Production of Modularised Product Systems

Abstract: To day, more and more products are customized. Trends are not only to sell a product to the customer, but to sell a product system. The system can either be a combination of physical products or physical products together with some kind of service. Customers get in this way not a product but a solution.

Modularisation is one tool used in designing the products. Designing and controlling a production system making customized products in an economical way is not an easy task. In order to fulfil the Lean and Agile manufacturing philosophies the production is often carried out in networks. Here the decoupling point has a central role.

The scope for this article is therefore to analyse the possibilities for using modularisation in designing and controlling a production system. How will the development of modularised product systems influence the production system? In the paper, a case will be used to support the ideas.