Is Modularisation Valid for Every Product?

This paper is a collection of facts from different journals, books, internet and own thoughts as well as the course in Development of Modular Products, held by Patrik Kenger and Gunnar Erixon. The intention of the paper is to presented and discussed advantages as well as disadvantages of modularisation. The technique of modularisation is often used in industry, it is regarded as a effective technique to implement new development processes. Due to the good reputation the technique has in development and finance departments, many new and some existing products, as well as the related production lines, are changed in order to fulfil the needs and guidelines set up for modularisation. This method causes expensive development and production processes, due to this fact it becomes clear that it is not always desirable to implement every new or already developed product as a modularised one. With reference to this fact and taking into consideration the experience of industry, it does not necessarily lead to an advantage (of product, quality or profit) if an already established or new production process is changed to a modularised one. To underline this, the paper shows examples from industry presenting the circumstances and products, which make modularisation reasonable. This paper is written to verify the decision-making process of establishing modularisation in a company and in which way. The paper uses examples concerning the method of modularisation to help to understand the problems of implementing modularisation.