Introduction

Abstract

The recent trends towards a globalized economy open new markets for almost every industry. At the same time, companies are being challenged by competitors entering their home markets, resulting in a strong competition. Many companies are no longer able or willing to face this competition by reducing the price of their products. Instead, they try to increase the quality of the products and services. One way to do this is to better fulfill a customer’s needs. Since different customers have different needs, the trend goes from a standardized product to customized variants. Thus, the number of products that have to be produced increases substantially. For example, Thonemann and Bradley (2002) report that in the packaged-goods industry, the number of new products doubled from 12000 to 24000 between 1986 and 1996. They also state that in the 1950s, a large supermarket offered a magnitude of 1000 products, while a modern supermarket in the early 21st century carries 30000 products. Most other industries, such as the automotive, computer hardware, software and telecommunication industry underwent similar developments.

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