Method for evaluating modularization potential in product design based on production time variety

Production companies face in a globalized world more uncertainty regarding their product range. Markets demand customized products, which inevitably results in a high variety of companies' production program. However, the production section of a company has to be able to produce the ever increasing variety of their products profitably. Especially in flow-production a high variety of products results in several challenges, as such as different work operations, quality problems, adaption of manufacturing equipment and different production time slots. Despite that companies must react profitably and flexible to market fluctuations, both in quantity and product range. Obviously there is a strong connection between product design and production: A change in design often times has consequences for manufacturing equipment or production time. Therefore aspects of production complexity have to be taken into consideration for product planning and designing. To address this, a method for product designing is given, which is derived from a manufacturing point of view. The developed framework is based on a product program and is focused on production time variety. The framework has several scanning steps to specify and classify a workstation's complexity regarding production time differences. It helps finding and differentiating process-and product-related reasons for a workstation's complexity. As a result a pattern will be developed to identify workstations in assembly lines that have high potential regarding reducing production time variety. Meaning in particular potential for modularization and reducing time difference between product configurations. (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.