Product family architecture: a case study on the design of a floor level palletizer

Given the challenge currently imposed by mass customization (MC) requirements to the new product development (NPD), companies of the capital goods industry (CGI) have been forced to optimize its external variety in the face of the internal complexity resulting from product differentiation. Practitioners of the CGI recognize that product family design and platform-based product development are useful tools to accomplish such trade-off. However, less than 6% of the publications in this field cover applications in this industry. The purpose of this article is to investigate how to implement an MC strategy in the CGI from a product development perspective. The research method is the single-case study. The case relates the application of the product family architecture methodology (PFA) in the development of a floor level palletizer product family (FLPPF). The main results of the research are the conceptual design of an FLPPF, a qualitative analysis on the effectiveness of the PFA method in the development of FLPPF, and the identification of gaps in the theory that might be useful for future research.