Every company has products which sell better than others, and products which cost more to produce, or are less profitable

Many companies are reluctant to eliminate the less profitable products for a variety of reasons including the possibility of loosing existing customers, some of these products are loss-leaders, some hold out hope that these products may turn in to market leaders, or because the initial investment in development was high

Developing a product rationalization strategy requires determination and a cold hard look at the numbers, assuming that they are available

For each product or service, do you know the following? Market position, product maintenance and transactional cost, value/channel, customer loyalty/strength, cost/price advantage, growth potential, sustainability

Do you have a well developed product life-cycle strategy (new product introduction, replacement, retirement, support)?

If you cannot rationalize, try and find ways to reduce product maintenance, storage, transactional, and sales costs

You can also redesign production and delivery to minimize the impact of unprofitable products or services on profitable ones