Measuring the Cost Effects of Modular Product Architectures — A Conceptual Approach

Henning Skirde, Wolfgang Kersten and Meike Schröder
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Henning Skirde: Institute of Business Logistics and General Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4, 21073 Hamburg, Germany
Wolfgang Kersten: Institute of Business Logistics and General Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4, 21073 Hamburg, Germany
Meike Schröder: Institute of Business Logistics and General Management, Hamburg University of Technology, Am Schwarzenberg-Campus 4, 21073 Hamburg, Germany

International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management (IJITM), 2016, vol. 13, issue 04, 1-23

Abstract: Modular product architectures offer a solution for the trade-off between offering the market a wide variety of products and improving a company’s internal cost situation. However, individual cost effects that determine the extent to which modularity should be applied to product architecture are widely unknown in industry. In this paper, we develop a conceptual approach to provide suggestions for improving an examined modular product architecture from a cost perspective. Our work makes an important contribution: The conceptual approach accentuates which steps are necessary in order to recommend whether the product architecture’s current degree of modularity should be enhanced or diminished.

Keywords: Modular design; degree of modularity; product architecture (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1142/S0219877016500176

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