Value analysis for customizable modular product platforms: theory and case study

Mass customization and product platform design can exploit the benefits of modularity and provide personalized devices at competitive costs through economies of scope. However, customization-intense platforms can have thousands of potential configurations, whose development and verification must be prioritized. This paper develops a value analysis methodology that is able to rank alternative platform configurations according to customers’ preferences. It introduces Logit value, a definition of value based on a well-known stated choice model and explains the five steps of platform-based value analysis. Since product platforms are complex technical systems, particular attention is given to the gathering of information, the automatic generation of platform architectures and the visualization of results. A case study based on Google ARA’s Spiral-2 modular smart phone concept demonstrates an application of the methodology and shows its potential benefits. The case study leverages data from a conjoint analysis and survey of 200 potential customers in Puerto Rico and a generated set of over 21,000 potential configurations of which less than 1% are shown to be non-dominated. The value analysis identifies module types that are compatible with the modular product platform and appear in a high percentage of Pareto architectures. Knowledge pertaining to non-dominated configurations can provide insights into module development strategy and verification/validation activities.