Abstract
Simultaneous design of multiple products through introducing common modules across them, which is called product variety design etc., has become an essential viewpoint for excellent manufacturing firms. Correspondingly theoretical means for integrating product variety design have been proposed under several standpoints. While synchronous design of multiple products was the first target of research activities, the practice of product variety design is asynchronous and distributed across various players. Thus the research target must be shifted to more complicated circumstances of product variety design. This paper describes a consideration on several topics underlying on the direction. In the discussion, the potential roles of leading design concept and assessment techniques, transformation patterns of customer's value, and distributed design schemes are reviewed toward a picure of future research issues.
