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CHALLENGES OF PRODUCT MODULARIZATION METHODS IN SMES: LESSONS LEARNED FROM A MANUFACTURER OF RIGID INFLATABLE BOATS

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 June 2023

Tiago Silva  and
Cláudio Santos
Tiago Silva*
Affiliation:
INEGI - Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial
Cláudio Santos
Affiliation:
INEGI - Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial
*
Silva, Tiago Rocha, INEGI - Instituto de Ciência e Inovação em Engenharia Mecânica e Engenharia Industrial, Portugal, trsilva@inegi.up.pt

Abstract

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Nowadays, Western rigid inflatable boat (RIB) manufacturers are facing increased competition from Asian and Middle East producers and the need to push the modularization of their product architecture. Many modularization techniques have been developed to support this effort, being the Modular Function Deployment a well-established multi-stage modularization technique with applications in several industries. Despite the reported literature, the challenges and learnings from the application of modularization techniques have focused on large organizations and complex product systems. In this paper, a case study is presented with the objective of analysing the MFD process implementation in the context of an SME manufacturer of RIB. A learning framework focused on the project and process perspectives is used to facilitate the systematic extraction of lessons from the experience of the MFD implementation. This paper contributes to the modularization techniques literature by observing a modularization method as a learning process and makes it evident the call for more investigation on the implementation process of modularization methods.

Keywords

MFDModular DesignCase studyProduct architectureDesign learning
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 3: ICED23 , July 2023 , pp. 847 - 856
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press

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