Discussion: Product Families and Mass Customization ME 546 - Designing Product Families - IE 546 Timothy W. Simpson Professor of Mechanical & Industrial Engineering and Engineering Design The Pennsylvania State University University Park, PA 16802 USA phone: (814) 863-7136 email: tws8@psu.edu http://www.mne.psu.edu/simpson/courses/me546 PENNSTATE © T. W. SIMPSON

Overview of Class Discuss Examples from Homework #1: Procedure: Gather with everyone that studied your company (4-5 people) In your group, discuss answers to questions on next slide Summarize discussion on overhead transparencies Elect someone to present your group’s results to the class Each group will then have 5 min. to “teach” everyone else in class about what their particular company is doing and how it related to designing product families ABB Black & Decker Cetetherm Honeywell HP Innovation Factory Lutron NBIC Sony

Discuss the Following in Your Group: Briefly describe your company and its product line What is the extent of the product variety being offered? What are the key enabling technologies used by the company to provide this product variety? Is the company mass customizing goods or effectively using a family of products? Do they differentiate between the two? Is mass customization worth pursing? Are product families worth pursuing? Why? Is there a relationship between mass customization and product families? If so, what? How do the views and opinions expressed in this paper relate to the course question: How can product realization teams provide increased product variety at less cost for a highly competitive, global marketplace?