Supply chains and compatibility among components in product design

Two problems in designing and developing a product are directly tied into effective management of the marketing/operations interface. We first consider technological incompatibility between pairs of alternatives for different components to identify feasible product designs at various stages of product‐development, from screening to the final design. We then consider experts’ judgment on compatibility between pairs of alternatives for different attributes to generate product ideas and to perform a preliminary screening. This expert‐based approach can be used in conjunction with other expert‐based approaches or consumer‐based approaches to identify potentially desirable product ideas. The methodology developed here includes explicit simultaneous consideration of product, process, and supply chain development and it is applicable to the entire spectrum of product novelty, from radical to incremental innovation. We also describe a real‐world application.