Modular Design
Products designed in easily segmented components are known as modular designs. Modular
designs offer flexibility to both production and marketing. Operations managers find modularity
helpful because it makes product development, production, and subsequent changes easier.
Marketing may like modularity because it adds flexibility to the ways customers can be satisfied.
For instance, virtually all premium high-fidelity sound systems are produced and sold this way.
The customization provided by modularity allows customers to mix and match to their own taste.
This is also the approach taken by Harley-Davidson, where relatively few different engines, chassis,
gas tanks, and suspension systems are mixed to produce a huge variety of motorcycles. It has
been estimated that many automobile manufacturers can, by mixing the available modules, never
make two cars alike. This same concept of modularity is carried over to many industries, from
airframe manufacturers to fast-food restaurants. Airbus uses the same wing modules on several
planes, just as McDonald's and Burger King use relatively few modules (cheese, lettuce, buns,
sauces, pickles, meat patties, french fries, etc.) to make a variety of meals.