“…The impact of product variety or level of product customisation on operational performance is a topic that has received some attention in the literature (Squire et al 2009;Yee 2005;Zhang, Chen, and Ma 2007;Brunoe and Nielsen 2016;Wan, Evers, and Dresner 2012;Berry and Cooper 1999;Park and Okudan Kremer 2015;ElMaraghy et al 2013;Wang et al 2011). Generally, highlighting the negative impact of product variety or the level of customisation, different authors have analysed the performance impact of alternative strategies to manage variety or customisation (Um et al 2017), such as mass customisation (Liu, Shah, and Babakus 2012;Kumar, Nottestad, and Macklin 2007), product platforms and modularisation (Tu et al 2004;Aljorephani and Elmaraghy 2016;ElMaraghy et al 2013;Medini 2015), postponement of product differentiation (Forza, Salvador, and Trentin 2008;Su et al 2010;Ngniatedema, Fono, and Mbondo 2015) and postponement of the CODP (Kumar, Nottestad, and Macklin 2007;Jiang and Geunes 2006).…”