Abstract
ABSTRACTDesigning modular product architectures is beneficial to both product development and manufacturing. Several techniques exist for clustering product components into modules; all these techniques, with few exceptions, do not consider the hierarchical structure of the product. Product architecture consists of a number of hierarchical levels, which add a useful dimension to modularity analysis. Designing product architecture that maximises its overall modularity over all levels of the product structure is the main focus of this research. A novel mathematical programming model has been developed to construct the product structure tree for a given product with optimal modularity at all its hierarchical levels without prior knowledge of their number. A genetic algorithm capable of handling practical problem sizes was also developed. A hand-held body massager is used for demonstrating and validating the proposed modular product architecture design method. A case study from the automotive industry was employed for comparing the obtained modularity analysis output with the relevant state-of-the-art research, and demonstrating achieved improvements. Product modularity is addressed in this research using a new perspective which promotes optimal overall modularity. It improves management of product changes and variety leading to more cost-effective product development and manufacturing.
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