Linking modularity and cost : a methodology to assess cost implications of product architecture differences to support product design

Reaching saturation levels, many markets in modem industrial societies tend to fracture into smaller 'niche' markets, and create a need for greater variety. At the same time, increasing product variety in non-growing markets results in decreasing production volumes per model, which tends to increase costs. Modularity as a design concept has been suggested to be able reconciling these opposing effects. Most descriptions of modularity characterize products through idealized extremes, such as 'modular' versus 'integral.' While conceptually powerful, this notion is very difficult to operationalize. Consequently, it has been very problematic to determine the economic consequences of modularity. This thesis presents a methodology to overcome this problem. The development of the methodology is split into three parts: what is modularity, what costs are considered, and how can the link between the two be established? First, to operationalize modularity, an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon was conducted and an alternative framework developed. The multi-disciplinary analysis revealed that modularity is a bundle of product characteristics rather than an individual feature, and that different disciplines and viewpoints emphasize different elements of this bundle. Consequently, the descriptive product architecture framework developed in this thesis encompasses all dimensions identified in the analysis, but simultaneously enables one to comparatively measure those characteristics along individual dimensions.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering Systems Division

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Fixson, Sebastian K. (Sebastian Klaus), 1967-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Thomas A. Roemer.

• Technology, Management, and Policy Program.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/29519

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/29519