This class of MIT's Professional Education Program may be interesting for some of you, as it teaches some of the fundamentals of a mass customization strategy: the ability to deploy and manage a family of products in a competitive manner.
Product Platform and Product Family Design: From Strategy to Implementation, Course for Professionals, MIT Campus, June 18-22, 2007, by Professors Olivier de Weck and Timothy W. Simpson
This course explores how product architecture and platforms can help a firm deploy and manage a family of products in a competitive manner. We will examine both strategic as well as implementation aspects of this challenge. A key strategy is to develop and manufacture a family of product variants derived from a common platform and/or modular architecture. Reuse of components, processes and design solutions leads to advantages in learning curves and economies of scale, which have to be carefully balanced against the desire for product customization and competitive pressures.
Additionally, platform strategies can lead to innovation and generation of new revenue growth, by intelligently leveraging existing brands, modules, and sub-system technologies. We will present the latest theory as well as a number of case studies and industrial examples on this important topic. We will engage the course participants through interactive discussion and hands-on activities. Recent strategic issues such as embedding flexibility in product platforms as well as the effect of platforms on a firm's cost structure, organization, and market segmentation will also be presented.
The course is targeted towards executive decision makers, product managers, marketing managers, product line strategists, product architects, as well as platform and systems engineers in industrial and government contexts.
Comments