Modular redesign methodology for improving plant layout

Abstract

This research aims to show how redesigning a product, specifically modular redesign, may lead to changes in factory internal plant distribution, increasing the production levels of a company. This increase was achieved by implementing a methodology that will be discussed in this article and that includes the whole redesigning process of products, from disassembly to plant layout. For this research, tools used include functional analysis, design structure matrix, Theory of Technical Systems, design for assembly, diagram of operations and some management concepts of the platform of a modular product. To illustrate the implementation of the proposed methodology, a blender was chosen as a study case, in which, after applying the methodology, an increase in modularity, in the efficiency of design and in the efficiency of assembly, as well as a reduction in assembly times were obtained. Finally, with the new proposed plant layout, a significant increase in the production of blenders was successfully obtained.

KEYWORDS:

• Design for assembly
• modularity and standardisation
• design-for-X
• product redesign
• design for modularity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. For ‘more modular' we understood a product with fewer interactions between modules. Throughout the article, the process of modularisation is evidenced in the decrease in interaction between modules.

2. The literature shows that the SMI can be used to measure modularity (Hölttä-Otto and De Weck 2007); however, this index is highly dependent on the size of the matrix, implying that two arrays of different size cannot be compared, and that as matrices tend to be larger, the SMI values will tend towards zero.

3. As a result of using the operation chart, a product can be more modular. Therefore, it is recommended to integrate the operation chart in the modularisation process of the product.