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Modular Design

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CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering

Synonyms

Modularity

Definition

Modular design refers to designing products by organizing sub-assemblies and components as distinct building blocks (i.e., modules) that can be integrated through configuration to fulfill various customer and engineering requirements.

Theory and Application

Introduction

Modular design is basically to decompose complex systems into simple modules in order to more efficiently organize complex designs and processes. The concept was first introduced by (Starr 1965), in which the use of modular product in production was proposed as a new concept to develop variety. It makes possible to modify specific modules for a new requirement without influencing the main infrastructure, so that the complex problems can be decomposed into several small ones. Modular design concept has been employed in many fields of design and manufacturing.

The main advantages of modular design include design flexibility, augmentation, and cost reduction. Due to grouping the components to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Feng Chia University, Taichung, Taiwan

    Mitchell M Tseng

  2. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

    Mitchell M Tseng

  3. Hang Seng Management College, Hong Kong, China

    Yue Wang

  4. The George M. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Roger J Jiao

Authors
  1. Mitchell M Tseng
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  2. Yue Wang
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  3. Roger J Jiao
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mitchell M Tseng .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Engineering School of Monastir (ENIM), University of Monastir, Monastir, Tunisia

    Sami Chatti

  2. Mechanical Engineering, Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, Trois-Rivières, QC, Canada

    Luc Laperrière

  3. Institute for Machine Tools and Industrial Management (iwb), Technical University of Munich (TUM), Garching, Germany

    Gunther Reinhart

  4. ITIA Institute of Industrial Technologies and Automation, CNR National Research Council, Milan, Italy

    Tullio Tolio

Section Editor information

  1. University of Twente, Faculty of Engineering Technology Laboratory of Design, Production and Management, Enschede, The Netherlands

    Eric Lutters

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Tseng, M.M., Wang, Y., Jiao, R.J. (2019). Modular Design. In: Chatti, S., Laperrière, L., Reinhart, G., Tolio, T. (eds) CIRP Encyclopedia of Production Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-53120-4_6460

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