MODULARITY IN PRODUCTION TECHNOLOGY: JUST HOW GRANULAR DO YOU WANT TO GO?

Find out how engineering customers can make the modularization of their products as efficient as possible.

- Dipl.-Ing. Jakob Duck

Machine and plant manufacturers adopting consistent modular approaches are often particularly successful. This article draws conclusions from the experiences of mechanical engineering customers of the HARTING Technology Group and illustrates how they can make the modularization of their products as efficient as possible. Interfaces play a central role in these concepts.

The principle of modularity is best explained by the Lego building blocks. Innumerable objects can be created from a few basic bricks and defined connecting elements. This approach has also become established in industry for products featuring a far greater degree of complexity and variability: The platform strategy of the automotive industry is a typical example, according to which not only engines, transmissions and driving axles, but entire chassis are used as scalable modules for cars of different models, types and even brands. Also in the industrial control and drive technology area, systems such as PLC, IPC, HMI and drive components can be customized from individual ‘slices’ or several remote I/O blocks and customized to suit the machine or plant to be automated. They can be expanded or modified in their further use without entailing any major input.

It can be argued that modularization of complex, industrially manufactured products can often only prove successful, both in technical and economic terms, given the fact that they are produced by the thousands (industrial controls), or even millions (automotive) of times over. But can a modularization approach also prove successful if at best only a few hundred machines of one type are turned out per year?