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The increased demand for customer-adapted product solutions shows an increasing trend of product variety, leading to an increased internal variety and therefore -costs. The concept of modularization provides apossible solution to this challenge by developing modular kits. Nevertheless, modularization methods to not lead to one individual modular kit, but to several alternatives. The decision of which alternative to implement can be crucial to the applying companys succes. During this decision-making both customer- and company perspectives need to be taken into account. This contribution is to present a simulation-based approach to support the decision making by using a model-based configuration system. Furthermore, as classical decision-making processes are based upon historical data, future aspects are usually not taken into account. In order to counteract this situation, this contribution intends to simulate as well future aspects impacting the modular product architecture. In this case, the simulation is used in order to evaluate the individual performances of a Design-for-Variety product architecture as opposed to a Design-for-Future-Robustness by applying this method to the example of customer-individual laser machines.

By developing and using modular product families, large savings can be achieved through reuse and combinability along the entire value chain of a company. Since these potentials often have a very long-term character, the lifetime of a modular product family should be as long as possible. Change drivers, such as changing customer and production requirements, however, result in changes having to be made to the initially developed modular product family, which not only causes a great effort but also prevents the long-term benefits from being fully exploited. With the Change Allocation Model, we introduce a tool that makes it possible to align the essential future changes to the product architecture and to identify and redesign the change-critical components taking into account the existing component variety of the product family. This enables future changes in variety to be considered in the product architecture and a future robust modular product family to be developed. The new visualization is illustrated using the example of a product family of pressure regulating valves and is finally discussed with regard to further potentials and challenges.

Product modularisation continuously draws attention of scholars and practitioners since it supports organizations and industries to sustain in high product and service variety at reasonable costs and greater flexibility. This paper aims at revealing current trends and developments in the field of product modularisation by identifying the intellectual structure using a bibliometric review. Our sample accrues 1,366 publications from 2016 up to 2020 across disciplines while using bibliometric coupling composes a network. Analysing the network on similarities, we can not only find clusters of servitisation, closed-loop supply chains, and platform collaboration, because we also identify three trends of digital innovation, sustainability, and platform eco-systems. An analysis of authors currently indicates less integrated communities, which do not entirely refer to each other despite the similarity in their research. Collectively, the study suggests a timely update of current scholar activities and discussions in the field of product modularisation.

Product modularization in new product development has attracted considerable interest among scholars and practitioners from diverse fields of specialization. This has resulted in cross-disciplinary diversity in the field, diverting attention from its overall intellectual structure and hindering the development of a common view and shared concepts. Extant research lacks an integrative review, transcending a focal discipline that could identify gaps and ambiguities while making recommendations to advance the field. Considering a period of 30 years (1990–2020), we generate a data set of 2988 citing publications to which we apply a co-citation analysis. Thereby, we uncover the intellectual structure of the field and find three research perspectives that represent key knowledge bases: (1) product system, (2) production system, and (3) organizational system. Delimiting the data set into four periods, we can track developments over time, where we notice an increasing disintegration of the product system perspective, which is rooted in the discipline of engineering design. Within the two other perspectives, we document extensive dynamism in terms of publications, especially in the two most recent periods, indicating an active discussion and a potential receptivity to new trends. For these periods, we also identify an emerging cluster of fundamental publications and an increasing emphasis on the concept of system architecture. Leveraging the synthesis of these results, we forge links between neighboring disciplines and recommend avenues for further research, ideally to develop a more common view.

In order to meet an increasing internal variety, a solution can be the modularization of products. To motivate modularization projects throughout all phases of life, different effects of modular product families were collected in previous works on a literature basis. In this paper, a validation concept is presented, which will investigate these effects by using statements directly from industry representatives. In particular, the industry background is included in the evaluation to generate a more differentiated overall picture of impacts of modular product families.

Teams of engineering students take part in a problem-based learning course, where they develop physical product variants of a robotic system and take part in a competition. Design theory and methodology are part of the teaching concept, including complexity management by platform strategy and modularization. Skills in mechanical engineering, design, numerical optimization, additive manufacturing and use of CAD, PDM and FEM software are improved. The developed robotic systems are divided into different modules, these modules are attached on the Design Education Platform. This paper shows the in-house development of this platform with regard to the requirements from the design education course and technical specifications. In this context, findings from an earlier developed product family architecture of a robotic system as reference are integrated. The product architecture is shown in a module interface graph, displaying the component variety as well as their linkages. A description of the used mechanical and electrical components and their computational as well as communication possibilities is shown. The problem-based learning course and its interdisciplinary teaching concept are presented. First findings are formulated and the resulting products of student teams of summer semester 2019 are shown. These first product variants are the starting point of a product family, with new modules and resulting product variants each semester. The influence of the Design Education Platform on the course is evaluated, with the focus on decreasing the internal work for the lecturers, while student numbers are growing. The outlook shows further possibilities of tasks to fulfill and the use of the system as a cyber-physical system for future product generations.

In order to maintain their competitiveness and to respond effectively to different customer needs, manufacturing companies offer a wide range of product variants. This increasing product variety leads to an increase in variety-induced complexity and thus to rising costs in all departments. The development of modular product families is a proven strategy to handle the large external variety with a relatively small internal variety. Modularization requires not only technical-functional, but also organizational, process-related and strategic aspects from all involved departments in order to create an optimal product architecture. The method of the Life Phases Modularization offers this possibility as it integrates all perspectives of the different departments and tries to harmonize the partially contradictory aspects using the Module Process Chart (MPC). The resulting harmonized module process forms the global optimum for exploiting potentials of modular product families within the entire company. The method was developed almost a decade ago and has been applied and refined over time in several industrial cases. This paper presents the method on the basis of two industrial examples and shows deficits and improvements in a consolidated manner.

Product developers are faced with the challenge of covering an ever-increasing external variety with as little internal variety as possible. Modular product architectures offer one way of resolving the challenge. They have an impact on all life phases and on economic targets. These effects are represented in the Impact Model of Modular Product Families. A large number of modularization methods can be found in the literature. The modularization methods consist of different activities: decomposition of product, analysis and revision of components, and reintegration to modules. Module drivers play a major role in reintegration, as they determine which components together form a module. It is not yet clear what effects different modularization methods involving different module drivers have on economic targets. For this reason, the module drivers are examined in their role as levers of modularity and integrated into the Impact Model via access points. By documenting the results in a specially developed uniform method step description and the Impact Model, we enable the selection of modularization methods with regard to their economic impact. The introduction is followed by the state of research. In Sec.3, the research problem and the research approach are presented. In Sec.4, the generic method step description is applied to seven modularization methods. Based thereon, the modularization methods are compared with each other with regard to their addressed economic objectives. In an explanatory example, the method selection made possible by this is presented. Finally, the results are discussed and an outlook is given.

The design of modular product families enables a high external variety of products by a low internal variety of components and processes. This variety optimization leads to large economic savings along the entire value chain. However, when designing and selecting suitable modular product architecture concepts, often only direct costs are considered, and indirect costs as well as cross-cost center benefits are neglected. A lack of knowledge about the full savings potential often results in the selection of inferior solutions. Since available approaches do not adequately address this problem, this paper provides a new methodological support tool that ensures consideration of the full savings potentials in the evaluation of modular product architecture concepts. For this purpose, the visual knowledge base of the Impact Model of Modular Product Families (IMF) is used, extended and implemented in a model-based environment using SysML. The newly developed Sys-IMF is then applied to the product family example of electric medium-voltage motors. The support tool is dynamic, expandable and filterable and embedded in a methodical procedure for knowledge-based decision support. Sys-IMF supports decision makers in the early phase of interdisciplinary product development and enables the selection of the most suitable modular solution for the company.

Changes in customer requirements have led companies to offer not only pure products, but increasingly holistic solutions. These holistic solutions consist of products and services and are called product-service systems (PSS). One possibility to develop PSS is the usage of modular product architectures, as this is an established approach in product design. The aim of this work is to verify the importance of modular product architectures for the development of PSS. For this purpose, the established topics in the field of PSS design will be analyzed with the help of a co-citation analysis and then existing methods for the design of PSS will be evaluated. Finally, the findings are summarized and an outlook on further research topics is given.

Um alternative Produktstrukturkonzepte bewerten zu konnen, werden in diesem Kapitel zunachst die Auswirkungen modularer Produktstrukturen aufgezeigt.

In diesem Kapitel wird anhand von Industriebeispielen die Anwendung der Methodenbausteine des Integrierten PKT-Ansatzes zur Entwicklung modularer Produktfamilien in der Praxis gezeigt.

In diesem Kapitel werden aktuelle Forschungstrends in der methodischen Entwicklung modularer Produktfamilien vorgestellt.

Modular product architecture design allows product variants to be derived with little effort and cost. An essential part of designing modular product architectures is fulfilling customer-relevant product features, which represent the differentiating aspects for the customer and, thus, stand for the economic success of a product variant. However, product features are not only subject to high fluctuations due to changing environmental influences, but are also of varying relevance to customers over time. Not considering these aspects in the development phase can lead to costly changes in the product architecture later on. To counteract this, these two perspectives are merged and a methodical approach is introduced that identifies new product features and analyses their future development in the context of customer benefit. For this purpose, the current and future relevance to customers as well as uncertainties are calculated using Adaptive Conjoint Analysis and a Monte Carlo simulation. The results are consolidated in a visualization and the product features are classified according to their future implementation in robust product architecture. The procedure is explained using the example of a product family of vacuum cleaning robots.

The use of modular product architectures gives rise to a variety of effects in all areas of the company. So far, the effects that occur after a short period of time have been investigated - the effects that arise only after a certain period of time or a certain proportion of modules used are often neglected. The latter can, however, have a major influence on the economic targets, but are usually not taken into account in the initial modularization, since they are not known or can only be addressed imprecisely. For this reason, an empirical study will be conducted in this paper to expose the long-term effects of modularization. A model for the identification of time-dependent effects will be developed and applied to an example of a medium-sized elevator manufacturer. The result of this work is the derivation of success factors for the implementation of modular product architectures on the basis of long-term success.

Modular product architectures enable not only a trade-off between the external variety demanded by the customer and the cost-causing internal variety, but also facilitate the ability to react on future requirement changes with less effort. This work concentrates on the investigation of design support, which address both objectives at once. For this purpose relevant criteria for a successful design of the so called future robust modular product architectures are derived and used to gain and evaluate the existing design methods. The results are used to describe the further research focus.

Versatile, global markets as well as the increasing demand for more individualized products has increased the pressure on companies to offer a broad variety of products. Developing modular product families is an established approach to provide a suitable variety under economic conditions. However, balancing the demands for more external variety and less internal variety is a complex task for product development, affecting multiple domains in companies. In this paper, we conduct an empirical case study and investigate the correlating effects of external and internal variety on respective performance indicators (PI). Within two companies, we identify recurring chain reactions across ten decision scenarios and derive a subset of PIs affected by modular product structure alternatives (MPSA). In addition, the results highlight the major trade-offs between different target dimensions that occur while choosing dissimilar product structure alternatives.

Background: Despite strictly defined criteria for visual field progression in the ongoing Normal-tension Glaucoma Study, the authors noted a surprisingly large number of patients reaching the endpoint. Traditional methods could not be used to check the diagnostic accuracy of their criteria, because no "gold standard" was established for distinguishing true change from physiologic long-term fluctuation. Methods: The authors developed a statistical method based on the results of duplicate tests for progression in their subjects. This method allowed the authors to assess the sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of their diagnostic criterion. It also estimated the true incidence of progression and provided standard errors for the estimates. Results: The authors found that their original strict criteria for progression, based on duplicate testing, produced false calls of progression 57% of the time. By raising the requirement for deterioration and by repeating the entire sequence of duplicate testing once more, the authors have successfully reduced the rate of false calls to 2%. Conclusion: Accuracy in recognizing progression is improved by not accepting small changes as evidence of progression and by confirming the findings on repeat testing.