A revenue-based decision-making approach for evaluating modular product release plans under resource constraints

This study introduces the module substitution concept to develop an approach for assessing different strategies for modular product release in a technology-receptive market. We consider a situation where product variants emerge from modules which have varying modular relationships, and each module is defined by specific attributes. The statistical program evaluation and review technique (statistical PERT) was then adopted to address the uncertainties associated with module attributes. A practical example involving the development of modules, product families and their product variants is used to demonstrate the applicability of the approach in which feasible strategies that satisfy the development resource constraint were identified. We then introduced a substitute module to yield a product variant and re-evaluated the strategies. The results obtained shows that the approach is instrumental in assessing various alternatives based on launch timings and revenue generation and can be adopted by managers in deciding on the appropriate product release plan.