Product and Service Variety Versus Internal Performance: Toward New Balances
Résumé
Increasing customer demands for individualized solutions has a major impact on the manufacturing sector. Companies are confronted to producing high volumes in order to meet market demand while customizing their offering to meet specific customers’ requirements. One of the subsequent major challenges of this situation is to cope with the high offering variety while ensuring higher performance within the production system and supply chain of the solution provider. This paper deals with the impact of integrating products and services on the variety-induced complexity. Based on a consistent literature review, a model is proposed to conceptualize the main drivers of variety management of product and service offering. The ultimate objective of the model is to support decision-makers in the identification of balances between customer satisfaction and supply chain performance.