Sebastian Ripperda

Towards Complexity Cost Management within Approaches for Developing Modular Product Families

The development of modular product families aims for the reduction of companies’ complexity and of course the reduction of cost. But existing methods do not provide nor consider at all the cost reduction potential of new modular product concepts. So in companies concepts are selected by production cost, which offer lower cost for short time, but lead to disadvantages in the long view due to the complexity cost. In this paper experiences from companies dealing with the problem of high variety and their need for methodical support are shown. Next, the integrated PKT-approach and how complexity cost management should be considered in the approach are explained. Additionally, the results of a first approach for considering complexity cost using the example of wiring harness are demonstrated.