product structure

Today in mechanical engineering it is hardly possible to elude the demands for a variant-rich product spectrum. The resulting complexity can be reduced and controlled only by effective and efficient variant management. This article presents the product structuring as one of the central tasks of variant management in product development. The structuring determines the characteristics of the product just as the development process and has substantial influence on every process in the enterprise.

As a consequence of the increasing globalization many industrial companies see themselves forced to secure their competitive ability by an internationalization of their production locations. This requires a long-term planning of the future product structures and process chains, in order to control the variant variety and to protect the core competences. Objectives of the described method are a generation of variants close to the market and a bundling of the core competences.

Profilerating product complexity has numerous reasons and consequences for the whole enterprise. Often these are unknown. The management of product complexity addresses neither the unifold maximization nor the minimization of product diversity. Managing product complexity, i. e. product range, product sequence and product assembly, means to achieve an optimum where high cus-tomer value can be reached whilst maintaining comparatively low cost of production. The VMEA method (Variant Mode and Effects Analysis) is designed and proven for the optimization of both the product assembly and the product functions. It facilitates a systematic and consequent approach to managing product complexity. Thus product complexity can be used as strategic success position and competitive advantage.