Effects of Product Personalization: Considering Personalizability in the Product Architecture of Modular Product Families

The modularity of a product architecture with standard, variant, and optional modules can be measured by the characteristics of commonality and combinability. Positive and negative effects of a more communal or more combinable structure are summarized and visualized in an impact model. However, due to the megatrend of personalization, the solution space of a modular product architecture needs to be extended to include personalizable modules. What remains unclear till now is how personalization impacts the different life phases. Therefore, this article derives an impact model considering product personalization. First, the modularity property of personalizability is derived, in order to then specifically investigate the effects occurring in the different life phases. Therefore, a literature review is conducted. New effects are found, and the existing effects of commonality and combinability are examined for their validity for personalizability. The findings are then combined with the known effects of commonality and combinability to create a holistic impact model of modular product families. This new model takes personalizable modules into account and can support companies in defining the goals and focus of a modularization project.