Sandra Eilmus

Methodical Support for the Development of Modular Product Families

To offer individualised products at globally marketable prices, Institute PKT’s integrated approach to developing modular product families aims to generate maximum external product variety using the lowest possible internal process and component variety. Methodological units of product program planning, design for variety, life phases modularization, module lightweight design and process-oriented product development support the creation of modular product families during the product development process.

Integrated Development of Modular Product Families: A Methods Toolkit

An integrated approach for developing modular product families was developed at the PKT Institute to create individualized products for globally marketable prices. The integrated PKT-approach for developing modular product families aims to generate maximum external product variety, using the lowest possible internal process and component variety. Based on existing methods for reducing internal variety, the approach provides a toolkit of combinable method units. Tailored support is provided by this toolkit for specific needs and situations of companies facing the challenge of reducing internal variety. Several industrial case studies demonstrate how the use of one method unit or the combination of several method units supports the development of modular product families during specific corporate challenges and aims. The first section describes the challenges being addressed by the integrated PKT-approach. A survey of research fields dealing with these challenges is presented in the second section. A product family example is presented to demonstrate the state-of-the-art methods and the method units from the integrated PKT-approach. Their application in industrial projects is shown in Sect. 10.7, which is followed by the future prospects for enhancing the integrated PKT-approach.

Developing Modular Product Families with Perspectives for the Product Program

Reducing internal variety is a major challenge for industrial enterprises. Several approaches have been presented in literature supporting the development of modular product families in order to accomplish variety reduction. The Integrated PKT-Approach for Developing Modular Product Families integrates aspects of design for variety with technical-functional and product - strategic modularization methods. It furthermore proposes how to embed product family development into a holistic strategy for the specific corporate product program.

Product Life-oriented Development of Component Commonality and Variety

To reach many customers and have a broad range of products at marketable prices companies aim for high commonality across product variants. Commonality is known as the sharing of components by product variants. But using the same components for different product variants can also lead to trade-offs in product function and fulfillment of customer requirements as well as in internal processes. The aim of this paper is to investigate by literature review and a case study on forklift trucks how benefits and trade-offs can be balanced according to corporate needs. Existing tools from the Integrated PKT-Approach for Developing Modular Product Families are applied and advanced in the case study. Practical examples demonstrate that commonality is a gradual property that can be given to variant components as well and that it is influenced by the modular structure and how components are handled as modules in different life phases. New product concepts with enhanced commonality are derived and evaluated by estimating the created lot size caused and code number caused costs.Copyright

Early Phase Estimation of Variety Induced Complexity Cost Effects: A Study on Industrial Cases in Germany

Offering a broad external market variety at competitive prices is one of the main challenges in the global competition among mechanical engineering branches. Reducing variety and thus variety induced complexity cost has evolved to become one of the crucial global success factors. The aim of this study is to get insights on variety induced complexity cost effects and to elaborate on how these effects can be influenced by modular product development. Firstly, general causes and effects of variety are described portraying their trans-disciplinary nature. Next, the state of the art in reducing variety by modular product development is explained. Hypotheses on cost effects of variety induced complexity are introduced; and industrial cases from Germany are evaluated in order to support the hypotheses. During these empirical case studies, an integrated approach for developing modular product families by including various corporate disciplines is applied. This trans-disciplinary procedure aims to reduce variety over the whole product life by modularization. The results obtained and their potential effects on complexity cost are presented and discussed. Based on the analysis of these cases, an approach for Early Phase Estimation of Complexity Cost (EPECC) is developed. This approach helps assess trans-disciplinary complexity cost effects of different modular concept alternatives in early design phases. Furthermore, the effect of branch specific lot sizes on complexity cost is illustrated. Factors related to the successful use of these effects in branches and segments with high and low lot sizes are shared from industrial and consultancy practices. This contribution is authored by a team of academicians, consultants, and industrial executives.