Design for Upstream and Downstream Market Systems With Interoperability Considerations

Abstract

Product design decision makers are frequently challenged by the difficulty of ensuring compatibility of parts sourced from various suppliers, including the services that the product is designed to integrate. The crux of the difficulty is in analyzing the ability of sourced parts (and services) to interoperate under uncertainty, and the impact of such compatibility on the overall marketing objectives. Therefore, the decisions in a design for market system problem can be closely related to the considerations along both the upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., service providers and customers) market systems. This paper fills a gap in the existing research by exploring a design decision method that integrates upstream and downstream market systems with interoperability considerations. The proposed method is based on a mathematical model and metric for interoperability presented for the first time in the literature and particularly in the context of engineering design. The design decision framework is demonstrated using three examples: a mechanical design tolerance problem, a power tool design problem, and a tablet computer design problem. The mechanical design problem demonstrates how the interoperability metric can be used as a new way of analyzing tolerances in mechanical systems. The power tool design example involves an integration of upstream and downstream market systems for design selection. The tablet computer design selection problem considers not only the upstream suppliers but also customers and digital service providers along the downstream market system.