Systematic module grouping of a product

A methodology is developed for the module grouping of products related to functional, structural and process modularization. To establish the modular concept of a product, information about its subassemblies and parts are obtained first by analyzing an existing product. Next modular criteria according to the concept of modularization. are applied to determine priority and the weighting among components. To obtain the optimal clustering solution, this study suggests the p-median and the modified clustering method. Significance: This paper presents concepts of modularization that are based on criteria and rules for module design which enable to group modules of a product.