Product portfolio map:a visual tool for supporting product variant discovery and structuring

A fundamental criterion for reusing and continuously improving knowledge in product development is ensuring that the knowledge is explicit and visual.This paper is based on the situation of an engineer-to-order(ETO) manufacturing company,where historically grown product variety and related knowledge are diffuse(tacit).Consequently,several resources are used in(re)developing derivatives of previous products rather than innovating new ones.To establish a more competitive configure-to-order(CTO) product strategy,product knowledge needs to be revealed,systemized,and structured,and thus made explicit.Hence,product-specific knowledge and product variants have been analyzed and subsequently mapped at architectural,functional,and physical levels in one unified map and tested in the form of a proof-of-concept(POC)demonstrator with the introduced SME company.The result is a product portfolio map that forms a base for defining a systemized,transparent,unified product variant overview,which can be used as a basis for implementing a cross-variant product architecture and supporting knowledge-based approaches.