply chain configuration (i.e., whether the Product development is done internally by the manufacturer in an integrated supply chain or in collaboration with a supplier in a decentralized supply chain). Our model suggests that the choice of Product Architecture depends on firm, market, and Product characteristics in addition to supply chain structure. In contrast to other studies, we find that the optimal mapping from Architecture to supply chain structure is not always one-to-one. A decentralized supply chain may be associated with a more integral Product when the technical collaboration penalty is not excessive and suppliers have significantly superior Product development capabilities. Furthermore, in a decentralized supply chain, the nature of the relationship between the original equipment manufacturer and its supplier (adversarial or collaborative) plays a role in the choice of Product Architecture: modular Architectures are more likely when the parties have adversarial relationships, while long-term trust-based relationships facilitate more integral Product Architectures.
Eric Bonjour - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Simulating change propagation between Product Architecture and development organization.
International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2010Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Jean-pierre Micaëlli, Ghassen Harmel, Maryvonne DulmetAbstract:In order to limit the effects of technological change on Product design, concepts like Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced, in order to support complex Product development. In engineering design, numerous works have studied this central issue but change propagation within Product Architecture has been hardly addressed. Concerning organizational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to new organization design but hardly to an incremental evolution of project organization. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that Product Architecture and development organization were strongly interrelated. However, little research has studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of Product and organization co-evolution remains. This paper aims at presenting a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between Product Architecture and development organization. This method uses a "management by uncertainty" approach and a mathematical model in order to propagate change. An industrial case study illustrates it in case of component changes.
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Simulating change propagation between Product Architecture and development organisation
International Journal of Mass Customisation, 2010Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Jean-pierre Micaëlli, Ghassen Harmel, Maryvonne DulmetAbstract:In order to limit the effects of technological change on Product design, concepts such as Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced, in order to support complex Product development. In engineering design, numerous works have studied this central issue but change propagation within Product Architecture has hardly been addressed. Concerning organisational issues, many researchers in the field of industrial engineering have paid careful attention to a new organisation design but hardly any to an incremental evolution of project organisation. Galbraith (1977) highlighted that Product Architecture and development organisation were strongly interrelated. However, few research works have studied this relationship, and the need for a coherent model of Product and organisation co-evolution remains. This paper aims to present a matrix-based method that should help design managers to simulate change propagation between Product Architecture and development organisation. This method uses a 'management b...
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Propagating Product Architecture decisions onto the project organization : a comparison between two methods.
International Journal of Design Engineering, 2009Co-Authors: Eric Bonjour, Maryvonne Dulmet, Samuel Deniaud, Jean-pierre MicaëlliAbstract:Concepts like Product Architecture and modularity have been introduced in order to limit the effects of technological change on complex Product design. Researchers have highlighted that Product Architectures and design organizations (projects, teams...) are strongly interrelated. However, little research has analyzed this relationship. System architects and design managers need a method that helps them to simulate the mapping of the Product Architecture onto the project organization by propagating choices and then assessing alternatives. In this paper, two propagation methods are presented and compared. The first one is based on a fuzzy process, which is proposed by the authors. The second one is based on a matrix approach. Both are applied to define new robotized gearbox Architectures. A sensitivity analysis is conducted. It is concluded that in new Product development situations or in re-engineering projects, system architects could use these methods in the early design stages to forecast the more appropriate design project organization.
