Jeff is the VP for Windchill Digital Thread. His team leads Navigate, Visualization, Windchill UI and Digital Product Traceability. Prior to joining PTC, Jeff spent 16 years implementing and using PLM, CAD and CAE at Industrial, High Tech & Consumer Products companies including leading the first Windchill PDMLink implementation in 2002. He was active in the PTC/USER community serving as Chair for the Windchill Solutions committee and on the Board of Directors for PTC/USER helping to bring voice of customer input together and create a community where people could network for tools and processes. Jeff attended Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Lehigh University.
Product architecture is a foundational aspect of modern product development, in that it defines the essential “blueprint” for every discrete manufactured product and enables the effective management of a product’s variants and changing configurations. It defines the function of each element, component, or assembly of a product, and the relationships between these elements. This allows products to be refined, redesigned, customized, and then reproduced as efficiently as possible.
Architectural approaches are applied according to the relevant industry and market, as well as the nature of the product being manufactured: modular, integral, configurable, platform, and standardized architectures are among the most common. Hybrid approaches, when appropriate, can define an approach that synthesizes aspects of different architectures, when required by the product.
Defining modular product architecture
For products that are intended to be made available with many variants, customization requirements, or the capability to upgrade performance of functionality over time, modular architecture is generally the most successful in bringing these products to market efficiently. Modular architecture involves designing products with clearly defined, interchangeable, and functionally self-contained components or modules.
Variants and customization drive complexity. Thus, modular architectures are particularly effective in industries like automotive, consumer electronics, and computers where consumers respond well to choices and options in defining their desired product. Limited numbers of components can be combined and assembled in myriad ways to offer a wide array of distinctive product variants.
What are the benefits of modular product architecture?
Modular product architectures benefit the manufacturer principally through advantages in flexibility, efficiency, and creativity.
Flexibility
One critical advantage is in the ability for the manufacturer to sense and respond to changes in the market and consumer preference. Modular design lets companies adapt to market changes fast, without compromising quality. Individual functional modules within the product can be introduced or upgraded without overhauling the whole product. Customization is also enhanced, allowing tailoring of a product for specific customers or markets without significant production process changes and at minimal cost. Scalability is also a key advantage; production can be ramped up or tailed off relatively easily, based on shifting demand.
Efficiency
Manufacturing itself is streamlined, as different modules can be manufactured simultaneously and with better efficiency. Parallel production of these modules reduces overall costs and manufacturing time. Inventory management is simplified, since standardized modules can be manufactured at quantity, and deployed across different product lines.
When product faults or failures become evident, only the defective module requires replacement – a far more efficient maintenance and repair process than one in which the entire product must be dealt with. Finally, since modules are reusable across products and product lines, development time and cost are more tightly controlled.
Creativity
Among the most powerful and high-impact advantages of modular development are creativity and innovation. Modular design allows for – even encourages – innovation at the module level, so designers can concentrate on specific aspects and functions of a product largely unencumbered by considerations of “whole product” requirements.
Additionally, the modular approach fuels cross-product integration, in that modules from different product lines can be mixed and matched, leading to innovative and often unexpected configurations. As a function of this, when modules from one team are integrated into the designs of another, collaborative effects are naturally amplified, and innovation accelerated.
How does modular product architecture fit in the product development process?
From original design to production and service, modular architecture plays a very consequential role in product development. During conceptualization and planning, it defines how the core functionality of the product can be “chunked” or broken down into independent and interchangeable modules.
Modularity is equally influential in design and engineering, prototype development, manufacturing, and quality control, through post-sale support and upgrades. At every stage, the flexibility and responsiveness inherent to this approach accrues benefits to the manufacturer, its customers, and its end-users.
Examples of modular products
PCs (personal computers) are an effective and highly illustrative example of modular product architecture.
Personal computers
To begin with, PCs are easily and almost by definition customized to meet the specific needs of many kinds of users. Business users, for example, may require a large hard drive and strong security features, whereas an architect may need strong parametric visualization engines, and gamers powerful graphics cards.
PCs are expected to be upgradeable, with properties like storage, RAM and the CPU being enhanced as the user’s needs change. And beyond the requirement of the individual user, broader market trends may require that the manufacturer adopt and integrate new technologies into existing product lines. Modular architecture also streamlines production processes, as designs consisting of pre-made modules are assembled relatively quickly and efficiently.
Modular architecture in PLM
Product Lifecycle Management, or PLM, is powerfully influenced by modular architectural approaches. Design efficiency and collaboration are enhanced by the ability of different teams to work in parallel on the same product, sharing a central repository for critical data and workflows. Product variants are more easily managed, while version control ensures that the right modules are incorporated into the right assemblies according to design intent.
Modular product architecture further allows manufacturing processes to be more effectively streamlined within the PLM environment, and supply chains to be more fluidly integrated. Quality control measures, being module-based, are highly agile and accurately targeted.
Modular architecture and PLM are, in the final analysis, highly synergistic and complementary – each compounds the effectiveness and potential business impact of the other. The inherent efficiencies of modular architecture benefit from the organizational effect and data management of the most capable modern PLM systems, while the power of PLM itself is amplified by the logic, scalability, and unparalleled flexibility of modular product architecture.
Video Case Study on Modular Product Architecture
Discover how Vestas meets customer needs with modularization while maintaining high reuse.
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