A classification of barriers to product variety reduction

Many industrial companies face demands for increases in product variety in order to accommodate customers’ requirements for additional individual products. With this increasing product variety come increasing costs, poor delivery performance and quality problems. Thus, many companies attempt to reduce their product variety but often fail to do so.

To understand the causes of this problem, we identify the most important barriers companies face when trying to reduce their product variety. We review the existing literature and highlight the identified barriers. Then, we carry out a single case study, which identifies a type of barrier not previously described, namely a barrier related to the culture and the personality of the people involved.

The paper adds to the literature by extending the perspective on barriers to product variety reduction. The overview of barriers to product variety reduction may help managers focus their attention and resources.