Interacting Forces for a Resilient, Future-robust Evolution of Product Portfolios

The further evolution of product portfolios is driven by changes in the company's global and local environment. On the one hand, megatrends have a high and long-lasting influence on the evolution of product portfolios. For example, digitalization enables the networking of products. On the other hand, drastic market changes have an impact on the portfolio. These tend to occur suddenly and require a resilient attitude from manufacturing companies. These two forces affect each element of the product portfolio in the form of new customer needs, new technologies, legal requirements, and competitive pressures. As a result, product portfolios need to evolve constantly. Manufacturing companies already engage in this behavior, resulting in the establishment of heuristics from their experience. But there is no structured way to help manufacturing companies evolve their product portfolios. This paper deals with the characterization and structuring of interacting forces for a resilient, future-robust evolution of the product portfolio. First, the relevance of the problem is presented, then the knowledge base is identified, and finally, a model representation of reality is developed.