PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF MODULAR PRODUCTS

In this paper, the impact of modular product designs on the performanc e of manufacturing systems is studied. The performance of product desi gns is measured by the makespan of the corresponding aggregate schedul e of the manufacturing system. Design rules for the improvement of per formance of a manufacturing system are developed. Based on the design rules developed, the selection problem of modular designs is formulate d as an integer programming problem. The problem can be solved by an e xisting heuristic algorithm. Examples are provided to illustrate the i ssues discussed in this paper.