Case study 1 analyzed an organization offering highly
customer specific steel processing plants. As a consequence
engineering could use only very few pre-developed systems
and components. This resulted in a high engineering effort and
that most engineers continuously operated at full capacity.
Further, the organization´s tool landscape was heterogeneous.
The program aimed to develop a modular product architecture
with defined standard modules, which could be used
repeatedly in different projects. New processes were
introduced to ensure that standardized modules are used in
projects and continuously adapted to changing market
requirements. With regard to the tool landscape a product
lifecycle management system was introduced.
Case study 2 analyzed a program to standardize the design
of combined-cycle plants. It was initiated in the early 1990ies
and was continuously adapted from then until now. Several
phases of the program can be distinguished. First a single
standard plant was developed, then several customer-groupspecific
reference plants were defined and finally a modular
plant was developed. The modular approach proved to be the
most successful one and was therefore continuously improved
until now.