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HOW DESIGNERS STRATEGICALLY MANAGE PRODUCT PORTFOLIOS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2021

Torbjörn Andersson ,
Johan Ölvander  and
Renee Wever
Torbjörn Andersson*
Affiliation:
Linköping University, Dep. Management and Engineering, Div. of Machine Design
Johan Ölvander
Affiliation:
Linköping University, Dep. Management and Engineering, Div. of Machine Design
Renee Wever
Affiliation:
Linköping University, Dep. Management and Engineering, Div. of Machine Design
*
Andersson, Torbjörn Per, Linköping University, Machine design, Sweden, [email protected]

Abstract

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The continuous management of a manufacturing company's product portfolio is a key aspect of successful product development. Managers determine when and which products should be updated or terminated. This process influences inhouse Industrial design teams, thus prompting a range of development strategies they might deploy. In product portfolio management there is a tension between standardisation and customisation. From a marketing perspective this is may be addressed through brand DNA, from engineering through modularization. The design perspective (merging those two) has been ill-explored, particularly from professional designers. Previously we proposed a theoretical model describing different industrial design projects and how they influence industrial designers strategic thinking. It was developed through literature reviews and examples found in manufacturing industry. Through a multi-case interview study with 16 participants from five manufacturing companies with strong brands, this article aims to empirically evaluate the proposed model. The results show that the respondents could describe all but one industrial design projects, the cause maybe that they had not been exposed to saving a company by doing a total makeover.

Keywords

Product portfolio managementCase studyIndustrial designDesign management
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 1: ICED21 , August 2021 , pp. 1725 - 1734
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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