The impact of global operations on product architecture: an exploratory study

Abstract

PurposeThe 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.Design/methodology/approachThe authors perform a multiple-case study of three global manufacturing companies with integral and modular product architectures.FindingsThe 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.Research limitations/implicationsThis 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.Practical implicationsThe 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.Originality/valueTo 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.