Modular function deployment: Using module drivers to impart strategies to a product architecture

Abstract

Products reflect the needs of many different entities. People such as end-users and re-sellers, regulating bodies of authority, and individuals within manufacturing and engineering provide statements as “voices” that impact the physical structure of a product in different ways. A company establishes a strategy to realize the product that responds to these “voices.” There are various approaches to capturing a singular “voice of x” when realizing a product architecture. Modular function deployment differs from other architecture methods by providing a holistic approach to capturing multiple “voices” as a company strategy through the use of Module Drivers. This approach is demonstrated by actual industrial examples that explore the flexibility of Module Drivers applied in the creation of a conceptual modular product architecture.