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This study aims to investigate the impacts of product modularity (PM) and multiskilled employees (MEs) on new product development (NPD) outcomes and explore the moderating effect of supply chain involvement.

The authors used data collected from 317 manufacturers to empirically examine the conceptual model and conducted hierarchical regression analysis to test the hypotheses.

The results reveal that PM significantly improves NPD outcomes. The relationship between PM/MEs and NPD outcomes is strengthened when the level of supplier involvement is high, whereas the relationship between MEs and NPD outcomes is weakened when the level of customer involvement is high.

First, this study only focuses on PM and MEs as two types of modular designs. Second, the inter-relationship between modular designs and supply chain involvement might be contingent. Third, the authors use cross-sectional data that cannot reflect causal effects of modularity on NPD outcomes.

The findings contribute to the understanding of the alignment between modular designs and supply chain involvement considering NPD outcomes. This study also contributes to the concept of modularity by identifying MEs as a type of modular design.

The aims of this article are to introduce a modularization framework and a method for the formation of modules.

A methodological framework is presented to guide designers and engineers in the formation and selection of suitable modules in developing customized products. Detailed explanations of the framework are presented theoretically. This framework interacts with different product development participants such as resources, customers' preferences, design architecture for planning, and scheduling a custom‐built product. A new method is proposed with a case example to facilitate the formation of modules.

This paper investigates the potential of the modularization framework, usable for prioritizing the components dependencies and creating required number of modules. It also explains the overall concept, usability and rules/methods for the module formation applied to product design, to allow a greater degree of freedom for the designer, and the opportunity to reduce development time and increase customer satisfaction. A method, based on the rules for modularity concept is proposed within the scope of this paper.

The framework and the method of modularization as illustrated in this article are based on a theoretical hypothesis. Both the approaches require implementing in a real industrial environment in order to generalize their effectiveness, applicability and consistency in the manufacturing arena.

Since product architecture is an important element in determining the value and flexibility of the product development process, the relationship pattern between the architecture and productivity is therefore worthy of careful investigation. The aims of modular framework and rules for modularity are to incorporate design variables and dependency structure with a view to enhancing product development lead time and will contribute to the exploitation of overall bottlenecks of manufacturing systems.

The implementation framework for modular product architecture seems unique as its potential value could be applied in the industrial environment for production flexibility and reducing bottlenecks. Along with the framework, the presented modularity rule or method will contribute to business architecture with a view to providing more reliable operation, easier maintenance and faster product development time.

Many recent modular design methods and approaches have focused on the modularization process – decomposition and composition. This paper suggests an integrated methodology that includes additional tools and stages for a complete modular architecture design. The borders of the modular design process are expanded by adding strategic issues, appropriateness to modularity, degree of modularity and modularity strategies, in an operationalized manner. The methodology presents a “requirements analysis‐ decomposition‐composition‐design evaluation” structure. The “modularization process” is designed so as to choose from three different perspectives – customer‐based, function‐based and structure‐based design. To test and validate the methodology it was applied to a domestic gas detector product family. As a result, a new modular product architecture with eight modules was developed.

This paper describes the development and implementation of a modular school building design prototype to support “build back better” after the disaster. The purpose of this paper is to bridge the gap between the two standard practices of post-disaster reconstruction: the quickly temporary construction and the permanent solution with longer time to complete.

The modular school design prototype was developed based on three design criteria established to achieve a relatively quick construction with good quality as a post-disaster permanent solution. The prototype was implemented in Kerandangan Village, Lombok and evaluated to review its compliance with the design criteria.

Three design strategies were proposed to respond to the main design criteria: the use of modular units and components, the material durability and availability, and the “plug-and-play” configuration system. Through these strategies, the prototype demonstrated the ability to perform as a permanent solution to be implemented in a short time. The prototype evaluation suggests some possible improvement to ensure a more efficient process and further replicability.

The development of the modular design bridges the gap between temporary and permanent approach for post-disaster school reconstruction. The highlighted criteria and the proposed design strategies contribute to the “build back better” attempt by providing better learning experiences for children through a replicable modular design that could be flexibly adapted to various local contexts.

Modularization and level of repair analysis for fleet system influences every phase of the system life cycle. Modular based fleet system design raises new issues since the maintenance/repair services introduces further requirements than traditional product engineering. The decision of modular system and level of repair plays an important role to reduce the Life Cycle Costs (LCC) of fleet maintenance system. The concept of modularity has been extended to services in maintenance for the varieties of fleet systems such as wind turbines, gas turbines, advance machine tools and aircrafts etc. System modularity allows the designers to use of different design alternatives and ease of fault diagnosis, repair and services. The purpose of this paper to develop a joint optimization approach for optimal selection of modular design and level of repair decisions. Usually these two decisions are taken separately.

In the proposed joint approach, level of repair analysis is used to obtain the optimal modular design decisions with reduced life cycle cost. In the existing research, the effect of system modularity on the level of repair decisions is investigated. The simulation-based approach is used to solve this joint problem. Which is rarely seen in the existing literature. A genetic algorithm-based simulation is used to investigate the joint problem. The proposed approach also evaluates all the possible configurations of modular design to justify the integrated effect of modularity and maintenance decisions, that is Level of Repair (LOR).

This paper highlights interactive effect of system modularity and level of repair decisions for the system operated in multi-echelon maintenance network. A comparative study is provided on effect of system modularity and level of repair decisions considering the time dependent failure rate and constant failure rate of the system components. A simulation based joint approach is used to solve this problem. The results obtained from the investigation are shown that modularity plays an important role to allocate modularity and level of repair decisions for the fleet system. The novelty of this research work is to identify the role of modularization to optimizing the level of repair decisions. The models, that is time-dependent failure rate and constant failure rate presented in this study provides more practical approach to deal the modularity and level of repair analysis.

The proposed joint approach illustrates using a numerical case of a mechanical system operated at fleet level. More modular structure in terms of number of modules in the machine may be presented for an industrial case. Additionally, the joint approach can also be extended for the any other consumer product and system. But, the prime motive of the paper is to highlights the importance of the modular design while selecting the level of repair decisions.

This is the first work which consider the joint optimization of modular design and level of repair analysis to the best of authors knowledge. Present paper is a more practical approach for identifying the modular design and level of repair decisions for the system operated at fleet level.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between product modularity (PM) and supply chain integration (SCI), and to identify factors influencing this relationship.

A case study approach involving in‐depth interviews on three modular and two non‐modular design projects in the Hong Kong and Pearl River Delta region was conducted. Within and cross‐case analyses were adopted.

Results support the current view that modular design is related to a loosely coordinated supply chain, whereas integrated design is associated with a tightly coordinated supply chain. However, this relationship is affected and explained by four contingency factors: new module/component development, technological knowledge leakage and creation, project team size and supply chain efficiency.

The paper used a case study approach so the generalizability of the study is limited. This approach, however, enabled us to examine explicitly the relationship between PM and SCI, where empirical research was lacking. The rich content of each case suggested how and why modular design affects supply chain management.

The findings of this paper increase the understanding of the dynamics of modular product design and supply chain management. The paper also explores four contingency factors affecting the relationship.

Modular fixture configuration design is a complicated task requiring both intensive knowledge and experience. Automated or semi‐automated computer‐aided modular fixture systems based on computer‐aided design packages do not appear to have made a significant impact within the manufacturing industry. Modular fixture designers still prefer traditional systems such as paper or physical model; as such models provide a more intuitive interaction and immediate feedback. The objective of the paper is to present an application of the desktop virtual reality (VR) to develop an interactive modular fixture assembly design system.

Desktop‐based friendly interface is designed and the low‐system requirement key techniques, namely assembly modeling and collision detection approach, to make proposed system run smoothly on a desktop PC, are presented.

The paper finds that the proposed system is an efficient tool for modular fixture configuration design.

The proposed system is a portable and affordable solution for modular fixture design.

A low‐cost VR application for modular fixture configuration design is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the key factors behind the adoption of new automobile modular platforms from the perspectives of product design, manufacturing network and production systems.

An in-depth and qualitative cross-case analysis of European manufacturing networks was performed based on the modular platforms of seven automobile manufacturers.

The adoption of modular platforms has changed automobile product architecture helping automobile manufacturers to improve their manufacturing network outputs. The results show that operational flexibility and scope and scale economies at manufacturing network level depend on the platform design – degree of modularity – and the manufacturer’s product and manufacturing network conditions. This new product architecture allows for the new production systems to be efficient in terms of flexibility and versatility without overinvestment.

The main contribution to the research literature is the combination of traditional product architecture with the manufacturing network approach to analyse the influence of product design on production systems, especially regarding the adoption of new automobile modular platforms.

To identify operations and logistics issues which are critical for the operational performance in modular assembly processes.

Based on case studies of Volvo Cars, Toyota, and Saab, the paper identifies operations and logistics issues that are critical for the operational performance of modular assembly processes. The issues are used for extending our understanding of the design and operation of modular assembly processes.

The issues identified concern production planning, deviation handling, assembly flow balance, small unit disadvantages, and module flow control. They reveal that a modular assembly process design brings structural disadvantages related to the dispersion of activities and resource needs. The issues also demonstrate the need for extensive coordination across the interfaces of the decoupled parts of the process.

The findings will mainly be relevant for firms that design and produce complex products involving several technologies and that use company‐specific modules as is the case in the automotive industry, for instance.

Operations and logistics managers may use the findings in order to design and operate modular assembly processes, provide input to the design of modular products, analyze operations and logistics issues before the firm decides to go modular, or not.

Complements existing research on modular assembly processes by outlining structural disadvantages and explaining the need for extensive coordination in such processes.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how global operations of manufacturing companies influence the choice of product architecture decisions, ranging from integral to modular product designs.

The authors perform a multiple-case study of three global manufacturing companies with integral and modular product architectures.

The authors find that the internal network capabilities, the number of capable plants, the focus of component plants, the focus of assembly plants, the distances from key suppliers to internal plants, and the number of market segments significantly influence the choice of integral vs modular architecture.

This study is limited to three large manufacturing companies with global operations. However, the authors investigate both integral and modular products. The authors develop propositions that can be tested in further survey research.

The findings show that the type of global operations network influences the decision on product architecture, such that certain global operations characteristics support integral product designs, while other characteristics support modular designs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge this paper is the first study on the explicit impact of global operations on product architecture, rather than the other way around.