Modelling the Costs and Benefits of Delayed Product Differentiation
构建了一个简单模型，分析延迟产品差异化策略的成本与收益，并通过实例探讨标准化、模块化设计和流程重组三种方法，帮助管理者确定最优差异化时点。
Expanding product variety and high customer service provision are both major challenges for manufacturers to compete in the global market. In addition to many ongoing programs, such as lead-time reduction, redesigning products and processes so as to delay the point of product differentiation is becoming an emerging means to address these challenges. Such a strategy calls for redesigning products and processes so that the stages of the production process in which a common process is used are prolonged. This product/process redesign will defer the point of differentiation (i.e., defer the stage after which the products assume their unique identities). In this paper, we develop a simple model that captures the costs and benefits associated with this redesign strategy. We apply this simple model to analyze some special cases that are motivated by real examples. These special cases enable us to formalize three different product/process redesign approaches (standardization, modular design, and process restructuring) for delaying product differentiation that some companies are beginning to pursue. Finally, we analyze some special theoretical cases that enable us to characterize the optimal point of product differentiation and derive managerial insights.