Customer-specific starting solutions and product architecture adaption in the B2B configuration process

客户对个性化的要求导致了产品变种的增加和公司内部复杂性的增加。项目企业，特别是按订单工程(ETO)加工的企业，具有高度个性化的特点。然而，在这些公司中，想要减少产品变体是很难实现的，因为现有的产品变体不能以简单的方式消除。产品变体的消除需要在理论解空间内进行。这给企业带来了两个挑战。一方面，必须最小化由变量引起的复杂性成本。另一方面，变量的多样性可能会导致决策过程中客户决策的复杂性。基于DFG资助的一个完整的研究项目，必须回答如何将客户特定的需求高效地转化为降低复杂性的产品架构，客户需求多样性的确定性和可用性通常通过产品配置器来实现，这显著增加了客户感知的决策复杂性。这个问题的一个解决方案是实施预定义的配置解决方案，即所谓的启动解决方案。因此，本研究项目的目的是考虑在B2B配置过程中使用特定于客户的启动解决方案对产品体系结构进行系统的和客户集成的适应。本研究主要针对ETO公司进行研究。亚琛大学市场营销学教授主要研究客户偏好的形成和控制，亚琛大学机床与生产工程实验室(WZL)阐述了针对特定客户群体的系统产品架构适配。在第一步中，将推导出面向客户的启动解决方案集成的需求。在下文中，将为客户特定启动解决方案的定义、分配和选择开发一个描述、分配和评估模型。调整产品架构的过程将被认为是伴随而来的。在最后一步，将为研究成果的实际应用开发一个示范工具，并将促进研究成果的转让。计划中的研究提案将通过确定启动解决方案来提高B2B配置过程的效率和效力。此外，还将考虑客户特定的偏好映射和内部复杂性影响。这一命题还可以使产品架构适应，并在配置过程中尽早实现产品和客户偏好之间更高的一致性，同时避免内部复杂性影响。

The customer requirements for the individualization leads to an increase of product variants and increased complexity effects within the company. Companies in project business, especially the engineer-to-order (ETO) processing, are characterized by a high level of individualization. However, in these companies the desired reduction of product variants is difficult to achieve because existing product variants cannot be eliminated in a simple way. The elimination of product variants needs to be conducted within the theoretical solution space. This creates two challenges for companies. On the one hand, the variant-induced complexity costs have to be minimized. On the other hand, the diversity of variants can lead to customer decision complexity within the decision making process. Based on a completed DFG-funded research project, it must be answered how customer-specific requirements can be translated into product architectures both efficiently and with reduced complexity.The ascertainability and usability with regard to the diversity of customer requirements is often realized by means of product configurators, which increases the decision complexity significantly perceived by the customer. One solution to this problem is the implementation of predefined configuration solutions, so-called starting solutions. Therefore, the aim of this research project is the consideration of a systematic and customer-integrated adaption of the product architecture using customer-specific starting solutions in the B2B configuration process. This research is focused on ETO companies. The Chair of Marketing of RWTH Aachen University mainly investigates the formation and control of customer preferences, the Laboratory of Machine Tools and Production Engineering (WZL) of RWTH Aachen University elaborates the systematic product architecture adaptation for defined customer groups.The research project can be structured in four partial models. In the first step, the derivation of requirements for the integration of customer-oriented starting solutions will be derived. In the following, a description, assignment, and evaluation model for the definition, allocation and selection of customer-specific starting solutions will be developed. The process of adapting the product architecture will be considered accompanying. In the last step, a demonstration tool for the practical use of the research findings will be developed and the transfer of the research findings will be facilitated. The planned research proposition will result in an improvement of efficiency and effectiveness of the B2B configuration process by defining starting solutions. In addition, customer-specific preference mapping and internal complexity effects will be considered. This proposition also enables product architecture adaptations and achieves a higher consistency between the product and the customer preferences as early as possible in the configuration process, while avoiding internal complexity effects.