Integrated Product and Assembly Configuration Using Systematic Modularization and Flexible Integration

Dealing with the varying demands deriving from the market, the technical innovations and the public authorities in a dynamic way, offers great potential to improve the competitive situation in the global market. The introduced approach supports the ability of manufacturing companies in the field of mass customization to respond to these changes in an effective and efficient way. The focus is on the understanding of the product and its assembly as a complex, socio-technical and integrated system to realize a target-oriented modularization. Configuration concepts are used to integrate the created functional self-contained and well-defined modules in a flexible way. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V.