The current marketplace is undergoing an accelerated pace of change that challenges corporations to innovate new techniques to respond rapidly to an ever-changing environment. At the center of this changing environment is a new generation of empowered buyers (customers) equipped with fast evolving technologies that allow them to buy from markets scattered across the globe. Empowering the customers has deprived organizations of what was once their right-to introduce new products slowly, at their own leisure. Organizations used to introduce new products every few years, and, for the most part, products offered limited functionalities and features. A low-priced quality product-irrespective of customer satisfaction-was a guaranteed ticket for success. New global economies and global markets changed business practices and focused on the customer as the major player in the economy. Organizations now fail or succeed based upon their ability to respond quickly to changing customer demands and to utilize new technological innovations. In such an environment, the advantage goes to the firm that can offer greater varieties of new products with higher performance and greater overall appeal. In order to compete in this fast-paced global market, organizations need to produce products that can be easily configured to offer distinctive capabilities compared to the competition. Furthermore, organizations need to develop new methods and techniques to react rapidly to required changes in products and market trends and to shorten the product development cycle, which will enable them to gain more economic competitiveness.

We live in a dynamic economic and commerical world, surrounded by objects of remarkable complexity and power. In many industries, changes in products and technologies have brought with them new kinds of firms and forms of organization. We are discovering news ways of structuring work, of bringing buyers and sellers together, and of creating and using market information. Although our fast-moving economy often seems to be outside of our influence or control, human beings create the things that create the market forces. Devices, software programs, production processes, contracts, firms, and markets are all the fruit of purposeful action: they are designed. Using the computer industry as an example, Carliss Y. Baldwin and Kim B. Clark develop a powerful theory of design and industrial evolution. They argue that the industry has experienced previously unimaginable levels of innovation and growth because it embraced the concept of modularity, building complex products from smaller subsystems that can be designed independently yet function together as a whole. Modularity freed designers to experiment with different approaches, as long as they obeyed the established design rules. Drawing upon the literatures of industrial organization, real options, and computer architecture, the authors provide insight into the forces of change that drive today's economy.

Bringing together the expertise of worldwide authorities in the field, Design for X is the first comprehensive book to offer systematic and structured coverage of contemporary and concurrent product development techniques. It features over fifteen techniques, including: design for manufacture and assembly; design for distribution; design for quality; and design for the environment. Alternative approaches and common elements are discussed and critical issues such as integration and tradeoff are explored.

Product design significantly influences product cost and quality, as well as market share and profitability of a firm. Design projects often involve many people belonging to different functional areas and in many organizations several design projects may be under way at the same time. Due to this complexity, management of design has given rise to a rich set of research problems in management and engineering. In this volume, design is considered as the planning and specification activity prior to fabrication. Design determines what products will be produced, how they will be produced, and when they will be introduced into the market. The quality of the products and the speed with which they are developed are significantly affected by the design process. The design process by which a product is developed is determined by the managerial and engineering practices, tools and techniques. This book presents engineering and management perspectives on design. Topics covered include: Decomposition of product development projects; Tools and techniques for preliminary evaluation of designs; Interface between design and manufacturing, assembly and distribution; Design information flows, and Determination of the scope, timing and duration of projects, and the allocation of resources.

Modular products are products that fulfill various overall functions through the combination of distinct building blocks or modules, in the sense that the overall function performed by the product can be divided into sub-functions that can be implemented by different modules or components. An important aspect of modular products is the creation of a basic core unit to which different components (modules) can be fitted, thus enabling a variety of versions of the same module to be produced. The core should have sufficient capacity to cope with all expected variations in performance and usage. Components used in a modular product must have features that enable them to be coupled together to form a complex product. Modularity will promote: reduction in product development time; customization and upgrades; cost efficiencies due to amortization; quality design standardization; and reduction in order lead time. The purpose of this book is to develop a structured approach to the design of products using the concept of modularity, assembly, and manufacturability. The book has proposed and developed a structured and systematic approach to product and systems design using the modularity concept. Mathematical and genetic algorithm models are developed to support the developed methodology.

This text presents a set of product development techniques aimed at bringing together the marketing, design, and manufacturing functions of the enterprise. The integrative methods facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.

A starter to the concepts of modularization and mass customization. Condensed and application-oriented approach for a broad audience in engineering, production, sales and marketing. Provides an extensive configurator evaluation checklist for future users and a supplement of business cases.