Where variants and familiarity meet: portfolio management in companies that design and produce

Establishing and maintaining a purposeful and value-adding portfolio is a significant challenge for many companies, especially if they aim to
reconsider their balance between designing and producing products. In a research-by-design approach, a framework for portfolio management is
developed and tested. In this, one case study provided an environment to simultaneously establish a portfolio structure for an existing product
mix and to develop the framework. A second case study allowed for assessing the framework and its applicability in a divergent situation. The framework consists of four main components, that respectively address the strategic company focus, the current product offering, the potential for a new portfolio structure and the implementation of that structure. The developed framework provided adequate support in defining new portfolio structures and yielded significant advantages for both companies involved. As an important collateral advantage of the use of the framework, both companies recognized the significantly increased emphasis on multi-perspective and multi-disciplinary decision making as well as on stakeholder buy-in as a consequence of the implementation of the framework for portfolio management.