Abstract
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of customer demand, manufacturing flexibility, cost, and supply chain on product modularity. This study employed a cross-sectional design and a proportionate random sampling procedure was used to select 150 manufacturers from a list of 250 manufacturing companies in Malaysia, which are registered in Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) and Association of Proton vendors. Data was collected from the middle and top management from these selected manufacturing organizations. Findings of this study noted that customer demand, manufacturing flexibility and supply chain has a significant positive effect on product modularity, whereas cost has a negative association with product modularity. Manufacturers, therefore, need to develop customer demand, manufacturing flexibility, cost, and supply chains to ensure the success in developing modularity product manufacturing. This study shows strong association for customer demand, manufacturing flexibility, cost, and supply chain to develop modularity product manufacturing.
Highlights
In order to sustain themselves in today’s competitive business environment, manufacturing industries are rapidly implementing product modularity strategy to take advantage of increasing demand for customized products (Sohail & Al-Shuridah, 2010)
The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of customer demand, manufacturing flexibility, cost, and supply chain on product modularity
Findings of this study noted that customer demand, manufacturing flexibility and supply chain has a significant positive effect on product modularity, whereas cost has a negative association with product modularity
Summary
In order to sustain themselves in today’s competitive business environment, manufacturing industries are rapidly implementing product modularity strategy to take advantage of increasing demand for customized products (Sohail & Al-Shuridah, 2010). The need for industry to deliver high quality products at low cost has long been recognized as a crucial factor for survival. In Malaysia, the increasing demand for customized products and rapid changes of technology make these requirements ordinary. The further requirements to becoming clear of high variety and rapid product development are gradually dominating quality and cost requirements Another requirement describing the need for overcoming complexity arises. The need for industry to deliver high quality products at low cost has long been recognized. The increasing demand of customized products and rapid change of technology make these requirements ordinary. This study tries to reveal the effects of customer demand and cost toward product modularity while trying to understand the linkage between the flexibility in manufacturing and product modularity. This study is relevant as it gives the manufacturing firms the edge on how to survive in the current economic situation
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