The global economy is changing business practices: organizations now fail or succeed based upon their ability to respond quickly to changing customer demands and to utilize new technological innovations. The advantage goes to the firm that can offer greater varieties of new products with higher performance and greater overall appeal. To be competitive, organizations need to produce products that can be easily configured to offer distinctive capabilities compared to the competition. The concept of modularity can provide the necessary foundation for organizations to design products that can respond rapidly to market needs and allow the changes in product design to happen in a cost-effective manner. Modularity can be applied to the design processes to build modular products and to create modular manufacturing processes.
This volume proposes a methodology for modular design in six chapter discussions which outline the following aspects of modular design: the critical background for product development; a comprehensive explanation of the modular design concept; the methods for the development of complex products/systems using the modularity concept; illustrated use of design for assembly and modularity; the design process outlined for manufacture and template process planning; and an explanation of modularity in production systems through the design of modular cells. The discussions are illustrated with extended case examples throughout the book.