Lea-Nadine Schwede

The modularity of a product architecture with standard, variant, and optional modules can be measured by the characteristics of commonality and combinability. Positive and negative effects of a more communal or more combinable structure are summarized and visualized in an impact model. However, due to the megatrend of personalization, the solution space of a modular product architecture needs to be extended to include personalizable modules. What remains unclear till now is how personalization impacts the different life phases. Therefore, this article derives an impact model considering product personalization. First, the modularity property of personalizability is derived, in order to then specifically investigate the effects occurring in the different life phases. Therefore, a literature review is conducted. New effects are found, and the existing effects of commonality and combinability are examined for their validity for personalizability. The findings are then combined with the known effects of commonality and combinability to create a holistic impact model of modular product families. This new model takes personalizable modules into account and can support companies in defining the goals and focus of a modularization project.

This paper shows how a methodical development and configuration of modular product family concepts and their effects on economic targets can be implemented in SysML. For this purpose, different sources of inconsistency between different methodical tools are highlighted and the need for research is shown. As a solution approach, a methodical framework is presented, which can be used to implement product development methods for the developing of modular product family modeling by means of Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) in the modeling language SysML. By applying the framework, it is shown on the one hand how a product family of vacuum cleaner robots as a simple example can be modularized in a methodical, model-based manner. On the other hand, a configuration system and an impact model of modular product families are connected with the system model and applied to a product family of laser systems as an industrial use case. This made it clear that the framework can be used to model various methodical topics of product family modeling in a consistent manner, to enable higher-level analyses with the use of MBSE tools. This can reduce errors, decrease effort and increase traceability across different methodical tools.

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.

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.

The application of modularization approaches is mostly carried out on existing product families where the database is rich and can be used for further structuring and optimization. Methods for variant management and modularization as well as dependency visualization in networks and matrices are presented in the context of new product family development. A methodical approach to develop early phase product family models is shown within a use case. The newly developed interface support tool is understood as a dependency visualization in network form as it contains components and their linkage. Through implementation in SysML, using the Cameo Systems Modeler, consistency and traceability of the system elements is reached and a basis for further analysis and optimization is created.