Product variety analysis based on reconfiguration process

Mass production is no longer a competitive advantage for firms nowadays. Global firms are pushed to introduce as many product varieties as possible due to ever increasing trend towards customized products. Developing customized products become the major pathway to gain market gain and earn more revenues. However, this principle is not an easy and cost effective paradigm for most manufacturing organizations. Several innovative strategies such as; components commonality, modularization, standardization etc. could be adopted for enhancing product varieties within minimum cost and higher quality that satisfy customers needs. In this paper, we have investigated through an example and explained how commonality issue influences on developing product-mix with reduced cost and higher quality. The outcomes from this example show that more commonality index for any parts, more suitable that parts for making variety. We also applied design structure matrix (DSM) methodology to making better orderings of tasks and creating modules that helps to create product variety.