Simulation aided analysis and evaluation of concepts for modular product structure strategies

• Applicants: Professor Dr.-Ing. Dieter Krause; Professor Dr. Matthias Meyer
• Subject Area: Engineering Design, Machine Elements, Product Development ; Operations Management and Computer Science for Business Administration
• Term: since 2025
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 551514730

As part of the interdisciplinary research project from the engineering perspective of product development an d the business management perspective of controlling, the aim is to analyse how the modularization approaches common module strategy, modular kit strategy, and platform strategy influence the economic target costs,variable time, quality, and flexibility of the product structures to be developed. For this evaluation of modular product structures, an integrated, simulation-based impact model for product structure strategies will be developed on an interdisciplinary basis, which combines the view of product development with that of cost accounting and should enable cost-based decision support at an early stage of product generation development. It is based on the already developed impact model of modular product families, which has already been developed within the framework of DFG projects.. First, the model-relevant effects and parameters are identified, which form the basis for the interdependencies in the model. Based on this, the integrated simulation-based impact model is developed, which enables the objective evaluation of concepts for product structure strategies using the example of a product family. To generalize the impact model for product structure strategies, varying boundary conditions and uncertainties of the available data are then considered, allowing an evaluation based on incomplete or inaccurate data. Finally, the model and the uncertainties taken into ac-count are validated using the example of a product family of pressure control valves. This will provide insights into which product structure strategy is advantageous under which boundary conditions. This can form the basis for further research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants