TY - GEN
T1 - Crafting a product platform strategy
T2 - 2013 Portland International Conference on Management of Engineering and Technology, PICMET 2013
AU - Shibata, Tomoatsu
AU - Kodama, Mituru
PY - 2013/12/26
Y1 - 2013/12/26
N2 - The aim of this article is to build new product development strategy for parts supplier. One difficulty in product development of parts suppliers is that they are faced with dilemma of choosing between product efficiency and product differentiation. To achieve efficiency, suppliers need to standardize part as much as possible. On the other hand, to achieve product differentiation, supplier need to customize part and it will decrease efficiency. Therefore, achieving both is difficult. Particularly, pars are embedded within final product and final product manufactures have strong demand for customized parts best suitable for their products. First, we conduct in-depth case analysis of Mabuchi Motor from perspective of product architecture and organization. Mabuchi specializes in miniature DC brushed motors. Mabuchi has held a more than 50% share of the worldwide market, a success driven by the company's strategy of creating common pratform for their products. We analyze how Mabuchi is able to continually meet strong demands for customized products, while maintaining high profitability. Then, we enhance product platform strategy from the case study. Finally, we discuss the validity of the strategy, based on existing findings and literature.
AB - The aim of this article is to build new product development strategy for parts supplier. One difficulty in product development of parts suppliers is that they are faced with dilemma of choosing between product efficiency and product differentiation. To achieve efficiency, suppliers need to standardize part as much as possible. On the other hand, to achieve product differentiation, supplier need to customize part and it will decrease efficiency. Therefore, achieving both is difficult. Particularly, pars are embedded within final product and final product manufactures have strong demand for customized parts best suitable for their products. First, we conduct in-depth case analysis of Mabuchi Motor from perspective of product architecture and organization. Mabuchi specializes in miniature DC brushed motors. Mabuchi has held a more than 50% share of the worldwide market, a success driven by the company's strategy of creating common pratform for their products. We analyze how Mabuchi is able to continually meet strong demands for customized products, while maintaining high profitability. Then, we enhance product platform strategy from the case study. Finally, we discuss the validity of the strategy, based on existing findings and literature.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84890847224
SN - 9781890843274
T3 - 2013 Proceedings of PICMET 2013: Technology Management in the IT-Driven Services
SP - 1625
EP - 1633
BT - 2013 Proceedings of PICMET 2013
Y2 - 28 July 2013 through 1 August 2013
ER -